gop climate change denial

Trump's cuts to this agency will cost families $500 a year: report

President Donald Trump’s changes to the Social Security program, implemented under the guidance of X CEO Elon Musk, will cost many families $500 a year.

The new analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) projects that benefit checks will be cut by $500 a month on average if the program is allowed to hit its “go-broke” date by late 2013. If these cuts were not imposed, the CRFB found, the absence of the 24 percent benefit cut in the Social Security Administration’s payments will cause the fund to be entirely exhausted.

“Applying this projected reduction to current state-level data, we estimate an across-the-board monthly cut would range from $459 to $556 across the 50 states and the District of Columbia,” the report explained. It identified the 10 states that will have the highest average cuts as Connecticut ($556), New Jersey ($554), New Hampshire ($553), Delaware ($549), Maryland ($541), Washington ($531), Minnesota ($530), Massachusetts ($527), Michigan ($523) and Utah ($523).

“The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) believes any discussion of Social Security solvency must be grounded in the reality that millions of older Americans depend on these earned benefits to pay for housing, food, healthcare, and other essential expenses,” Senior Citizens League spokesperson Shannon Benton told Nexstar. “Acting sooner rather than later can help restore the program’s long-term solvency while minimizing the impact on beneficiaries and avoiding sudden benefit reductions that millions of Americans can simply cannot afford.”

The CRFB added, “No state would be spared from the potentially devastating effects of insolvency.”

According to a recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Trump has weakened the Social Security program by gutting its staff.

“In just 15 months, the Trump Administration has pushed out more than 8,000 Social Security Administration (SSA) workers — causing SSA’s largest one-year staffing reduction on record,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “This 14 percent cut has compromised SSA’s ability to reliably serve seniors, bereaved families, and people with disabilities. By January 2026, SSA had fewer employees than at any time since 1967, when the agency was not yet responsible for administering Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and served 52 million fewer beneficiaries.”

Speaking with AlterNet last month, former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley disputed the widespread argument made by fiscal conservatives that the program faces the threat of insolvency.

“This isn’t true — but it is often repeated,” O’Malley told AlterNet at the time. “Social Security is a pay as you go program. It is not funded by deficit spending. It is more akin to an insurance company. People premiums and benefits are paid out from those premiums. Even the surplus — which because of income inequality is being depleted sooner (2032) than thought in 1983, even that was built up by payroll tax, not borrowed money. “

O’Malley added, “An utter devaluation of the dollar — which Trump is causing and risking in so many reckless and self/serving ways (bitcoin), would be really bad for everything in US including Soc Sec, it is not true that Social Security depends on deficit spending for its support or benefits. (Except a small portion of admin expenses).”

Ex-GOP says one of Trump's closest aides has made himself unelectable

A former adviser to the last Republican president, George W. Bush, argued on Wednesday that the current Republican president, Donald Trump, has become politically toxic to one of his potential successors, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Marco Rubio will never, ever be the President of the United States, but because of the terribleness of [Vice President] JD Vance, he has become sort of a flavor of the month,” Steve Schmidt said in a Substack post. “And because of the corruption of the corporate media, Marco Rubio is taken and treated seriously. He's treated like a statesman.”

Schmidt elaborated on this opinion by drawing from a recent Rubio interview with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, who Schmidt called "the clown anchorman ... whose ratings are in a state of collapse at the network destroyed by Bari Weiss.” Schmidt added that, although Rubio’s supporters say he has done well in handling American foreign policy, the former Florida senator in fact does not have a particularly robust foreign policy portfolio.

“At the end of the day, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, is not leading the negotiations in Pakistan — JD Vance is,” Schmidt said. “And he's accompanied by the President's son-in-law, who may be one ... of the most corrupt individuals in the history of the country. ... These men are raking in billions in corrupt acts around the globe and they're leading the negotiations. The man who the Saudis deposited $2 billion of cash into his investment fund despite him having no investment experience.”

He concluded, “The overlord of the Gaza Peace Project, Jared Kushner — and Marco Rubio, subordinated to them, doesn't like being called out on it.”

Schmidt’s monologue existed in the context of Trump reportedly pitting Vance and Rubio against each other as potential successors in the 2028 presidential election.

