• Trump’s Immigration Police State Is Growing at Warp Speed

    Masked federal agents stand in front of people in a hallway outside immigration court

    Andrea RENAULT / Star Max

    When it passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in June, Congress handed nearly $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some $30 billion of that money will be spent on enforcement and deportation—hiring spree incoming—and another $45 billion will go toward new detention centers, including 50 by the end of the year.

    The OBBB immediately supercharged President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which already had been terrorizing immigrant communities and sending asylum seekers to a hellish prison in El Salvador. But an important part of the detention state ramp-up has flown under the radar: ICE’s increased cooperation with local law enforcement agencies.

    At the end of the Biden presidency, ICE had just 135 287(g) deals in place; now there are 1,001—a 641 percent increase.

    On Friday, ICE hit a new milestone: The agency has now signed more than 1,000 so-called 287(g) agreements nationwide. These agreements, which deputize local police and jails to perform certain immigration enforcement functions, have exploded under Trump. At the end of the Biden presidency, ICE had just 135 287(g) deals in place; now there are 1,001—a 641 percent increase.

    About half of these agreements are what ICE calls task force agreements, which allow state and local cops to essentially act as immigration agents while fulfilling their regular police duties. If these sound familiar—and familiarly problematic—it’s because they were discontinued in 2012, following a Department of Justice investigation the year before that found widespread racial profiling by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, then led by the notorious Joe Arpaio. The Trump administration brought task forces back this year, and ICE has signed more than 500 of these particular agreements across 33 states.

    As my colleague Laura C. Morel wrote in July, Florida has led the way in signing 287(g) agreements, as part of its larger push to be a leader in Trump’s deportation efforts (see also: the Alligator Alcatraz tent city). In fact, state legislators even passed into law a bill that requires county jails and the sheriff’s offices running those facilities to participate in 287(g). Local advocates told Laura they were worried about what all this would mean for immigrant communities across Florida:

    Growing cooperation between ICE and police in Florida will affect the day-to-day lives of immigrant families. “It’s not just about [an immigrant asking]: ‘What happens if I have to have an interaction with a police officer in some sort of criminal context?’” Greer says. “Living your life and existing in this community is now an extreme risk to being able to come home and see your kids, being able to come home and see your family. It is incredibly frightening.”

    State cooperation with federal immigration authorities can lead to “rippling harm” on the communities that police are meant to serve and protect, says Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation Initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice. “It increases distrust in law enforcement. It increases fear in immigrant communities, it decreases the ability of immigrants to take care of their families, to support the economy, and to be strong and stable members of their communities.”

    The federal government is already pumping billions of dollars into Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown, unleashing masked agents all across America. But in many places, undocumented immigrants will now also have to worry that any encounter with a police officer could lead to their deportation.

  • Stephen Miller Pours Fuel on the Fire, Again

    Stephen Miller sits in a gray suit and sunglasses, one leg crossed over the other

    Francis Chung/Politico/AP

    Subtlety is not one of Stephen Miller’s strong suits. Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, who alternately has been called the administration’s “attack dog” and “the president’s id,” has a well-known penchant for the kind of breathless, overheated language that would make the hackiest of hacks blush. Scroll through his X feed and you’ll find some real doozies, everything from “The entire Democrat party is now operating in service of a single issue and objective: unlimited mass third world migration” to “We are living under a judicial tyranny” to “The days of China pillaging America are over.”

    So it came as no surprise that he went The Full Miller in the wake of the killing of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk earlier this week. As conservative leaders, right-wing influencers, and even the federal government promised retribution on the left for its supposed complicity in and celebration of Kirk’s shooting, Miller ratcheted up the rhetoric in his own uniquely toxic way.

    On Thursday morning, the day after the shooting at Utah Valley University, Miller tweeted:

    There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless. It is an ideology that looks upon the perfect family with bitter rage while embracing the serial criminal with tender warmth. Its adherents organize constantly to tear down and destroy every mark of grace and beauty while lifting up everything monstrous and foul. It is an ideology that leads, always, inevitably and willfully, to violence — violence against those uphold order, who uphold faith, who uphold family, who uphold all that is noble and virtuous in this world. It is an ideology whose one unifying thread is the insatiable thirst for destruction.

    We see the workings of this ideology in every posting online cheering the evil assassination that cruelly robbed this nation of one of its greatest men. Postings from those in positions of institutional authority — educators, healthcare workers, therapists, government employees — reveling in the vile and the sinister with the most chilling glee.

    The fate of millions depends upon the defeat of this wicked ideology. The fate of our children, our society, our civilization hinges on it.

    Now we devote ourselves, with love and unyielding determination, to finishing the indispensable work to which Charlie bravely devoted his life and gave his last measure of devotion.

    We’ve come to take this sort of demonization and incendiary language for granted. But: It is not, in any way, normal. As Current Affairs wrote in a June piece titled, “The Brainless Propaganda of Stephen Miller,” “Even by the standards of right-wing rhetoric, Miller’s public statements are uncommonly shameless. He treats his audience as stupid and gullible.”

    Miller’s tweet, though, was just a warm-up. Appearing on Fox News on Friday night, he threatened “all the domestic terrorists in this country spreading this evil hate”:

    The message here is clear: No matter the motives and political leanings of the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, Miller and the White House see Kirk’s death as an opportunity to go on the offensive against their perceived enemies.

