Politics

Rahm Emanuel says U.S. should follow Australia’s youth social media ban

Published

11 months ago

December 9, 2025

Rahm Emanuel, who is mulling a presidential run, is pushing for the United States to follow Australia’s lead in banning children under 16 from most social media.

Alarmed by the addictive nature of social media apps and the attendant health and safety risks for young users, Emanuel wants to amp up public pressure on American lawmakers to restrict access to some of the world’s most popular platforms.

In a bit of irony, the potential 2028 White House hopeful plans to issue his call to action Tuesday, as Australia’s ban takes effect, in a video he’ll post on his social media accounts, according to plans the Democrat shared first with Blue Light News.

“We’ve got to make a choice when it comes to our adolescents: Who’s going to be a kind of moral guiding light? I put my thumb on the scale for adults over algorithms,” Emanuel said in an interview, accusing Big Tech of prioritizing profits over “protecting our adolescents.”

It’s the latest in a series of policy stances Emanuel is sharpening as the former ambassador, who worked for three Democratic presidents and was mayor of Chicago, calls out his party’s messaging from education to public safety ahead of a critical midterm election.

It also comes as Democrats are embracing social media influencers and encouraging political leaders and candidates to spend more time online to promote their messaging and reach younger voters.

But Emanuel sees those as separate issues — an electoral strategy targeted toward adults over 18 versus a public health problem affecting adolescents. He likened solving it to steps he took to curb youth smoking as mayor by raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products. And he suggested lawmakers should start with targeting three of the most popular apps among U.S. teens — TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.

“We can’t lose another generation because of inaction or political gridlock,” he said.

Emanuel appears to be taking a tougher stance on youth access to social media than some of his would-be rivals for the Democratic nomination — and positioning himself against the Big Tech lobby that has fiercely opposed efforts to regulate who accesses their platforms by arguing it infringes upon free speech. As a candidate, he too received donations from tech giants, including Eric Schmidt and Sheryl Sandberg.

Asked about those contributions, he said his stance now shows his independence from those firms.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills this fall that require social media platforms to display health warning labels to minors and require apps to check kids’ ages. Both Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have spoken out about social media’s impact on kids’ mental health.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a “Kids Code” last year that aims to limit data tech companies can collect from children, but is mired in a legal battle. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law in 2023 that works to ensure children are compensated for appearing in online content.

Emanuel, asked if his proposed social-media ban would be key to his platform should he run for president, said “anything that allows us to keep focus on improving academic standards and protecting our children on a public-health basis is going to be a priority.”

Australia’s world-first social media ban is designed to restrict access to major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for children under 16. And it threatens to slap their parent companies with tens of millions of dollars in fines if they don’t take “reasonable steps” to prevent youngsters’ access. Tech firms had protested the measure as rushed and “short-sighted” and argued it “will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online.” But they have already begun deactivating accounts.

There’s some support for a similar ban in the U.S. Nearly six in 10 voters in a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in late 2024 said they would like to see similar age restrictions, though support was lower among those ages 18 to 34. An August POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll of registered California voters showed 45 percent support for banning social media for kids under 16.

A bipartisan group of senators — including Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who political insiders think is positioning himself for another White House run in 2028 and who has made kids’ online safety a centerpiece of his stint chairing the panel that oversees social media — introduced a bill earlier this year that would ban children under age 13 from social media. Emanuel said that legislation has “the right thrust.”

Another bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced a bill that would require social media firms to remove features that could have negative effects on youth mental health. The bill sailed through the Senate 91-3 last year but stalled in the House, and the two chambers remain at odds over the details.

Amid congressional gridlock, a patchwork of primarily red states have passed laws attempting to limit kids’ access to social media by requiring parental consent and imposing digital curfews. But those efforts have drawn resistance from industry groups representing tech giants like Meta, Alphabet and Snapchat and have been largely blocked by courts.

Still, a divided panel of appeals judges last month gave Florida the go-ahead to begin enforcing a law signed by one-time presidential aspirant, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, that bars children under age 14 from using many social media platforms and requires parental approval for those ages 14 and 15. DeSantis, who might mount another White House bid in 2028, has hailed the law as a way of keeping children safe from online predators.

Emanuel acknowledged the stiff legal challenges a sweeping social media ban could face. But he said there’s a potentially “winning argument” in casting the crackdowns as combating “a public health issue associated with technology” rather than the technology itself.

Tyler Katzenberger, Andrew Atterbury and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

Politics

Republicans wanted Rubio on the stump. Trump coaxed him there.

Published

10 hours ago

October 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday came as close to the campaign trail as he’s been all year. And even then, he tried to stay just offshore.

Rubio appeared with President Donald Trump in Corpus Christi, Texas, as he rallied alongside an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude. The visit helped spotlight a proud White House accomplishment — toppling the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and opening the country’s energy supply — in a political battleground state.