“Every now and then, while talking to officials in the Oval Office, with friends over dinner, or on the patio at Mar a Lago, President Trump pauses and muses aloud about a subject quietly captivating the Republican Party,” The New York Times reported earlier this month. “What do you think? JD or Marco?”

Citing multiple sources with inside knowledge of the White House, the Times added that “Mr. Trump’s advisers say he is simply having fun polling people, and that 2028 is not at the top of his mind at all. Still, it would be hard for Mr. Trump to ignore that lately, the two men he refers to as ‘kids’ are taking on bigger profiles as the midterm elections approach.”

Despite these reports, Vance and Rubio reportedly get along and the Secretary of State has pledged to support the Vice President if he runs for president. As Rubio told Vanity Fair last year, “if JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”

Josh Duggar nabs a cushy prison life: report

Former Republican activist Josh Duggar, who was found guilty of “possessing and receiving” child sexual abuse material, is apparently living a cushy life in prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence.

After previously being held at the low-security Dallas prison known as FCI Seagoville, Duggar was recently transferred to a Fort Worth facility known as the Federal Medical Center, according to a report by Radar Online. The website went on to explain that the Federal Medical Center “boasts an extensive list of wellness programs and other initiatives.”

These initiatives include access to exercise equipment, fitness programs, nutrition prescriptions, health education, counseling and “special events such as community-based health fairs."

Radar Online elaborated that the prison detailed that "recreation staff will serve as resource personnel in providing inmates with counseling, health appraisals, fitness assessments, exercise plans, structured exercise, and health resource information compatible with resources available at the institution.”

Radar Online added that Duggar has reportedly begged his wife to send him “intimate picture” while he is in prison, then detailed Duggar’s sexual misconduct — including intimately harming his sister and family friends — and how his family notoriously refused to send him to intensive psychiatric care programs to deal with his predatory behavior.

By contrast, Radar Online says the Federal Medical Center’s intake program exists to "gather information on past and present mental illness and substance abuse, mental health treatment needs, and to assess the inmate’s current psychological functioning." At the same time, the clinic there does not offer "s-- offender treatment programs.”

“No word yet on why Duggar was taken to the medical facility or if he is receiving counseling related to his mental health,” Radar Online concluded. They added that they had not yet heard back from either Duggar or the Federal Medical Center for comment.

In addition to Josh Duggar, other members of the Duggar family have come under fire recently. In March it came out that Joseph Duggar had been accused of abusing a minor girl several years ago (she is now reportedly 14 years old). He reportedly “eventually apologized” for doing so and “admitted his actions to the girl’s father and to Tontitown detectives” in the family's home state of Arkansas. Meanwhile, Jill Duggar, a sister in the Duggar clan, says that the reality TV stars had a dark secret for a while, and that others felt the girls in the Duggar household were in danger.

“People – strangers – would come to our house at random times to make sure there were locks on the doors and that everybody was sleeping where they were supposed to be sleeping. It was terrifying," claimed Jill Duggar in a recollection she shared in 2023. Another Duggar girl has also said there was a toxic environment in that household.

“In light of the recent allegations involving my cousin, Joseph Duggar, I am sickened, heartbroken and deeply angry,” Amy Duggar King said in a recent statement to People. “My first thoughts are with the victim, a child who deserved to be safe, protected and surrounded by people she could trust. The courage it took for her to come forward, especially after years of carrying something so heavy, cannot be overstated. That bravery deserves to be honored above all else.”

Republican strategist nails Trump’s excruciating Tuesday defeat

Republican strategist Rina Shah says there are very clear reasons President Donald Trump got dunked by his own party on Wednesday, and he has no one to blame but himself.

House Republicans, for the first time in months, failed to block a Democratic effort to halt the Iran war. The four Republican defectors who joined Democrats in tanking the GOP shutout are the latest sign that members of the president’s own party are willing to buck him on key policies.

The Wednesday loss, the latest in Trump’s recent losing streak, was made possible by swing district Republicans Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Warren Davidson of Ohio, joined by Tom Massie (R-Ky.), who Trump got tossed from a GOP primary by endorsing his Republican rival.