    How wide a net will they cast? For now, it’s still unclear. But a tweet on Saturday morning suggests Miller sees foes in every corner of American society:

  • Let’s Review Trump’s Week of Massive Legal Losses, Shall We?

    A close-up photo of Donald Trump with his eyes partially closed, eyebrows furrowed, and mouth open in a strained expression, as if wincing or shouting. He is wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, and red tie. The background is blurred but shows American flags and the presidential seal, suggesting the picture was taken inside the Oval Office.

    It has been a week of extensive legal losses for Trump.Alex Brandon/AP

    It was a week of so much losing.

    Over the past week, President Donald Trump and his authoritarian agenda have sustained one loss after another in the courts. Putting all of them together reveals a stunning legal rebuke, and unsurprisingly, Trump World has been erupting with anger and petulance. Let’s review:

    • Last Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were basically illegal, as my colleague Inae Oh covered. (On Truth Social, Trump alleged the court was “Highly Partisan,” adding, “If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country.”)
    • The same day, a federal judge ruled that the administration could not fast-track deportations of people detained far from the southern border. (White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called the ruling a “judicial coup.”)
    • Last Sunday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from deporting hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children. (Miller alleged the “Biden judge” was “effectively kidnapping these migrant children.”)
    • On Tuesday, an appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling requiring Trump to rehire fired Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. That prompted the administration to ask the Supreme Court to allow the firing to proceed.
    • The same day, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles was illegal, alleging that the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.” (White House spokesperson Anna Kelly characterized the ruling as “a rogue judge…trying to usurp the authority of the commander in chief to protect American cities from violence and destruction.”)
    • On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the administration broke the law when it froze billions of dollars in research funds to Harvard. (White House spokesperson Liz Huston called the decision “egregious.”)
    • On Thursday, an appeals court ruled that Trump could not cancel billions of dollars in foreign aid without getting approval from Congress. (The administration already appealed the decision.)
    • And on Friday, a federal judge blocked Trump from revoking the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants. (A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the ruling “delays justice,” adding, “unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland.”)

    On top of all this, as my colleague James West covered, a new NBC poll out today shows that the majority of Americans—57 percent—disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

    We may not be able to rely on the Supreme Court to keep Trump in check, but based on the last week or so, it seems we can trust the lower courts to step in where the high court will not.

  • Florida Surgeon General Admits He Banned Vaccine Mandates Based on Vibes

    A man in a suit and striped tie, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, stands at a podium with the word “FIGHTING” printed on the front. He gestures with both hands, palms up, and has an uncertain, questioning expression on his face. Behind him are the U.S. flag and the Florida state flag.

    Florida's surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, admitted on CNN on Sunday that no analysis went into his decision to seek to eliminate all vaccine mandates in the state.Paul Hennessy/SOPA/Sipa/AP

    After his announcement this week that he would seek to eliminate “all vaccine mandates,” Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, made one thing clear: This decision was based on no science, just vibes.

    In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, Ladapo told host Jake Tapper that officials did not undertake any analysis to determine how many new cases of  hepatitis A, whooping cough, and chickenpox would arise after the ending of vaccine mandates. “There’s this conflation of the science and sort of, what is the right and wrong thing to do?” Ladapo said, before proceeding to claim that the whooping cough vaccine is ineffective at preventing transmission. (Research has shown the whooping cough vaccine is safe and effective; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the protection they provide “decreases over time.”)

    He continued: “This is an issue very clearly of parents’ rights. So do I need to analyze whether it’s appropriate for parents to be able to decide what goes into their children’s bodies?”

    In fact, as my colleague Kiera Butler explained when Ladapo announced his decision this week it is an issue of public health—not “parents’ rights”:

    If successful, such a move could have broad implications for workers across state government sectors. Most significantly, it could allow many more unvaccinated children to attend school, putting others at risk of acquiring highly contagious and potentially deadly diseases such as measles and polio.

    Under Ladapo’s leadership, Florida’s rates of routine childhood vaccination—shots that protect against catastrophic diseases like polio and tetanus—have already declined. Today, the immunization rate for kindergartners is 90 percent, the lowest it’s been in a decade, and below the threshold required to prevent the spread of some serious illnesses. The rate of families seeking religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements has increased over the past few years.

    All this is part of why, as Tapper mentioned, experts ranging from Ladapo’s predecessor, Scott Rivkees, to major medical groups including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have voiced their opposition to the plan.

    A Washington Post-KFF poll conducted in July also found that more than 80 percent of Florida parents said public schools should require vaccines for measles and polio, with some health and religious exceptions. A new NBC News poll out today shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat support vaccines. Even President Donald Trump seems skeptical of Ladapo’s decision, telling reporters in the Oval Office this week: “I think we have to be very careful. We have some vaccines that are so amazing… I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don’t have to be vaccinated.”

    Later in the CNN interview, Ladapo seemed to slightly revise his argument, claiming that officials did not do any projections ahead of killing off vaccine mandates because they already recognized that outbreaks would, in fact, be inevitable: “We don’t need to do any projections. We handle outbreaks all the time. So there’s nothing special that we would need to do. And, secondly, again, there are countries that don’t have vaccine mandates, and the sky isn’t falling over there.”

