Trump’s War on “Woke” Finally Hits NPR and PBS

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that ends public government funding of NPR and PBS in yet another culturally polarized attack on anything deemed “woke.”

“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options,” the executive order reads. “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

This order is more symbolic than anything, as both NPR and PBS receive most of their funding from independent sponsors. And yet the order would limit funding to rural areas in particular, as those stations receive the most of the sliver of government funding that NPR and PBS receive.

“This order defies the will of the American people and would devastate the public safety, educational and local service missions of public media—services that the American public values, trusts and relies on every day,” said America’s Public Television Stations CEO Kate Riley. She went on to note that those rural stations provide a “lifeline in hundreds of communities where there is no other source of local media.”

Donald Trump is trying to force Harvard University into subservience, and on Friday he announced that the institution will lose its tax-exempt status. 

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

The move comes after weeks of threats following Harvard President Alan Garber’s announcement last month that the university would not give in to the Trump administration’s demands, outlined in a letter from the Department of Education. These included discontinuing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, reforming Harvard’s admissions process for international students, and dismantling programs with “egregious records of antisemitism.”

Following Harvard’s reply, Trump cut $2.2 billion in grants to the school along with a $60 million contract. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also demanded records on the “illegal and violent” activities of the institution’s international students, threatening to end Harvard’s ability to enroll any future international students if it didn’t comply.

Trump followed up with plans to pull $1 billion in medical grants to the university, accusing Harvard of “grandstanding” by publicly refusing to defy the White House. But the university isn’t backing down, and has the support of its staff: Over 80 faculty members have pledged to donate 10 percent of their salaries for up to a year to support the university’s cause, with the list growing.  

It’s all part of conservatives’ war on higher education, which they see as a liberal bastion in American life. Many on the right were also incensed at university protests across the country against Israel’s war in Gaza over the past year. Now, it seems that Trump is threatening the existence of America’s oldest university as a show of force. 

This story has been updated.

The Trump administration has shut down a Biden-era program to end sewage backups into central Alabama homes, labeling the whole thing “illegal DEI.”

NBC News reports that Trump ended the $26 million effort to rebuild water infrastructure in Lowndes County earlier this month, with an executive order. The program was meant to end 14 years of sewage backing up into homes in the majority-Black area. The Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, said, in accordance with the order, that the DOJ “will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens.”

In 2023, an independent investigation by the DOJ found that the county’s low-income residents, mostly Black, have not had basic sanitation for generations. Human wastewater is piped into ditches and poorly constructed systems instead of wastewater systems, leaving sewage to collect in yards, open areas, and woods.

Increased rainfall in recent years due to climate change has led to contaminated water flooding into homes, vegetation, and even drinking water. It’s not uncommon for untreated sewage to back up into residents’ backyards, or even sinks and bathtubs. A 2017 study found that a third of the county’s adults suffered from ringworm, an intestinal parasite that was thought to have been eradicated in the U.S. More than 300 families in Lowndes County have to deal with this problem.

“We have to be extra sanitary because people getting sick can be a problem,” Annye Burke, a local resident, told NBC. “The health concerns are real. In 2025 we shouldn’t have to deal with this, but it is what it is.”

The Alabama Department of Health had neglected the problem, showing “a consistent pattern of inaction and/or neglect concerning the health risks associated with exposure to raw sewage,” according to the DOJ’s 2023 investigation. The ADH told NBC that “the installation of sanitation systems and related infrastructure is outside the authority or responsibilities.”

According to the Trump administration, it’s not the federal government’s responsibility either. The White House has also moved to end environmental justice in the Environmental Protection Agency, which would hurt similar efforts across the country to end environmental hazards in different communities, the majority of which are in areas where Trump supporters live. It seems that ensuring people can live free in uncontaminated areas is too woke for the right wing.

Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would replace Mike Waltz to serve as the interim national security adviser appears to have taken the State Department completely by surprise.

When a reporter asked State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce during a press briefing about Rubio’s new role, she was visibly caught unawares.

“It is clear that I just heard this from you,” Bruce said.

A flustered Bruce couldn’t answer questions about the announcement, clearly reeling. “Well, I have some insights as to the potential of certain things that might happen,” she vamped.

“You can have a general sense of what’s possible, and then you see that manifest usually, but I think that one thing certainly that I have learned is that things don’t happen until the president says they’re going to happen,” she added, another incredible non-statement.

Bruce admitted she’d been caught off guard, incredulously attributing Trump’s sudden announcement to “the miracle of modern technology.”

If the State Department’s spokesperson wasn’t made aware of the announcement, it’s likely that Trump’s decision was not given much time to marinate at the State Department, raising questions about whether Rubio had any advance notice at all that he’d be taking on yet another government job.