The 215-208 bipartisan vote is mostly symbolic, considering Trump will likely veto legislation that restricts his authority. However, the message the vote sends to the White House is likely coming in loud and clear.

When Burnett asked Shah if Trump’s coalition is finally falling apart Shah answered “I think so, and it's because the G cubed: gas, groceries, geopolitics.”

“To me, it's the war that's done it completely,” added Shah. “Trump promised no more wars, no more endless wars. And there's an entire swath of the Republican Party that is keeping mum and just saying, ‘we could take it all, the ballroom, even a slush fund, even J6 …. But when you start to talk democracy, you lose people, especially Republican voters. So you have to talk hard costs. The hard costs of this conflict have been tremendous.”

“And what we saw on Monday, the reports out of that call with [Israeli leader] Netanyahu, have been really shocking to members of congress who are Republicans,” said Shah, citing an irate phone conversation with Trump dressing down Netanyahu for aggravating violence in southern Lebanon as Trump desperately seeks an offramp to his Iran war disaster.

“Independent Americans Podcast” host Paul Rieckhoff agreed that the Republican vote shaving Trump’s power on Tuesday is a result of a convergence of U.S. voter anger.

“This is really, really an important crossroads for America in a new phase of what could be a new forever war, because it's bigger than Iran,” said Rieckhoff. “But, but this has been amazing in that it's unified America against Trump. Republicans, Democrats, everybody in between, especially Independents, are deeply opposed to the Iran war. It's unauthorized, it's unwise, and it's deeply unpopular. And I think the politicians are actually behind the country on this. … The problem is that Trump has been all gas and no brakes, and nothing has stopped him until now.”

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Critics drag Trump’s 'graph' of blued-up reflecting pool

During a Wednesday press conference, President Donald Trump could not wait to announce that crews will begin refilling the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after spending over a month resurfacing it with "American flag blue" sealant.

But what caught hecklers was the moment Trump pulled out a poster in the Oval Office comparing the size of the reflecting pool to that of some of the largest buildings in the U.S., as if the investment he put on U.S. taxpayers’ had done anything to extend the length of the pool—or that a rectangular water-filled hole could compare to the girders, architecture and design that goes into the Empire State Building of the World Trade Center.

“He has to pump up those rookie numbers,” offered on critic on X, who posted an augmented graph containing a much longer, red bar labeled “My gas bill” alongside Trump’s blue reflecting pool.

“Most un-math graph ever!” quipped another critic.

Many others included simple “head slap” emojis, while another said on X “This is the chart you make when you’re gunning for that MQ and need to prove you’re better than your peers (but you’ve been shamming).”

The worst MAGA X users could muster in response was splitting hairs with CBS reporters for referring to the blue sealant as “paint.”

Trump’s Reflecting Pool renovation is already brimming with accusations of corruption and of enrichment of the president’s allies. Trump was already flip-flopping on the controversy of who he hired to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“President Trump previously said he had personally chosen the contractor to fix the Reflecting Pool, because of the good work they did on his golf club's swimming pools,” The New York Times’ David A. Farenthold posted on X. “Now, Trump says does not know them.”

Farenthold posted his comment after he and fellow New York Times journalist Maxine Joselow ran a Tuesday piece reporting that “Interior Dept. staffers have raised questions about the quality and speed of the work being done to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to documents.”

Meanwhile, Trump is diverting “at least $60 million” from million from a National Park Service (NPS) entrance fee fund to pay for his various pet projects around Washington. DC,” reported The Hill’s Rachel Frazin.

An additional $13 million from the fund is going toward Trump’s renovations on the National Mall Reflecting Pool. That last allocation, Frazin added, is not listed in the federal database of NPS projects, which raises questions about how it is being funded. All that is known for sure is that $7 million is coming from park fees.

Trump claims violent January 6 rioters 'went there with love'

President Donald Trump told a reporter on Wednesday that the January 6th insurrection, which Trump instigated to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, was conducted by people who “went there with love.”

After CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked Trump to confirm that his $1.8 billion slush fund to insurrectionists is indeed dead, Trump said he’d need to check with his lawyers before attacking the people behind the fund.