    So, buckle up, Florida. Your surgeon general just admitted that outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease are coming.

  • Americans Continue to Really Dislike Trump and the Things He Does

    A person in a dark suit and red tie, Donald Trump, stands behind a microphone, raising both hands with palms outward while sticking out his tongue.

    It took less than two months for Trump's approval numbers to tank, according to The Economist.Alex Brandon/AP

    NBC is out with a new poll this morning showing Americans continue to dislike Trump and the things he’s doing—including the things he said he was really good at, like fixing the economy. Respondents to the NBC News Decision Desk Poll reported weak approval across a range of signature issues, including tariffs, and mass deportations, while expressing overwhelming support for vaccines—a sharp contrast to the turmoil inside the administration over vaccine policy.

    The topline approval rating remains in negative territory, with 57 percent saying they disapprove of the president’s job and 43 percent saying they approve—a similar result to the previous poll in June, NBC says. The results largely follow other polling tracked by The Economist, which uses a weekly YouGov survey to put Trump’s approval ratings significantly lower than both Biden’s and Obama’s at similar points in their presidencies, revealing it only took two months for his ratings to fall below zero, where they have remained. He’s currently languishing with a net approval rating of -14, according to The Economist. The average of a set of polls tracked by Nate Silver also puts him in negative territory at -6.9 net approval.

    As my colleague Julianne McShane previously reported, Trump registered the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in the past 80 years.

    The headline in NBC’s poll today is that Americans of all political stripes really like vaccines—78 percent of all respondents said they support their use. Large majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents agree. That comes as turmoil has erupted under Robert F. Kennedy’s leadership of the country’s top health agencies, including the decapitation of leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—a conflict that came to a boil during a heated marathon hearing on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. As my colleague Kiera Butler documented, Kennedy appeared to promote flat-out lies. In recent weeks, he has canceled mRNA vaccination research and stocked an important vaccine advisory panel with vaccine critics. A letter released this week and signed by 1,000 former HHS employees called for his resignation.

    Americans are giving Trump poor marks on other issues too, with just 43 percent approving of his mass deportation regime (though he scores slightly higher on the broader issue of border security, at 47 percent). On trade (41 percent) and inflation (39 percent), Americans continue to view Trump dimly.

    Meanwhile, the survey took the nation’s emotional temperature as well, showing nearly 70 percent of Democrats are either “furious” or “angry” at Trump’s actions. A smaller proportion of Republicans—45 percent—say they are either “thrilled” or “happy.”

    Read the full results of the poll here.

  • Mamdani Skewers Racist Critics With Delightful Video

    Zohran Mamdani is wearing a suit and tie, and sitting at a table with his hands clasped in front of him, appearing to speak or gesture toward the camera. On the left side of the image is a screenshot of a tweet from user @samwhite087 that reads: “Zohran go back to Uganda where you come from and belong.”

    New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has a cheeky message for his trolls.@ZohranKMamdani/X

    As Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who made history last month with his stunning victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, continues to rake in powerful endorsements, he made a scheduling announcement: He’s on a brief trip to celebrate his February nuptials with “family and friends.”

    Such bland news wouldn’t normally require the creation of an entire social media video. But it was the trip’s destination—Uganda, where Mamdani was born and lived for seven years before moving to the United States—that Mamdani highlighted to cheekily skewer his critics head-on.

    In the clip, Mamdani played on the explosion of racist attacks telling him to “go back” to Africa. He also prepared a string of pun-heavy headlines for the conservative-leaning New York Post.

    “UGANDA MISS ME.”

    “HE AFRI-CAN’T BE SERIOUS.”

    The clip once again underscored the Mamdani campaign’s ability to use social media videos to engage with everyday New Yorkers in ways that are widely praised as authentic, a crucial ingredient to his success. In turn, Mamdani’s opponents, Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams, have used Mamdani’s social media savvy to attack him. “Let’s be clear: They have a record of tweets,” Adams said last month when he launched his independent campaign.

    The Uganda trip follows a much-maligned New York Times story on Mamdani’s 2009 college application to Columbia University, in which Mamdani identified as both African-American and Asian. The leaked info used by the Times came from a right-wing eugenicist, whom my colleague Noah Lanard later reported once wished a happy birthday to Adolf Hitler, and used a racial slur when saying those who are attracted to Black people should kill themselves.

    Since stunning the country with his victory last month, Mamdani has worked to charm his detractors, including powerful figures in the business community, with direct meetings. On Friday, he scored the powerful endorsement of a local health care union, which had previously backed Mamdani’s opponent, Andrew Cuomo, who told an audience at a Hamptons fundraiser hosted by Gristedes billionaire John Catsimatidis this weekend that he would move to Florida if Mamdani becomes mayor.

  • Trump Really Did Try to Drag His Musk Feud Into Pure Revenge Territory

    Elon Musk is wearing a black coat and making a puckered facial expression, looking to his left, with a blurred outdoor background.

    Samuel Corum/Sipa USA/AP

    As President Donald Trump’s bitter feud with Elon Musk spilled into public view last month, aides to the president reportedly launched a behind-the-scenes effort to carry out Trump’s threats to terminate Musk’s contracts with the federal government. Those threats marked an alarming willingness by the president to take his wrestling match with Musk to a potentially new level of lawlessness.

