Junk Science Peddler RFK Jr. Says Trans Kids Are Result of Malpractice

The Trump administration is stripping funding for gender-affirming care.

The new rule, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday, virtually bans gender-affirming care at any Medicare- or Medicaid-participating hospital, even if the care itself is not paid for with federal funds.

While announcing the policy change, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy—who has made millions of dollars peddling thoroughly debunked health conspiracies—condemned the concept of gender-affirming care as “junk science.”

“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine, it is malpractice,” Kennedy said. “We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the wellbeing of children.”

In reality, medical studies have shown that providing trans and nonbinary children with gender-affirming care actually makes them safer. Gender-affirming care decreases the amount of depression and anxiety that trans and nonbinary teenagers feel, and it makes them less likely to consider suicide.

But genuine research on the complications of gender dysphoria is apparently of little import to Kennedy’s HHS, which seems fixated on the lie that transgender children have unfettered access to surgical sex changes. The truth is that they do not: Virtually no sex change surgeries have been performed on transgender minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria. That decision can be made when they turn 18 and are of legal age to make the decision for themselves.

The hoopla is deceptive and obscures the facts: A 2024 Harvard School of Public Health study found that cisgender adults and minors had “substantially” more “gender affirming surgeries” than their transgender counterparts—though Kennedy didn’t announce any restrictions on that.

Instead, the anti-vaxxer unveiled that his agency would take “six decisive actions” intended to protect children from what he described as “surgical mutilation.”

“Guided by gold standard science and the week one executive order from President [Donald] Trump … this morning I signed a declaration,” Kennedy continued. “Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.”

The LGBTQ+ community has had a target on its back since Trump returned to power. The administration has taken aim at transgender athletes and fearmongered over bathroom access, all while book bans purging LGBTQ+ friendly texts have surged around the country.

Earlier this year, the ultraconservative brass on the Supreme Court ruled along ideological lines in U.S. v. Skrmetti that states may ban minors from receiving gender-affirming care, such as hormone treatments and puberty blockers, denying parents the control that they have clamored for.

When a military helicopter collided with a passenger plane at Ronald Reagan National Airport in January and killed 67 people, President Trump absurdly blamed DEI, citing a “big push to put diversity into the [Federal Aviation Administration]’s program.”

“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” Trump said then. 

Months later, the administration is eating its words, as it takes full responsibility for the crash and may end up paying for damages. 

“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025,” the Justice Department wrote in an admission of liability, brought forth by a lawsuit from a family member of one of the victims. “The collision could have been avoided.”

According to the DOJ, the Army pilots flying a Black Hawk helicopter that evening failed to “maintain vigilance” and “proper and safe visual separation” with the passenger plane. They admit that the accident would not have happened if the helicopter pilots were able to “see and avoid” the plane. 

Trump’s immediate finger-pointing at DEI—specifically at FAA workers with disabilities—was absolutely disgusting, tone deaf, and completely incorrect. But now that his government has admitted that it was its fault, and that it could have been avoided, the president is completely mum.   

It turns out that Donald Trump went pretty far to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

The New York Times, citing a newly discovered recording, reports that Trump tried to persuade the speaker of Georgia’s House of Representatives to call a special session that would nullify his loss in the state. In a December 7, 2020, phone call, Trump told then-Speaker David Ralston that he could call the session by saying it was “for transparency, and to uncover fraud,” adding, “Who’s gonna stop you for that?”

Ralston, a Republican attorney, chuckled and said, “A federal judge, possibly.” Ralston passed away in 2022.

The Times obtained the recording Wednesday, less than a month after the criminal election interference case against Trump and 18 of his allies in Fulton County, Georgia, was dismissed. The audio record is part of several investigative documents from that case.

Trump’s call with Ralston lasted 12.5 minutes, during which Trump cited a series of false conspiracies of fraud in Georgia’s elections, claiming that he had actually won the state instead of losing by more than 11,000 votes. Trump said on the call that votes were “coming out of suitcases, luggage, and it was a lot of votes. It was probably more than 100,000. You know they ran them through three or four times, you know, the same votes.

“You know we won this thing by 400,000 or 500,000 votes,” Trump told Ralston, making up numbers out of thin air. “Just like we did Alabama and every other state in the South. And, uh, we won, we won, we won your state massively. They took votes away.”

Ralston didn’t keep the call to himself, telling special grand jurors investigating the case about what Trump told him. But the audio, and Trump’s exact words, were not public until now. Trump’s infamous demand to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn the election is more widely known.

The dismissal of the case, coupled with Trump’s election in 2024, means that the president is not likely to face justice over his attempts to overturn the election in Georgia, despite this damning recording. Trump has proven that if one has power, money, and the right political connections, they’re above the law in America.