“As far as I'm concerned, it was a beautiful thing,” Trump told Collins. “It was something I was — I didn't make it, but I was — I heard that — I thought that was the greatest thing, because people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like the New York Times, and like others, have abused our people.”

After telling the assembled journalists to be quiet, Trump claimed that they “have abused our people so badly, and you should be ashamed of yourself. You. You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama — can you believe it? But CNN in particular — CNN does such false reporting. But now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten it out. I doubt it, but it's hard to straighten garbage out.”

Trump’s reference to CNN’s “new ownership” involves David and Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle founder and his son, who have reportedly promised Trump they would fire journalists he dislikes much as they allegedly have gutted CBS News at his behest.

“These are people that are great people, that would — destroy their families, have been destroyed, many suicides,” Trump wrote. “They committed suicide, people that went there with love. They went there with love.”

He added, “You know, when I made that speech earlier in the day — tremendous crowd. I hate to say it because they'll say, ‘Oh, I was wrong on the number,’ but I believe it's the largest crowd I've ever spoken to, by — by twice. The biggest crowd, I think, bigger than the inaugurations, bigger than anything. And there was so much love and friendship. It was the most amazing thing. People were crying.”

After again insisting that he be allowed to finish, Trump concluded that “those people have been abused by you, and by others, and by the politicians, by the Democrats, and dumb people. They want to have open borders. They want to have transgender utilization of your children. They want to have men playing in women's sports. They want to have high taxes. They turn down — you know, they fought us on the tax bill, and they fought us because they want people to pay high taxes. Because they're crazy. There's something wrong with them. There's something wrong with you. It's a shame.”

Users on X immediately blasted Trump’s statements.

Nothing says "love" like poop on Pelosi's desk, a Capitol Police Officer getting his eye gouged, and a bespoke guillotine for the VP," posted one critic on X, immediately after Trump's claim went live.

Similarly, another critic posted “a day of love” next to a GIF of the insurrectionists breaking down Capitol doors, and @JumboElliott76 posted: “Bragging about an attempted insurrection. We're in the stupidest time.”

While Trump claims that his $1.8 billion slush fund no longer exists, insiders are skeptical. Trump created the fund by suing his own IRS for $10 billion and then having his own Justice Department, which was assigned to defend the IRS, reach a settlement with him. They rushed to do so before May 20th because the presiding judge demanded they appear before her by that date in order to make sure the deal was legal.

“You only need to look at Donald Trump's long history of lies… to disbelieve the notion that the settlement fund and everything associated with it is going to vanish,” Norm Eisen, co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, said in a statement. “We are fighting to erase the slush fund. It's a disgrace.” Eisen added that forbidding the IRS from investigating Trump or his family is “the worst example of corruption in the history of the American presidency.”

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Security expert explains how 'nuts' Trump put the US in a downward spiral

According to distinguished security scholar Phillips P. O’Brien, the leadership of President Donald Trump has set the United States on a downward spiral in which it is “weaker every day.” Perhaps even more alarming, the US “may never come back” from the diminished state Trump will leave it in.

O’Brien — whose book War and Power is widely cited by strategy experts — asserts that there are several factors driving the country’s decline under Trump, but the most looming is the president’s decision to launch war with Iran.

“The US does not control its own destiny at this point in the war,” writes O’Brien. “Indeed every day the American position is weakening. The US is in a far weaker state than it was when the ceasefire was announced on April 7, and will be in weaker position next week when I write this (unless Trump surrenders)... Recently we are seeing arguably the greatest example of the growth of American global weakness that Trump has accelerated. Trump has shown that the USA cannot control either Iran or Israel — indeed that he is panicking as those two states are doing what they want regardless of his threats or wishes. The idea of the USA as either the indispensable partner or unstoppable enemy is gone. It may never come back.”

O’Brien says evidence of this weakening can be seen by looking back to June 2025. After the U.S. joined Israel in a bombing campaign against Iran, the Israelis wanted to continue the attack, while Trump wanted it over fast. When he ordered Israel to stop, at the time, the country yielded.