    Ultimately, aides to the president, the Wall Street Journal reports, concluded that SpaceX contracts were too critical to operations at the Defense Department and NASA, once again underscoring the federal government’s heavy reliance on Musk’s technologies. But it’s the review itself, that it happened at all, that should cause considerable alarm, even if it involves an unsympathetic character such as Elon Musk.

    As my colleague Jeremy Schulman wrote: “In a democracy, politicians simply cannot be allowed to punish dissent by threatening to destroy the businesses of people who cross them—whether those businesses are media companies, law firms, or a defense contractor run by the world’s richest man.” Of course, such concerns can be identified nearly everywhere throughout Trump’s second term, as he uses the enormous powers of the federal government to target his perceived enemies: top law firms, cultural institutions, Biden officials, civil servants, and more. Just look at the bogus “investigation” into a renovation at the Federal Reserve as Trump openly considers firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

    With SpaceX, Trump may have been thwarted. But that might only be temporary. As the WSJ reports, the review remains ongoing, and aides are sure to be looking into other areas of retribution against Musk as he continues pouring gasoline over their feud. (Musk, who earlier appeared to suggest that Trump may be named in the Epstein files, is now one of several prominent MAGA characters to claim a full-blown “coverup” by the president.) Whatever you might think of the billionaire, that should frighten you.

  • No, Democrats Aren’t Controlling the Weather. Neither Is Anyone Else.

    A blurred figure walks past a row of wooden crosses placed along a railing in front of a rushing dam spillway. The crosses are adorned with colorful flowers, blue and white fabric, and other memorial decorations, indicating a tribute or memorial site. The scene conveys a somber and reflective mood.

    The Guadalupe River flows past a make-shift memorial in Kerrville, Texas.Eric Gay/AP

    Everything is a conspiracy theory if you don’t know how anything works, and that seems especially so when you take stock of the disinformation swirling in the aftermath of the deadly Texas floods.

    The Independence Day floods in Texas Hill Country have killed at least 121 people, with scores still missing. Yet even as the increasingly desperate search continues, some are pointing fingers—not at policy or failed leadership—but at a familiar punch list of conspiracy theories about weather manipulation. From HAARP and DARPA to the Deep State and Democrats, influencers and partisans are sowing distrust and misinformation by labeling the disaster anything but natural.

    The tragic irony? There’s no need for a conspiracy theory when the truth is this plain: Texas floods often—and it’s getting worse as part of the growing climate crisis, arguably abetted by the very politicians now scrambling to defend the state’s preparedness.

  • Report: New Hampshire Could Ban Funding for Programs for Disabled People

    A old gray stone building with a golden dome on top.

    The New Hampshire statehouseHolly Ramer/AP

    On Monday, the Boston Globe reported that the Senate version of New Hampshire’s two-year budget bill contains language that “would prohibit public entities from supporting any program designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities.” The reason? An attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion by state House and Senate Republicans.

    “The Senate’s anti-DEI provisions would prohibit state and local government entities from supporting any program related to efforts to improve ‘demographic outcomes’ for people with physical or mental disabilities,” writes Boston Globe reporter Steven Porter.

    Disabled people already face challenges in hiring, both due to biases of companies and some people just needing more assistance. DEI-focused hiring programs and trainings—both for disabled people and people of color—help this problem.

    The House version of the bill is also an anti-DEI attack, though it does not specifically go after disability as heavily as the Senate version of the budget. The House bill goes after race-conscious practices in hiring, which still would hurt disabled people of color. Karen Rosenberg, policy director for the Disability Rights Center, told Porter that the bills are “mostly the same, and they’re both terrible.”

    As Porter writes, the curtailing of disability programs in the state can also affect disabled children.

    Louis Esposito, executive director of ABLE NH, an advocacy group for people impacted by disability, said there have been so many additional pressing concerns—including a disagreement between the House and Senate over a proposed cut to Medicaid provider rates—that the implications of the anti-DEI provisions in the state budget legislation haven’t garnered as much attention as they warrant.

    Esposito said the proposals could have far-reaching ramifications in education. If a school offers a training session on neurodiversity, for example, would that be deemed a DEI violation? School leaders who are unsure might avoid such topics, at the expense of equity and inclusion for students with disabilities, he said, especially since the proposals would direct the state’s education commissioner to withhold all public funding from schools deemed noncompliant.

    The House and Senate will have to come to an agreement and pass a two-year budget bill before July 1.

  • New Report: Trump Administration Just Got Hit With Another Signal Chat Scandal

    A white man with graying hair wearing a blue suit jacket and striped tie, who appears to be speaking and sitting in an office.

    Defense Secretary Pete HegsethNathan Howard/AP

    On Sunday evening, The New York Times published details of another potentially damning security scandal involving the chat app Signal and discussions of “detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15″—this time centered on a group chat created by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

    Citing four people with knowledge of the group chat, the report describes strikingly similar details to those revealed last month by The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who earlier disclosed that he had been inadvertently added to a different Signal group chat discussing the same Yemen war plans.

    According to the Times, Hegseth shared information that “included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis” in a “chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.” The Times noted that Hegseth’s brother, Phil, holds a job at the Pentagon, as does his lawyer, Tim Parlatore. His wife, Jennifer, has recently become notable for accompanying her husband to high-profile meetings abroad.