Congress has frozen a Coast Guard admiral’s pending promotion until he explains the military branch’s disturbing stance on hate symbols.

Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth and Jacky Rosen initially froze Admiral Kevin Lunday’s nomination to run the Coast Guard, questioning the maritime law enforcement branch’s new workplace harassment policy and its decision to downgrade swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive.”

The senators’ objections effectively upend Lunday’s confirmation, which the Senate was scheduled to vote on this week, reported The Washington Post.

The fascism-friendly changes to the Coast Guard’s workplace harassment policy was abruptly reverted last month, mere hours after national news outlets began to report on the jarring update.

In a memo to personnel, Lunday—the Coast Guard’s acting commander—walked back the revisions almost as soon as they had been revealed, announcing that the prior version of the text was “canceled.”

“Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” Lunday wrote in the memo, published November 20. “These symbols and flags include, but are not limited to, the following: a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups as representations of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, anti-semitism, or any other improper bias.”

The memo also clarified that the display of Confederate battle flags was still prohibited, unless they are a part of a historical display. Weeks later, it’s still not clear exactly who led the charge to reclassify such symbols.

“The policy rewrite was bad staff work,” a Coast Guard employee told the Post anonymously. “But the Coast Guard’s hands were tied in how we were able to address the mistake.”

Still, the changes have been quietly implemented since the downgraded harassment policy went into effect Monday, according to internal branch correspondence provided to Congress. That’s given lawmakers pause.

Duckworth told the Post that she did not understand why Lunday would simply not “delete the absurd characterization that clearly states a noose and swastika are merely potentially divisive symbols,” especially after having conversations with Lunday in which he affirmed “directly to me” that both images qualify as hate symbols.

“This shouldn’t be difficult,” Duckworth said.

Rosen, meanwhile, wrote on social media that her hold would remain in place “until the Coast Guard provides answers.”

Even some Republicans, including Senators Dan Sullivan and James Lankford, are demanding an explanation.

“There is no reason why there should be conflicting policies in place,” Lankford said.

President Trump on Wednesday announced a $1,776 bonus for members of the military. The next morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth enthusiastically sold the “warrior divided” announcement as a Christmas bonus for all the troops’ hard work.

“Thanks to President Trump’s unwavering commitment to our warriors, and the provisions provided in the One Big Beautiful bill, more than 1.45 million service members will … receive a onetime, tax-free bonus of $1,776,” he said. “This warrior dividend serves as yet another example of how the War Department is working to improve the quality of life for our military personnel and their families.”

In actuality, the Trump administration is taking money that was congressionally allocated toward soldiers’ housing and repackaging it as this corny $1,776 gimmick, while Hegseth gushes over the move like he’s doing these people a favor. It was already their money.

“Congress appropriated $2.9 billion to the Department of War to supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement within The One Big Beautiful Bill,” a senior administration official told Defense One, noting that Hegseth directed $2.6 billion of the funds to be distributed. “Approximately 1.28 million active component military members and 174,000 Reserve component military members will receive this supplement.”

If the economy is so hot (it isn’t), and if tariffs have us raking in cash (they don’t), why can’t the Trump administration give its dear war fighters an actual Christmas bonus rather than frame scraps as sustenance?

For years, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump built a tight-knit friendship on their shared hobby: hunting women for sport.

Despite Trump’s vehement denials of a meaningful connection to the deceased child sex trafficker, people around the pair of socialites were under the impression that Epstein and Trump were each other’s closest friends. A critical component to that friendship, reported The New York Times Thursday, was their mutual obsession with ensnaring, showcasing, and eventually bedding the most beautiful young women.

Stacey Williams, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who accused Trump of groping her at a party in 1992 while she was dating Epstein, told the Times that it was akin to “trophy hunting.”

In order to ascertain the depth of their relationship, the Times spoke with more than 30 former Epstein employees, victims of the financier’s abuse, and their mutual acquaintances. The newspaper also uncovered new documents that shed additional light on Epstein and Trump’s extraordinarily private relationship.

What reporters discovered was evidence of an enduring friendship founded on power and sexual entitlement.

“Neither man drank or did drugs. They pursued women in a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency,” the Times reported.

Recently released documents and interviews reveal that Epstein claimed he “gave” Trump a 20-year-old woman he had previously dated; that Trump had made advances on one of Epstein’s employees aboard the serial abuser’s private jet, telling her that he could have anyone he wanted; and in another instance, Trump allegedly mailed Epstein modeling cards to peruse “like a menu,” according to another Epstein employee who spoke with the paper.

One woman, who was groomed for Epstein’s abuse by the disgraced financier’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, anonymously told the Times that Trump was a regular in Epstein’s life. She said that Epstein often bragged about his relationship with Trump but also seemed to view him as competition.