No longer. “In the last few weeks Trump has tried to do something similar and the Israelis are basically not reacting, but doing what Netanyahu wants to do,” specifically in Lebanon. Israel has not only persisted in attacking its neighbor but has seized sizeable territory, complicating peace negotiations. “This Israeli military action has been driving Trump nuts,” says O'Brien, but “unlike last year, however, Trump cannot simply order the Israelis to turn around — and as such is getting desperate,” lashing out at Netanyahu in a screaming, curse-laden phone call. Israel has only continued to step up its military efforts. “This is what I mean about the USA getting weaker every day,” says O’Brien.

At the same time, Trump keeps insisting that a deal is close, even as the Iranians say they’ve cut off talks. And all the while, the president is posting that everyone should “just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end — it always does!”

“Look closely at the power imbalance here,” notes O’Brien. “It is the US government that is desperate to keep up the fiction that the negotiations are going well, that Iran is making major concessions and that a deal is close. The Iranians, on the other hand, are happy to project the opposite image; that they can walk away from the talks and are happy to let this string for longer.”

What’s more, writes O’Brien, “This weakness ties into what Trump is doing with the GOP and the federal government…People need to ask themselves why Trump is prizing absolute subservient loyalty over anything. It's not just that he wants to punish his enemies… Trump is setting up a parallel system to protect himself and maintain his power, and that is based on total control of the GOP and executive government. This might actually be the thing that makes U.S. decline unstoppable. He is, as always, willing to destroy the country to save himself.”

O’Brien points to many domestic circumstances that are weakening the country, all driven by Trump’s efforts, from the collapsing economy, to his electoral revenge campaign, to the appointment of inexperienced, incapable loyalists to key positions, to his wildly corrupt slush fund.

“Why is Trump doing what seems to be decisions to make himself less popular and less politically secure going forward?” writes O’Brien. “The answer is not because he is stupid…it is because he is adopting what could be called a scorched earth strategy to protect himself and his power going forward. He wants absolute and total control of the GOP, even if that means he might lose a seat here or there. And he wants a federal government that will do whatever he wants when he wants.”

O’Brien ends with a dire warning: “It sets him up to corrupt either the November vote or its results. People are being too blase about this election. Trump has a party that is completely under his sway and a federal government that is staffed by uber loyalists. It gives him terrible and powerful options to subvert democracy.”

A group of Trump billionaires just took a shocking loss

President Donald Trump has close ties to Silicon Valley billionaires, relying on them to shape policy on everything from waging war against Iran and deregulating cryptocurrency to paving the way for rampant AI in American society.

“Multiple candidates backed heavily by Big Tech executives floundered in Tuesday’s primary elections, as concerns about the corrosive effects of new technologies such as artificial intelligence tools continue to mount,” reported MS NOW’s Ja’han Jones on Wednesday. “The clearest examples came in California, where tech executives spent ungodly amounts of money attempting to make sure their chosen candidates emerged victorious.”

Jones listed examples of how this happened including in the California gubernatorial primary, during which San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan went down to humiliating defeat despite being funded by tech executives like Google co-founder Sergey Brin and pro-Trump Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Jones also cited Ethan Agarwal, a tech investor who challenged Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) after being funded by pro-Trump Silicon Valley executive Marc Andreessen in large part by opposing Khanna’s proposed one-time 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires.

“The results bring to mind a discussion MS NOW hosts Michael Steele and Stephanie Ruhle had on primary election night, about the massive amounts of money Big Tech executives are shoveling out to reshape American politics,” Jones wrote. “Indeed, the issue of money in American politics is one that shouldn’t be ignored. At the same time, Tuesday’s losses by billionaire-backed candidates are a reminder that candidate quality and policy positions still matter to voters, who can (for now) outmatch deep-pocketed donors looking to put their thumb on the scale.”

Since returning to power in 2025, Trump has assiduously courted Silicon Valley’s most powerful billionaires, who have returned the favor by donating generously to Trump’s various causes and to pro-Trump candidates.