    The Times reports:

    Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary ,and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.

    The continued inclusion following Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation of his wife, brother and personal lawyer, none of whom had any apparent reason to be briefed on operational details of a military operation as it was getting underway, is sure to raise further questions about his adherence to security protocols.

    The report cites a US official claiming that there was no national security breach: “Nothing classified was ever discussed on that chat,” the official said. Nonetheless, news of the second Signal group comes amid a dramatic leak probe at the Pentagon that has resulted in the departure of top Hegseth advisors and aides. Read the full Times report here.

  • We Asked You to Share Protest Photos. Wow, You Delivered.

    A protester in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on Saturday. Demonstrators also gathered in other major cities across the country.Aashish Kiphayet/Sipa/AP

    This weekend, national protests broke out once again to demand an end to creeping authoritarianism and to defend the rule of law—sparked by the chaotic opening months of the Trump administration, defined by the flouting of judicial authority, executive overreach, and a subservient Congress. You can find a wrap-up of those protests, organized under the banner “50501”—meaning “50 protests, 50 states, 1 day”—here.

    Over on Bluesky, we asked readers to share their own images from wherever they showed up, and we were flooded with responses, from tiny towns and a highway overpass, to sprawling cities—all forming a vivid, grassroots tapestry of resistance.

    Readers sent photos and videos from Clarksburg, West Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Flagstaff, Arizona; Hartford, Connecticut; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Lisle and Macomb, Illinois; Livonia, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Monterey, Paso Robles, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Thousand Oaks, California; New York City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Raleigh, North Carolina; Rochester, New York; Roswell, New Mexico; St. Paul, Minnesota; Suffolk, Virginia; and more.

    Here are some of your highlights. Keep them coming. And make sure to follow us to join our thriving Bluesky community.

    Thousand Oaks, CA. Great turnout and response from passerby. Only about 4 thumbs down or middle fingers. Lol

    (@katgw.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:36:22.800Z

    We showed up in St Paul, Minnesota. Stand up! Fight back! #resist

    Kim J (@kaj0724.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:41:05.502Z

    I25 Pedestrian Bridge in Denver

    (@thegreatwoodini.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:40:19.194Z

    Young people, old people, veterans, dogs and everyone in between (about 500?) of us came out to #Resist in I’d say edging towards purple, rural Paso Robles, Ca on 4/19/25 NO KINGS protest day💪🏼🇺🇸

    (@shellyrn24.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:56:07.692Z

    Paso Robles, Ca! #NoKings #RESIST

    (@shellyrn24.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:57:41.448Z

    Rochester, NY 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

    Amy Adrion (@amyadrion.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T16:01:36.979Z

    Turnout was strong in Honolulu on April 19.

    (@sayitwithaloha.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T16:04:02.919Z

    Belfast, Maine bsky.app/profile/sara…

    Sara in Maine (@sara207.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T16:11:47.294Z
  • Powerful Scenes From This Weekend’s Anti-Trump Protests Reveal Resistance in Action

    Thousands of anti-Trump protesters took to the streets as part of a nationwide protest to condemn the Trump administration. Marchers gathered at the New York Public Library in Bryant Park and made their way to Central Park.Syndi Pilar/Sipa/AP

    Protesters across the country once again poured into the streets this weekend for a day of mass action denouncing the Trump administration. It was the second large-scale outpouring this month, following the coordinated “Hands Off” protests. Saturday’s events took place under the banner of “50501”—a grassroots effort aimed at mobilizing “50 protests, 50 states, 1 day,” with over 700 gatherings held in both big cities and small towns nationwide.

    The protesters’ targets were wide-ranging—the deportation regime, Elon Musk and DOGE, the rise of authoritarianism, tariffs, trans rights, and more—but one figure naturally dominated the protest signs: Trump. And a historical echo was not lost on some organizers, who pointed to Saturday marking the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War—the historic struggle to free a nation from monarchy. Protesters around Boston chanted “no kings.”

    Here are some photo highlights from across the day’s events.

    Protesters formed an “Impeach and Remove” human banner on Ocean Beach in San Francisco during Saturday’s protest. The formation also included an upside-down U.S. flag—a common signal of distress.Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle/AP
    Many thousands of people demonstrated in Pioneer Courthouse Square and throughout downtown Portland, Oregon.John Rudoff/Sipa/AP
    Anti-Trump protesters assembled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Many were demanding the return of Kilmar Abrego García, who was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to a megaprison in El Salvador last month.Aashish Kiphayet/Sipa/AP
    People in Baltimore City, Maryland, rallied in support of unions, Medicare, Social Security, and the return of recent deportees.Robyn Stevens Brody/Sipa/AP
    Crowds of people protested in front of the State Capitol building in Carson City, Nevada.William Hale Irwin/ SIPA/AP
    Anti-Trump protesters displayed signs in front of a Tesla Store in Kissimmee, Florida.Ronaldo Silva/NurPhoto/AP
    People gathered in Orlando, Fla.Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

  • Elon Musk’s Use of AI to Slash Education Spending Could Put Disabled Students at Risk

    A brown building with large windows that says US Department of Education on it

    The US Department of Education, in Washington, D.C.,Graeme Sloan/SIPA USA/AP

    On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Elon Musk’s DOGE fed sensitive data into artificial intelligence software as a way to help decide which of the Department of Education’s programs were wasteful, to try and slash its budget.