Rubio now wears several hats for the Trump administration. The secretary is also serving as the head of what remains of USAID and the acting archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration—and in doing so, has found himself leading both an agency that has violated the Federal Records Act and the one that is meant to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Bruce’s apparent shock also raised even more questions about the circumstances surrounding Waltz’s sudden departure earlier Thursday. The former national security adviser, who was responsible for precipitating the Signalgate scandal that rocked the White House, will now serve as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Mike Waltz, the Trump adviser who accidentally invited a journalist to a war plans group chat on Signal, was caught casually scrolling through his Signal messages during a Cabinet meeting Thursday. Calls and messages to or from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance could be seen on his phone, which appeared to have no privacy screen and the brightness raised to the max.

Waltz, who was White House national security adviser at the time the photos were taken, seemed to think it was a good idea to use Signal in a room full of reporters.

Trump announced Thursday that Waltz will be leaving his post as national security adviser. Instead, he’s being nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Maybe he’ll find a privacy screen by the time he starts his new job.

The Trump family’s cryptocurrency business just got a $2 billion investment from a firm backed by the United Arab Emirates government. The deal is rife with conflicts of interest.

Zach Witkoff—son of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and founder of the Trump family’s crypto firm, World Liberty Financial—announced the deal at a conference in Dubai on Thursday. He was accompanied by Eric Trump, who runs his family’s business.

The Emirati firm, MGX, will be using World Liberty Financial’s so-called stablecoin, USD1, to make a deal with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

“We thank MGX and Binance for their trust in us,” Witkoff said. “It’s only the beginning.”

This is a massive donation from a foreign government to the Trump family that will ultimately go toward a crypto exchange that has been monitored by the U.S. government for two years for money laundering. Binance’s billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao, has not so coincidentally been pushing for a Trump pardon after he pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering laws.

With this deal, the Trump family will be enriched beyond most people’s comprehension, and they have the UAE government to thank for it. One can predict that Trump is likely to treat the country very favorably from here on out, again demonstrating that his power does have a price.

Trump changed his tune on cryptocurrency and used it to raise millions of dollars for his last campaign. His firm has been incredibly lucrative since, and as Witkoff said, it’s only the beginning. This current venture is an instance of Trump further thumbing his nose at our flimsy conflict of interest laws and selling his influence to the highest bidder.

Looks like Mike Waltz will land on his feet after being pushed out as national security adviser.

President Trump announced on Truth Social Thursday afternoon that he will be appointing Waltz as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio serving as national security adviser in the interim in addition to his other posts of acting administrator of USAID and acting archivist of the United States.

The move comes after Trump’s first choice for the ambassadorship, Representative Elise Stefanik, withdrew her name from consideration after the Republican majority in the House of Representatives became too thin. Waltz’s departure from his national security adviser post along with his deputy, Alex Wong, was announced earlier on Thursday following several scandals in the past few months.

Most notably, in March, Waltz accidentally invited Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a private Signal chat where Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth discussed attack plans against Houthi targets in Yemen. Later, Waltz was found to have left his Venmo account public, exposing associates including government officials and lobbyists. He was also exposed for having much of his personal data, including account passwords, cell phone numbers, and email addresses, listed online.

Along with Hegseth, Waltz used Signal frequently for work purposes, reportedly being part of at least 20 group chats to discuss issues in Ukraine, China, Gaza, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Privately, Trump was reportedly furious with Waltz’s missteps, but evidently not enough to push him out of the administration entirely.

Waltz’s new job seems to indicate that there are limits to accountability in the Trump administration. While he lost one job, he arguably got one that comes with less scrutiny. While the Signalgate scandal continues, for now it appears that the only consequences for the White House will be some chairs being shuffled.

This story has been updated.

Laura Loomer sowed doubts about Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s departing national security adviser, during a meeting in the Oval Office last month that resulted in the dismissal of multiple staffers on the National Security Council.  

In a podcast interview on The Tara Palmeri Show released Thursday, Trump’s favorite far-right conspiracy theorist said that she’d had concerns about Waltz’s loyalty after he signed off on the hiring of individuals who’d previously criticized the president. 

In the infamous meeting where she presented her so-called evidence to support the firing of several more traditionally neoconservative foreign policy hawks, Loomer had wanted to present a supposedly damning video of Waltz to the president too. Loomer claimed she’d been unable to show the video to Trump because Waltz had entered the room, but she shared the video on Palmeri’s podcast. 

Loomer played a 2016 advertisement for an anti-Trump PAC featuring Waltz, in which he criticized Trump’s statement mocking service members who’d been captured in combat. “It’s something that I just personally can’t stomach,” Waltz said in the video.  

“So if you can’t stomach it, why do you want to work for President Trump? If you can’t stomach it, why do you want to work for the administration?” asked Loomer, who evidently has a strong stomach for moral bankruptcy, as she has described herself as “pro-white nationalist” and a “proud Islamophobe.” 

The far-right activist clarified that she hadn’t been gunning for Waltz during the meeting. “No, I was not trying to fire Michael Waltz. My question is, if Michael Waltz is telling the president of the United States that these people are good people, that he personally signed off on, and that he personally vetted, well, what does a Michael Waltz vet entail? And is it biased, given the fact that he himself has made anti-Trump comments in the past?” she said. 