“As the historian Richard Hofstadter noted, a fierce anti-intellectual spirit has long animated American culture, but it has typically targeted the knowledge elite from below,” The Nation's Elizabeth Spiers, a digital media strategist and writer living in Brooklyn, explained in April. “What’s striking about today’s brand of anti-intellectualism is that it infuses the American knowledge elite; it stems from the bedrock conviction among tech oligarchs that they have mastered everything and have nothing left to learn. In this cloistered vision of tech-driven learning, they believe that deep intellectual work—the kind you do when you author a complex piece of music, for example—has little or no inherent value.”

Spiers added, “Their disdain for it has fueled their attacks on higher education, the humanities, and learning for its own sake, which they believe has no purpose beyond its inevitable digitization and monetization.” She cited, as one example, Andreessen himself among others.

“The examples are everywhere” of their anti-intellectual tendencies, Spiers wrote. “[Palantir co-founder] Peter Thiel’s crusade against college attendance and his program that subsidizes high school students who want to forgo it, [venture capitalist] Marc Andreessen’s boasts that he actively avoids introspection, the gleeful prediction of Thiel’s Palantir colleague Alex Karp that AI will hurt educated women the most.”

Spiers added, “That all of these scourges of learning for learning’s sake are themselves beneficiaries of privileged educations doesn’t matter: As ardent monopolists, they’ve managed to believe they’ve cornered the market on critical thinking. Everyone else needn’t be troubled by the rigors of learning, since they exist solely to serve as drones in the tech regimes of the future.”

Dem discontent 'never been higher': analyst

The Democratic base is split on where they want the party to go — left, center, or stay put — but the majority can agree on their dissatisfaction with the party’s direction, says CNN data guru Harry Enten.

Fewer Democrats are currently satisfied with their party than they were after President Joe Biden’s debate performance that led to him dropping his reelection bid, Enten noted.

Democratic voters’ “p—— offness” Enten added on social media, “has never been higher with their own party in Congress.”

Noting that 46 percent of Democratic voters currently are satisfied with the Democratic Party, Enten reiterated that the majority are dissatisfied.

Looking specifically at Democrats’ net approval of congressional Democrats, Enten explained that after the shutdown in October of last year, congressional Democrats had a net approval rating of plus 22 percent.

“Today, though, look at that,” he said, pointing to a net approval rating of minus 9 points.

“That is an over 30 point drop, at the climb, right into the ocean, right there,” he said.

“And I will note it had never been negative. Democrats had always had a positive net approval rating of their own party in Congress in every Congress before this one.”

“Congressional Democrats are underwater with their own party, and that’s why I think these primaries are going to be so interesting, because they’re going to tell us, okay, which way do Democrats want their party to go?”

He said the “big problem” is “Democrats aren’t sure what direction they want their party to go.”

Nearly three in ten (28 percent) want the party to move to the left, he said. Less than one in five (18 percent) want the party to not move at all. And nearly half — 47 percent — want the party to move to the center.

“This is a party divided, where they’re not actually giving a clear message of where they want their party to go,” he noted.

Offering a note of caution to lawmakers in primary races, Enten said that “if all of a sudden, Democrats are actually going to move to the left — which is not what their party wants — that will actually upset the rest of the electorate.”

Enten said the “only thing” that unites the Democratic base right now is “they are very upset with Donald Trump, and I think the candidates who are able to actually capture that, that’s the candidates who are going to advance to the general election.”

Trump's 'bottomless ego' turned his biggest opportunity into a tacky farce

Opinion contributor Max Burns tells the Hill that America’s 250th birthday should have been “a celebration to end all celebrations.” But in its place comes a frayed presentation of one injured man’s delicate feelings.

“The nation’s biggest birthday yet could have been an opportunity for both commemoration and recommitment, a festival marking a quarter millennium of democracy and a challenge to envision a bolder, better, brighter America for the generations to come,” writes Burns. “Instead, we got a canceled Vanilla Ice concert, a half-painted Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, and a massive UFC arena on the White House lawn.”

Few Americans appear excited about the America 250 celebration because it’s become President Donald Trump’s America 250 celebration — and people are weary of paying attention to Trum and his attempt to rebrand the nation into a party dedicated to himself.