The unexpected nature of Rubio’s presence, after the president coaxed him up on stage during the rally, is likely enough to shield the nation’s top diplomat from allegations that he is interfering in the midterm campaign. The former Florida senator has kept a careful distance from partisan politics, even as colleagues like Attorney General Todd Blanche have defied longstanding norms against some administration officials engaging in electioneering.

“It’s an honor to work for the greatest country in the world, for the greatest president in the history of the United States of America,” Rubio said in brief remarks from the stage. “We love you, Texas.”

A White House official, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to share details of the trip, said that Rubio was backstage during the rally when the president brought him up and that he was only there in his capacity as national security adviser, not to stump ahead of the midterms.

While Rubio, who was not expected to speak at the event, has maintained the tradition of secretaries of State not campaigning, Republicans have been clamoring for the potential 2028 presidential hopeful to do so, seeing him as one of the party’s strongest messengers in a bruising midterm cycle in which they have been desperate for any additional help. One GOP official in a state with a key Senate race, granted anonymity to share private conversations, said that they asked for Rubio to attend a recent political event but were told the secretary of State wasn’t doing political events given his role as chief diplomatic officer.

“Rubio is Trump’s best asset, and they know they are in a dog fight to win in Texas,” said Bill Cortese, a GOP operative who has advised Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). Even if Rubio had not come up on stage, “news of Rubio simply being in the state could potentially boost the GOP’s chances in places that they need it.”

Plus, the secretary of State had another good reason for being there: Rubio was one of the central architects of the administration’s Venezuela strategy and has been a leading figure in managing the country’s political transition and economic arrangements with the U.S. in the wake of Maduro’s ouster.

“It’s his win and his deal,” a Trump administration official added about Rubio and the Venezuela link.

Asked why Rubio accompanied Trump on the Texas trip, the White House referred to one of Trump’s Truth Social posts from August in which he credited Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for negotiating the oil deal with Venezuela.

A State Department spokesperson noted Rubio’s role as national security adviser and said that he “needs time with the president on all kinds of issues. The president will be on the go, so being on the plane with him gives him a chance to talk to him about these items.”

The secretary of State notably skipped the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas last month, opting instead to go on a diplomatic trip to Colombia.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), center, listens to Trump speak during the Texas rally.

“Marco loves campaigns and politics and he cares desperately about making sure that the House and Senate remain in Republican hands, but I think he also realizes that part of being secretary of State is you don’t engage in overt political activity,” said a person close to Rubio.

In Trump’s first term, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo broke with tradition and made a handful of public appearances that directly or indirectly appeared campaign related, including delivering remarks to the Republican National Convention in 2020.

On a practical level, most secretaries of State travel overseas so much that it’s hard to spare time for campaigns. But Rubio travels more infrequently than his predecessors, in part because of his national security adviser role, which keeps him at the White House.

And Rubio also has a more nontraditional role even as secretary of State, focusing most of his energy on Latin America while the president’s special envoys, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, have handled negotiations to try to end the wars in Iran, Ukraine and Gaza.

Yet the Texas visit — in which Trump sought to link one of his signature foreign policy accomplishments with efforts to reduce prices — came as a relief to the Republicans who believe Rubio is one of the party’s most trusted messengers on the economy and have for months wanted to see him on the trail.

Results from The Blue Light News Poll suggest Rubio can be a useful surrogate on the campaign trail. Across three polls this month, Republican midterm voters consistently selected Rubio as their third-highest choice to hit the campaign trail to help their party, behind Trump and Vice President JD Vance but ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others.

Support for Rubio on the campaign trail is also fairly steady across Trump’s 2024 coalition, with only an 8-point gap between the MAGA base (31%) and non-MAGA Trump voters (23%) saying the secretary of State would help Republicans if he campaigned. Meanwhile, MAGA loyalists were significantly more likely than non-MAGA Trump voters to support Trump and Vance hitting the trail.

Notably, Rubio also generates less negative backlash than other figures. Democrats widely support the impeachment of Trump, Vance, Kennedy and others. But support for impeaching Rubio is lower than the other figures, pushing overall public opinion against impeachment.

“Marco Rubio is Republicans’ most valuable asset in this difficult environment. While he has broad support from the MAGA base, he also appeals to centrist voters and obviously to critical Hispanic voters. It makes sense that they would find a way to activate him,” said former Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo.

Kimberly Leonard, Alex Gangitano and Seb Wride, chief pollster at PF Global, contributed to this report.

Politics

Trump is still the center of the GOP money universe

Published

23 hours ago

October 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump is still the center of the GOP money universe

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Politics

Trump’s fundraising dominance is masking a long-term problem for Republicans

Published

1 day ago

October 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans’ small-dollar donor base has contracted in recent years, leaving the party more dependent on a tiny group of wealthy megadonors for support.