“I wasn’t trying to get him removed, I was just making the point that, you know, he’s not exactly a Trump loyalist,” Loomer said. 

Loomer was adamant she hadn’t been trying to get Waltz sacked, and claimed she was simply doing her due diligence while stressing her own enduring loyalty to the commander in chief.

“I don’t want you framing this as, ‘Oh, Laura Loomer tried to get Michael Waltz fired!’ I didn’t go in there trying to get him fired, I was just making the point that I’m a Trump loyalist. I never said—I never campaigned against Trump. Michael Waltz was working with a PAC that was trying to actively campaign against Donald Trump in 2016. So my point was, Michael Waltz is not going to have the same standard of loyalty that I have because he himself was a Trump hater, right? So I was trying to explain that,” she insisted.

“But how would that not make Trump want to fire him?” Palmeri asked. 

“I think it’s important that President Trump see these things,” Loomer replied. She said that she didn’t know if Trump had been made aware of the video before tapping Waltz. 

When Palmeri asked the White House whether Waltz had ever spoken to Trump about his critical comments, a Trump administration official responded with the following statement: “Mike has supported President Trump since after the primaries of 2016. He is a steadfast supporter of the president’s America First agenda, and works everyday to implement it.”

Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, are expected to leave their posts by the end of the day Thursday, but Trump announced that afternoon that he was nominating Waltz to serve as the ambassador to the United Nations. 

Crucially, it’s not clear that Waltz was removed from his post over concerns about loyalty. The hapless national security adviser had been the subject of multiple scandals during his brief time in the Trump administration, including mistakenly inviting a reporter to join a Signal group chat about plans to bomb Yemen.  

Donald Trump’s pick to head the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., is running into roadblocks in the Senate.

Ed Martin’s confirmation vote won’t be taking place Thursday, with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying “[i]t’s my understanding that we are not going to move forward on the Martin nomination.”

The committee chair, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, said in a hearing that Republicans need more time to vet Martin. Grassley’s communications director, Clare Slattery told The New Republic that the “committee is still reviewing Martin’s responses to questions for the record and waiting for Martin to return a few routine background materials.”

“Martin’s nomination could only be listed on the [committee] agenda once that process is complete,” Slattery said, adding that a vote on Martin would take place at a future date.

In recent days, though, Martin’s nomination has faced increased scrutiny from Republicans over his comments criticizing police officers at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Senator Thom Tillis, for example, said he has “serious concerns” about the nomination.

Martin has has long been an election denialist and apologist for the Capitol insurrection, but Senate Republicans have other concerns about him, too: He’s made several attacks against some of them, including Senators Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and John Cornyn, for, in his view, standing against Republican priorities and insufficiently supporting the president.

Martin also didn’t disclose to the Senate that he had made over 200 appearances on far-right and Russian state media outlets from 2016 to 2024. Martin also has been criticized for praising a January 6 rioter, Timothy Hale-Cussanelli, with a long history of antisemitic comments who has posted pictures of himself dressed as Hitler.

In the past few months, Martin has served as the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and gone on a far-right crusade, threatening legal action against Trump and Elon Musk critics, including Democrats in Congress; journalists; and even Georgetown University. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin has called for Martin to be investigated by the Justice Department’s inspector general for violating the law and ignoring legal ethics.

Normally, U.S. attorney nominees don’t come with this much controversy or negative news coverage. Will all of this be enough to sink Martin’s nomination? Trump has ignored media criticism in his appointments before, so he may very well force his Senate allies to ram Martin through regardless of how they feel.

This story has been updated.

A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from deporting immigrants on the basis of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, ruling Thursday that the use of the World War II-era policy to banish alleged Tren de Aragua gang members from the country without due process is illegal.

In a 36-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruled that Tren de Aragua’s presence did not constitute an “invasion,” as Donald Trump had previously claimed. Rodriguez, a first-term Trump appointee, wrote that the administration had inappropriately invoked the law, which only applies when the nation is facing an armed, organized attack by an invading country.

“The Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful,” Rodriguez decided. “[Administration officials] do not possess the lawful authority under the AEA, and based on the Proclamation, to detain Venezuelan aliens, transfer them within the United States, or remove them from the country.”

In March, the White House made a spontaneous decision to defy a court order by deporting more than 200 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the cover of the wartime policy.

Even after a U.S. district court judge ordered that the immigrants should remain in the U.S. as they await trial, Trump officials thwarted the law and sent the men sky bound regardless.

Trump justified the infraction by claiming Venezuelan immigration into the country constituted an “invasion,” and described the current era as a “time of war.” The men were taken to a notorious prison in El Salvador known as CECOT, where the U.S. government is paying El Salvador more than $20,000 per deportee to imprison the men.

Many of the accused men believed that they had been targeted for deportation due to their tattoos. ICE officials have admitted that the immigration agency has used tattoos to tie individuals to gangs, despite the fact that experts argue Venezuelan gangs do not use identifying tattoos.

In April, a U.S. circuit judge stated that the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to force immigrants out of the country had treated asylum-seekers worse than prior presidents treated actual German Nazis during World War II.