“Given his talk of a MAGA rally on the National Mall and marking the nation’s big day with his own face on a new $250 bill, Trump’s bottomless ego has made it impossible for anyone who isn’t a die-hard supporter to enjoy what should be a shared cultural moment,” said Burns.

Making matters worse is the unravelling architecture of U.S. culture, with Burns pointing out a Fall 2025 Harvard Youth Poll finding that only one-third of young people believe Americans with different political views actually want what is best for the country. And just 17 percent of respondents say they believe the government will “do what is right,” according to the Pew Research Center.

“We increasingly view ourselves as surrounded by enemies and deceivers, lost in a media landscape that constantly tells us no one can be trusted,” said Burns. “… Trump built his political brand on feeding conspiracy theories that directed hate and suspicion toward everyone from scientists to school teachers to nonprofit organizations, windmills, Pope Leo XIV and even his own political party. Now those conspiracy theories have gone mainstream, to the point where Americans no longer see themselves as one culture but two, locked in deadly combat for the future of their nation.”

It’s a bad time to throw a party, said Burns, much less a party twisted into a celebration of “Trump worship,” or a “pep rally for the MAGA right.”

The president’s mighty celebration has fallen so pitiably to pieces with artists abandoning the farce that he dismissed his own idea as “overpriced” and “boring” before demanding it be canceled.

“In Trump’s mind, the public can have him center stage for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration or it can have nothing. It has always been obvious that Trump had a hokey and low-class vision for the America 250 celebration; his interest in celebrating the country and its people never ran much deeper than the chance to slap his name on a few branded events,” said Burns. “What Trump doesn’t realize is that Americans would prefer nothing at all to another one of Trump’s self-glorifying publicity stunts. His record-low approval rating should make that painfully clear.

Trump aide triggered as 'racist' policies outed

One of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, Rep. Al Green (R-TX), triggered Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin in a heated exchange on Wednesday about the Trump administration’s racist policies.

“Racists take offense at peaceful protests,” Green told Mullin, referring to the administration’s policy of targeting immigrants from racial minority backgrounds. “A racist, Mr. Secretary, would do what happened to Ruby—”

Mullin shot back, “Are you calling me a racist?”

As Green attempted to reclaim his time from Mullin, the former Oklahoma senator continued to demand an answer as to whether he was being accused of racism. Green replied by telling him to “shut up” and insisting that it was Green’s time to talk, not Mullin’s.

“I’m not gonna let anybody call me a racist, chairman,” Mullin responded.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), the House Committee on Homeland Security Chair, had interjected previously when he complained that a different Democratic representative had pushed a “flat-out lie” behind him. When Green reiterated that he had not called Mullin a racist and that this was his time to speak, Garbarino told Green to “suspend” and allow Mullin to claim the time traditionally allotted to Green.

“No one will call me a racist,” Mullin said, pointing out that his family is part-Cherokee.

After Garbarino said that he suspended the clock and that Green would not lose time to speak because of Mullin’s interruptions, the Homeland Security Secretary insisted he was justified to cut off Green.

“I will continue to interrupt as long as someone’s … calling me a racist,” Mullin told Green and Garbarino.

“I agree,” Garbarino told Mullin, again seeming to side with him over Green. “As I said before there will be no addressing anyone’s character in a negative way. By the way, Mr. Green, when you’re speaking, I need you to speak into the microphone because I can’t hear you up here.”

Mullin then claimed Green lost his recent primary because of his rhetoric.

“Evidently, his constituents heard enough of him because they voted him out of office,” Mullin retorted.

Pleading for civility, Garbarino responded by saying, “Mr. Secretary, please.”

Despite Mullin implying that Green’s own actions cost him his House primary, in fact he lost to Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX) after both lawmakers’ districts were gerrymandered together by Republicans to shore up their chances of winning in 2016. Menefee had an advantage over Green because the cryptocurrency industry invested millions of dollars in his campaign.

"Rep. Green's defeat proves that anti-crypto hostility carries real electoral consequences, making him the first Democratic incumbent this cycle to lose his seat," Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for the pro-cryptocurrency super PAC Fairshake, said in a statement about defeating Green. "Fairshake was the difference-maker in this race, and we will continue to aggressively back leaders like Rep. Menefee across the country."

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