The GOP has had a cash advantage all year thanks to a relatively small group of large donors who have funded super PACs — Elon Musk alone has given nearly half a billion dollars this cycle. But the campaigns themselves have raised relatively little, and there’s one major reason: Other than President Donald Trump, who is still the party’s biggest fundraiser, Republicans still haven’t figured out how to raise money online.

New campaign finance filings reveal just how deep the problem goes. While Republicans have long struggled to grow their grassroots donor base, they’ve moved in the wrong direction in recent years. The number of federal donors giving through WinRed, the major GOP online fundraising platform, is down, with roughly 1.5 million donors so far this cycle compared to 2.2 million at this time in 2022. Meanwhile the number of donors has increased by about one third on ActBlue, from 4.9 million to roughly 6.6 million.

The contrast is stark: A single Democratic candidate, James Talarico in Texas, has had roughly the same number of donors on ActBlue this cycle as all Republican candidates and committees combined had on WinRed, according to a Blue Light News analysis of reports ActBlue and WinRed submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Republican digital strategists who have been sounding the alarm for years say lagging donations are a product of fatigue, driven by years of urgent messages to the same set of potential donors.

“We beat the absolute hell out of low-dollar donors with texts and emails without expanding our [donor lists], and now no one pays attention,” said Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based GOP digital strategist.

Republicans’ online fundraising struggles have put their House and Senate candidates at a particular disadvantage, as candidates — unlike super PACs — face strict contribution limits and need a far larger pool of donors from which to raise money. Poor candidate fundraising has major campaign implications: Democrats’ cash advantage on that front has helped them run nearly as many ads as Republicans despite having less money overall, because candidates and parties get better rates than super PACs on broadcast TV.

Democrats’ grassroots fundraising strength is in part because of how decentralized the party is, with individual campaigns and groups building their own donor lists and fundraising operations. Virtually all of the the top Democratic fundraisers online this year are Senate candidates in competitive races.

But Republicans’ online fundraising, like so much of the party, is still centered around Trump and the official party committees. Unlike on the Democratic side, few individual Republicans have managed to break out.

Republicans’ fundraising troubles have left them more reliant on Trump: The president’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., is among the biggest midterm spenders. The group and its affiliates have now spent $296 million — after facing pressure for much of the cycle from some in the GOP who wished it would have gotten involved sooner.

“Candidates are not investing the time and resources in programs that grow the donor lists and attract their supporters into the ecosystem. Instead, they just barrage previous donors with ongoing requests for donation,” said Eric Wilson, a longtime Republican digital strategist and executive director of the Center for Campaign Innovation. “Credit to the Trump team — they brought new people into the ecosystem, and those people continue to give to them.”

Trump has continued to fundraise since returning to the White House, including through his Never Surrender leadership PAC, which was formed out of his 2024 campaign committee, and two joint fundraising committees from his previous presidential runs.

Of the nearly 1.5 million donors who have given on WinRed this cycle, 324,000 of them — a bit over 22% — have given only to Trump’s groups through the platform but not any other candidate or committee, Blue Light News’s analysis found. Another 39% of WinRed donors have given to both Trump and another Republican.

Overall, that means about 3 in 5 WinRed donors this cycle have given to Trump, when he is neither on the ballot nor able to run for president again. That’s left non-Trump GOP donors in the clear minority just as the party begins to look for a new standard bearer ahead of 2028.

WinRed isn’t the only online GOP fundraising platform, but it is by far the largest and features all of the major party committees along with prominent House and Senate candidates across the map. Its FEC reports include only federal candidates and committees, not those in state-level races or nonprofits that use the platform.

Republicans once saw their online fundraising disadvantages as a matter of technology. ActBlue, which has been around since the 2000s, gave Democrats a major fundraising advantage in the late 2010s, at a time when Republicans had no similar centralized platform. WinRed, which launched in 2019, aimed to counter that. Now strategists say the GOP’s infrastructure has come a long way, but the party’s tactics still lag behind.

Democratic candidates eyeing higher office often maintain large fundraising operations, which they can use to raise money on behalf of candidates in battleground races while also building their own lists. Among the top 20 ActBlue fundraisers this cycle are former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s leadership PAC and Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) campaign committee. Kelly leveraged GOP attacks on his military service earlier this cycle to boost both his own fundraising and help Democrats across the map.

Wilson, the GOP strategist, credited out-of-cycle Democrats for building strong lists that they could use to shore up other candidates. The Republican side, he said, lacks similar coordination.

“Any time a Democrat announces they’re running for reelection, that week every Democrat in the Senate is sending a message to their list raising money for that person,” he said.

About the analysis: Donation totals and number of donors are based on ActBlue and WinRed receipts from all reports this cycle, covering Jan. 1, 2025, through Oct. 14, 2026. Donations that were later refunded are still included. Blue Light News’s analysis identifies unique donors based on matching full names and zip codes.