    President Donald Trump is expected to soon release an executive order that would reduce education spending as much as possible while recognizing that he cannot get rid of the department itself. That can only be done by an act of Congress—Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) recently reintroduced such a bill in the House.

    As I previously reported, the Department of Education plays a crucial role in making sure disabled kids receive the same access to education across states, and distributes funding for the needed accommodations. Disabled people are used to being told that those accommodations are too expensive, which is one cause for concern with DOGE’s use of AI for this purpose.

    Ariana H. Aboulafia, who leads disability rights efforts for the DC-based nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology, says it’s important to remember that federal funding for students with disabilities is crucial in ensuring they have fair access to learning. “Any efforts to use unproven, AI-driven technology to make funding cuts could lead to excessive harm to this community,” she told me. “In this instance, it is unclear whether the AI model in question even works for this purpose, but it does appear to raise serious security questions given the sensitivity of the data that is being shared.”

    AI is not a neutral source, and research has indicated that it has ableist biases. For instance, a 2024 study found that ChatGPT gave a lower score to resumes that indicated a disability. “Many cuts to the Department of Education, whether they are determined through the use of AI models or human decision-making,” Aboulafia says, “will have a disproportionate and significant impact on students with disabilities.”

  • The Anti-Trump Resistance Is Alive at This Historic Black DC Church

    The congregation at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington DC celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day—and voiced unified resistance to the incoming Trump administration.Phil Lewis/AP

    When Donald Trump first took office, the streets of Washington, DC, and cities around the country, erupted in protest and resistance. The 2017 Women’s March, held the day after his inauguration, was heralded at the time as the biggest protest in U.S. history. This year, the crowds only measured in the thousands. Other day-of gatherings appeared similarly small, perhaps due to the blisteringly cold temperatures that drove the pageantry inside. The spontaneous panic that once gripped the mobilized masses seemed diluted.

    Instead, Mother Jones video correspondent Garrison Hayes found vocal resistance in a historic place of protest that has endured many disappointing election results across decades: inside a Black church.

    Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, which coincided with the inauguration, and used it as an opportunity to challenge Trump and embolden attendees. “We shed too much blood. We spent too many nights in jail to think that Trump can turn us around,” he said. “We are right here. We are not going back.”

    Hayes also spoke to attendees. One, Alexa Donaphin, was wearing a sequined MLK Jr. shirt and described herself as a veteran defender of civil rights for the vulnerable.

    “Even though I’m not gay, I’m not trans, I’m not poor, I’m not an immigrant, I’m not a migrant—I’m none of those things, but those people matter, and their rights matter,” she said. “I’ve been fighting since my hair was a different color than it is now,” she said, noting her gray hair.

    “My whole life, I grew up in the segregated South. I know what it’s like to drink from a colored water fountain,” she continued. “I know how it feels to be othered. I know how it feels to be marginalized, and I can’t sit by idly and do nothing while that continues and, in fact, escalates.”

    “If America is to survive the next four years,” Hayes concludes, “it could probably stand to take some notes.”

  • Video: Here’s What Trump’s Most Faithful Fans Want to See Next

    Donald Trump stands on a podium in front of a stadium of people.

    President-elect Donald Trump speaks to thousands at his Make America Great Again Victory Rally on January 19 at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/ZUMA

    The weather in Washington, DC, has plunged into the 20s, with a 40 percent chance of snow showers—and a 100 percent chance of bumping into someone who voted for Donald Trump. Our DC bureau chief, David Corn, bundled up against the chill and braved the slushy queues to speak with ecstatic Trump supporters who began attending a series of celebrations in the capital Sunday. The events were moved indoors to protect against the extreme cold.

    Thousands of MAGA faithful packed into the Capital One Arena for an inauguration eve event. David joined the lines.

    While in line, David interviewed die-hard Trump supporters about their reasons for backing the president-elect. Among them was Andrew Williams, who praised Trump for not being like the other GOP war hawks. But what about Trump’s proposed military annexation of Greenland? David asked.

    He also watched—and recapped—Trump’s victory rally, which included a long segment about Jesus from a duo of women who call themselves “Girls Gone Bible.”

    Meanwhile, our video correspondent Garrison Hayes took to the streets to ask Trump supporters what they are looking forward to. Some gave specific answers, such as the erosion of DEI requirements, while others offered vague calls for “unity.” One woman shared more ambitious plans: “I would vote for him to be king,” she said—perhaps jokingly. Watch for yourself:

    This post will be updated with dispatches from the day. Stay tuned.

  • The Worst, Most Important, Book I Read This Year

    A hand drops a book titled, "The Case For Israel" into a trash can

    Mother Jones illustration; Getty

    On a long flight in the mid-aughts, I decided to read The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz. I thought of it like giving myself an assignment, the kind of thing I tended do when I was younger. I wanted to understand an argument I expected to disagree with.

    But this proved to be a mistake. The Case for Israel is not a good enough book to reward that kind of exercise. I found it chock-full of conventional pro-Israel arguments that avoid the most difficult questions about Zionism.

