Politics

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

Published

2 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

These Gen-Z Trump voters don’t want JD Vance in 2028

Published

23 minutes ago

January 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Vice President JD Vance is the Trump administration’s unofficial envoy to Gen Z. But young Trump supporters may not be all that enamored with him as they weigh their 2028 options.

In a focus group of nine young men who supported Trump in 2024, conducted Monday by Longwell Partners and shared with Blue Light News, they showed tepid enthusiasm about the vice president and suggested he is too bridled by the baggage of Trump’s second term.

“I feel like it’s just time for someone new, especially for the Republican Party,” said Alexandre M., a voter in Maryland, who raised concerns about Trumps’s handling of the Epstein files, “because JD Vance was also pushing that as well.”

When the 18- to 24-year-olds were asked who else they would like to see as potential candidates in 2028, they named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback. When the moderator asked who wants to see Vance as the GOP nominee, just one of the nine raised their hand — and even he later signaled he is still unsure of his support.

Others in the group raised concerns about electability as well as Vance’s changing views.

“I don’t think Vance can win, because I think he’s too connected to the current political establishment in Washington, which I think has a very negative approval rating right now,” said Sam Z., a voter in Minnesota. “If you look at what he was about in 2018, 2019, 2020, and you look at what he’s about now, it’s very, very different. … Somebody younger running in office would be awesome. So that’s the one thing I wouldn’t mind for Vance. But overall, I just don’t think [he] can win. I think he’s kind of flip-flopped on a lot of issues.”

The one voter who said he’d be open to Vance in 2028 said he liked Vance’s experience. “I think because he already is a VP, like he has more experience than most people will, which puts him at an advantage,” said Ruben T., a voter in Georgia.

Vance wasn’t the only topic where these voters split from the traditional party line.

Asked about U.S. support for Israel, five said they felt the U.S. supports Israel too much and four said the right amount. None said too little.

Some mentioned conspiracy theories — like Candace Owens’ assertion that Charlie Kirk was assassinated by the Israeli government — for steering their belief that the U.S. should support Israel less.

“I don’t know how factual some of this stuff is, but after seeing a lot of things after Charlie Kirk’s death and with Candace Owens’ private investigation, I kind of started to notice of, like, Israel was kind of always a big talking point with the Republicans,” said Richard B., a voter in Pennsylvania. “I personally have an issue with it.”

Some of them spoke in free-speech terms, through a humanitarian lens or from an America First perspective. “I just don’t believe that death is justifiable in any way, and of course, Israel is responsible for many deaths,” Matteo R. in Illinois said.

“I think we should be more focused on eliminating problems that we have in our own country, versus one that’s pretty far across the world,” said Sam M., a voter in New Mexico.

That domestic-first approach applied to Trump’s flirtations with Greenland. When asked, “Who would like to see the U.S. buy Greenland?” none raised their hands.

“No other president has ever said that,” said Mukeesh S., in California. “It’s been part of Denmark. I think we should just respect it and leave it, and focus on what’s actually happening inside the nation.”

Dillon, a voter from Rhode Island, added: “I think it’s kind of an unnecessary thing to do right now, and it’s not what our resources could best be used on.”

Politics

‘Brain the size of a walnut’: Bessent goes off on Newsom

Published

6 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been one of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump since his return to office last year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argues it’s a sign of Newsom’s weakness.

“I think Gavin Newsom may be cracking up, some of these things he’s saying. I think he may be in over his hairdo,” Bessent said in an interview Thursday with Blue Light News’s Dasha Burns for “The Conversation.”

Trump’s top economic adviser said that Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate and longstanding Trump foe, has a “brain the size of a walnut” and that he knows “less about economics than” former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he clarified is “a terrible place to be in.”

The attacks are the latest in a simmering feud between Trump and Newsom, which escalated over the course of the week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Newsom was scheduled to speak at USA House on Wednesday as part of the conference, but his appearance was cancelled at the last minute. Newsom blamed the Trump administration, but an organizer said they decided to focus on programming with business leaders.

At Davos, Newsom met with world leaders, as did Bessent and Trump.

Upon arriving, Newsom urged European leaders not to cave to Trump’s demands over a wide-range of foreign policy issues. In a panel at the conference, the California governor brandished a pair of kneepads bearing Trump’s signature to mock world leaders he feels have been overly accommodating of the president.

Bessent dismissed the “strange things” Newsom has said to attack Trump, including the knee pad stunt and a comment in which Newsom analogized Trump to a dinosaur.

“To say strange things like President Trump is a tyrannosaurus rex, what the hell does that mean? I can say Gavin Newsom is a brontosaurus with a brain the size of a walnut,” Bessent said. “And, if you brought the knee pads, maybe that was for his meeting with Alex Soros.”

Bessent also defended the Trump administration from criticisms that they’re out of touch with the economic concerns of Americans. During a panel in Davos, Bessent said the administration wants to protect the investments of “mom and pop” retirees who may have purchased “5, 10, 12 homes.”

In his defense, Bessent took another opportunity to swipe at Newsom, who he labeled “Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken” during a speech earlier at the conference.

“I think it was a Dem governor, Newsom, who made the comment of being out of touch. What does he know? Like, his father worked for the Getty family,” Bessent said. “I actually think he knows less about economics than Kamala Harris, which is a terrible place to be in.”

The full interview with Bessent will air on “The Conversation.”