    And yet it is an important book, maybe more so now than in 2003, when Alan Dershowitz was not advising the White House.

    I had occasion to reconsider The Case for Israel in 2018, when Dershowitz let it be known that he had recently begun counseling Donald Trump on Middle East policy. I reported that Dershowitz had also recently agreed to a contract to provide advice to an American lobbyist who represented Qatar, an arrangement that arguably undermined the independence of the advice Dershowitz offered the White House. Asked about this, Dershowitz hotly volunteered, unprompted, that he was an “expert” on Israel because he had written books, most notably, The Case for Israel, on the subject.

    The problem with this argument is that the book, which I reread this year, is terrible. It would be bad even if you agreed with it. It is, first all of, kind of a gimmick. Like one of those famous coaches hawking business tips, Dershowitz tapped his fame as a defense lawyer to structure his book as a “defense of Israel…in the court of public opinion.” There are 32 chapters where he outlines what he says are common anti-Israel arguments, which he rebuts in sections that largely summarize what even then were well-worn pro-Israeli bromides.

    And the book does not actually address the most compelling pro-Palestinian arguments. You might, for example, expect a chapter titled “Did European Jews Displace Palestinians?” to answer that question. The reader may look here for the author to acknowledge that yes, Israelis expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli War in 1947-1948, even if he then attempted to justify that ethnic cleansing.

    But Dershowitz doesn’t do any of that. Instead he details the historical presence of some Jews in Palestine, which is not responsive to his own question. He says many Jews, prior to the war, bought land in Palestine from absentee landlords, which is also off topic. And he downplays the extent of the Palestinian population in Israel at the time. He just ignores the well-documented Israeli efforts to expel Palestinians. (This policy was detailed in Benny Morris’ 1988 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, which Dershowitz cites, for other purposes, in the same chapter.)

    Dershowitz has been accused of plagiarizing material in this book from Joan Peters’ 1984 book From Time Immemorial, a claim he denied so hard he once reportedly tried to get then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to suppress publication of a book detailing the accusation. (Dershowitz has not responded to my request for comment regarding these accusations.) Regardless, the book seems hastily written. Like other Dershowitz writing, it sounds like he dictated parts of it in an airport bathroom and never revised.

    But despite its shortcomings, this book informs the views of people who are about to resume making US policy on Israel. Expert or not, Dershowitz really did advise Trump on Israel during the president-elect’s first term. And he also offered advice to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that informed the so-called Abraham Accords. (Dershowitz later nominated Kushner and his deputy Avi Berkowitz for the Nobel Peace Prize, a proposal undermined by Hamas’ October 7 attack and ensuing war.)

    Dershowitz last month claimed he is assembling a “legal dream team” to defend Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant in the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for the men. The former OJ Simpson defender is still trying to make the case for Israel. Dershowitz is also a confidant of Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel. So Dershowitz’s views continue to have influence.

    To be clear, I’m not suggesting reading this book. From Time Immemorial might be a better choice. But it’s worth considering that this lazy, reflexively pro-Israel thinking is again informing Middle East policy. The Case for Israel is important. And it’s really bad.

  • Sarah McBride Just Showed Nancy Mace How to Act Like a Member of Congress

    Rep-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) said Sunday she is focused on governing, not on culture wars led by the right.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA

    Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) is not taking Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) bait.

    In her first interview after Mace’s weeklong, social media–fueled campaign—which included nearly 300 posts on X—to ban her from the women’s bathroom in the House of Representatives offices, McBride showed how a member of Congress who is actually interested in governing, not grabbing headlines, acts.

    “I’m in Congress to deliver for my constituents, to make health care, housing, and child care more affordable,” McBride said in a Sunday interview on MSNBC’s The Weekend, adding that she plans to support pro-union legislation as well as bills focused on paid leave and affordable childcare. “I’m so grateful to have this opportunity. I think on November 5, Delawareans showed the country what I’ve known throughout my life: that in our state of neighbors, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities.”

    Mace kicked off this past week by introducing a resolution seeking to bar transgender members and employees in the House from using the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity in the Capitol building, baselessly alleging that allowing trans women to use women’s bathrooms “jeopardizes the safety and dignity” of cisgender women. (In fact, research has found that there is “no link” between trans-inclusive bathroom policies and safety, and that reports of “privacy and safety violations” in bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms are “exceedingly rare.”) Though Mace’s resolution did not mention McBride—the first openly transgender person elected to Congress—by name, Mace admitted it was “absolutely” meant to target her.

    On Wednesday—which also happened to be the annually recognized Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day meant to memorialize trans people murdered in violent acts of bigotry—House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw his support behind Mace’s effort, telling reporters he was simply formalizing what has long been an “unwritten policy”; he also noted in an emailed statement that all Members have private bathrooms in their offices and there are several unisex bathrooms throughout the Capitol. But Johnson has not clarified how the policy will be enforced or whether he will include it in the rules package the House will vote on in early January.

    “I worried that the heart of this country wasn’t big enough to love someone like me, and over the last decade, I have been able to bear witness the change that once seemed so impossible to me as a kid.”

    Johnson also has not addressed whether or not he condemns the threats of physical violence Mace and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reportedly made against any trans person who violates the bathroom ban. (I’ve repeatedly asked Johnson’s spokesperson if he condemns these threats and if members would face consequences for carrying them out, but have yet to receive a direct answer.)

    Getting what she wanted did not make Mace dial back her bigotry, though: She has continued to repeatedly misgender McBride and denigrate trans people on social media. But on Sunday, McBride dismissed all that as “noise”—without mentioning Mace by name—and said she is focused on honoring the weight of history in her new role.

    “I have to be honest, this week was awe-inspiring, being at orientation, despite all of the noise,” McBride said. “Because as you were there, you realize you are in the body that Abraham Lincoln served in. We walked onto the House floor, and you’re in the space where they passed the 13th Amendment and the 14th Amendment, where women got the right to vote. You’re sitting in the chairs in the job where people passed the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. And you feel that responsibility, but also you feel that you are part of a tradition, because every single one of your predecessors served in incredibly tumultuous, challenging times, and enough of them fulfilled their responsibilities to be stewards of our democracy and that is our calling in this moment, and I feel it very deeply.”

    She also spoke about her own trailblazing role in Congress, which she said proves that anything is possible. As a college student, she said, “I worried that the heart of this country wasn’t big enough to love someone like me, and over the last decade, I have been able to bear witness the change that once seemed so impossible to me as a kid—that was almost incomprehensible—and I have seen it not only become possible, but become a reality. And I carry that with me in this moment, because I think in so many ways, this country—on both sides of the political divide—this country is facing its own crisis of hope. And I know we still have both the individual and collective capacity meet the scope and the scale of the challenges that we face. And I know, because I have seen it, that nothing is truly impossible.”

    Mace, meanwhile, spent the morning posting a Bible verse about the creation of “woman” all over social media.

  • Elizabeth Warren Warns That Trump’s Transition “Threatens the American Public”

    As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) highlights, the Trump transition team is already flouting precedent.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA

    Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointees are not the only source of controversy in his transition back to the White House.

    On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the functioning of federal agencies, to warn that the Trump transition team has refused to sign memoranda of understanding with the Biden-Harris administration. All prior presidents-elect have signed the agreements, which outline how the administrations will work together; one of them, for example, would allow the FBI under the current administration to conduct background checks on Trump’s nominees. Another would facilitate the Trump team’s national security clearances required to receive classified intelligence briefings before he assumes office. “The Trump team’s unprecedented refusal to sign agreements with the outgoing administration threatens the American public by hamstringing incoming officials’ ability to govern responsibly,” Warren writes.

    The refusal to publish the ethics code heightens “the risk of the incoming administration governing for the benefit of special interests rather than the American public.”

    On top of that, Trump’s transition team has yet to publish a full ethics code on the GSA website addressing how he will deal with his conflicts of interest, as required by a law that Trump himself passed in 2020. Warren’s letter notes that while the Trump team has published its own ethics code, “it includes nothing about how President-elect Trump will manage his own extensive financial conflicts of interest—which experts anticipate will be one of the most alarming corruption challenges of the incoming administration.” The refusal to publish the ethics code, Warren says, heightens “the risk of the incoming administration governing for the benefit of special interests rather than the American public.”

    As the New York Times reported Sunday, it’s possible these “special interests” could, in fact, be helping to fund the Trump transition: Because the Trump team has not signed a memorandum of understanding with the GSA that was due Sept. 1, they have been able to shield the names of donors to the transition. If the Trump transition had entered into the agreement, they would have to publicly disclose donors, each of whom would have an individual giving limit of $5,000—but the Trump team would have been able to access $7.2 million in federal funds to help with the costs of the transition.

    Trump is also reportedly the first president to circumvent this agreement, which seems to suggest his team thinks he can raise more from donors without being limited to the $5,000 cap per individual donor. But as one expert told the Times, it could come at a serious ethical cost:

    “When the money isn’t disclosed, it’s not clear how much everybody is giving, who is giving it and what they are getting in return for their donations,” said Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies presidential transitions. “It’s an area where the vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill.”

    In her letter to the GSA, Warren asks them to respond by December 5 to questions about how the agency is engaging with the Trump transition and the impacts of the Trump team’s lack of compliance with federal law. Spokespeople for the Trump transition team and the GSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Mother Jones on Sunday morning.

  • Popular Things Happen When You Vote. Here’s the Proof.

    Mother Jones illustration; Getty

    What changes if more people showed up to vote?

    One answer emerges by comparing Minnesota and Tennessee—two states with vastly different voter turnout rates. Minnesota leads the nation, with nearly 80 percent of eligible voters participating in the 2020 election. With that, Minnesotans have elected leaders who have advanced a popular agenda: universal school meals, free public college tuition, paid family and medical leave, and the restoration of voting rights for formerly incarcerated people. According to polling, each of these proposals is broadly popular across the entire country.

    By contrast, in Tennessee, voter turnout in 2020 was only 59 percent—enabling a very unpopular Republican supermajority to ignore calls for stricter gun control, despite widespread support. Instead, they’ve focused on banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and enacting some of the country’s harshest abortion laws. Tennessee once had abortion protections, but a historically low-turnout election in 2014 paved the way for today’s restrictive policies.

    In my new video, I run the numbers. Watch:

    The differences between Minnesota and Tennessee make it clear: Turnout has sweeping consequences. Go vote.