“It was like a pissing contest—who had the most women,” she said.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 emails last month that it had obtained from Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Trump, such as in a 2011 email, when Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about details of Epstein’s life. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite detailing how Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

But that should be just the tip of the iceberg. After months of dragging their feet, Republicans in both chambers of Congress passed a bill to release the investigation files related to Epstein and his potential associates. Trump signed the bill on November 19, starting a 30-day timer on the documents’ release. If everything goes to schedule, the files will be released Friday.

So far, the administration has already attempted to waylay public expectations that the files will be exposed to the full breadth of the document load, with FBI Director Kash Patel claiming that his agency is doing everything it can to release the portions of the files that are “lawful,” despite the fact that Congress mandated their entire release.

Donald Trump’s social media company is now going to get into fusion power.

Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, announced Thursday that it’s pursuing a $6 billion merger with TAE Technologies, which says it is building “the world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant” to power the data centers that support artificial intelligence.

Shareholders from each company will own 50 percent of the new entity as a result of the deal, which the companies say will be completed in mid-2026. TAE is backed by Google and oil giant Chevron, while Trump Media continues to struggle to make money. The social media venture reported sales of $927,900 from June to September 30, down from $1.01 million in the same period last year. It also lost $54.8 million during that period, an increase from $19.2 million last year.

Cow enthusiast and former Representative Devin Nunes, the CEO of Trump Media, bragged about the deal in a statement.

“Trump Media & Technology Group built uncancellable infrastructure to secure free expression online for Americans, and now we’re taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations,” Nunes said. “Fusion power will be the most dramatic energy breakthrough since the onset of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s—an innovation that will lower energy prices, boost supply, ensure America’s A.I.-supremacy, revive our manufacturing base and bolster national defense.”

The merger would lead to one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies, according to the news release.

The move is somewhat confusing, the only explanation being that Trump wants to capitalize on power generation connected to the AI boom. Fusion power itself is still unproven and unrealized, with scientists still unable to generate more power than they use for the process. But Trump, having already used his social media company to go big on cryptocurrency, seems to see dollar signs in something slightly more tangible in fusion power. Does this mean that supporting this impractical technology will soon become government policy?

Progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likes her chances in a 2028 general election matchup against Vice President JD Vance—and the numbers are currently backing her up.

“Do you think that you could beat JD Vance in a head-to-head race for president as polling suggests in 2028?” AOC was asked by Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez.

The congresswoman laughed.

“Listen, these polls like three years out are … they are what they are,” she said with a smile. “But, let the record show—I would stomp him. I would stomp him!”

The polling in question is from The Argument/Verasight, and has Ocasio-Cortez edging out Vance 51 percent to 49 percent.

As the congresswoman said herself, there is still so much that can happen between now and 2028 that could deem polls like this completely irrelevant. However, this positive showing from perhaps America’s most popular left-leaning politician demonstrates a desire for populist, antiestablishment, pro–working class politics that Democrats have eschewed and Republicans have misrepresented.

Ocasio-Cortez would join a crowded Democratic primary field that could include the likes of Governors Gavin Newson, JB Pritzker, Andy Beshear, Wes Moore, and Josh Shapiro, as well as Senators Cory Booker, Ro Khanna, Chris Murphy, and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump has been talking to attorney Alan Dershowitz about running for a third term in office, which is prohibited by the Constitution. 

In an Oval Office meeting, Dershowitz gave Trump a draft of a book he is writing called Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term? Dershowitz told The Wall Street Journal that the book, due to be published next year, lays out scenarios in which a president could serve a third term, and that Trump said he would read it and wanted to know Dershowitz’s opinion.

“I said ‘It’s not clear if a president can become a third term president and it’s not clear if it’s permissible,’” Dershowitz said. The attorney and Jeffrey Epstein associate worked to defend Trump when he was facing impeachment proceedings in his first term. 

“He found it interesting as an intellectual issue,” Dershowitz added. “Do I think he’s going to run for a third term? No, I don’t think he will run for a third term.” 

But Trump has been discussing the possibility of a third term in office for a while now, telling NBC News in March that “there are methods which you could do it.” He continues to “joke” about the possibility, with his business selling “Trump 2028” hats for $50 each. Meanwhile those close to Trump, like Steve Bannon and Boris Epshteyn, continue to promote the unconstitutional move.  

On Tuesday, at a White House Hanukkah event, Miriam Adelson, one of Trump’s biggest donors, said she had spoken to Dershowitz and believed a third term was possible, as the audience broke out in chants of “four more years.” With that kind of encouragement, these threats need to be taken seriously. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson is conveniently sending Congress home the day before the Justice Department is supposed to release the Epstein files in full. The announcement came Wednesday night.

This looks like yet another instance of Johnson doing every little thing he can either to delay the release of the files or to make it so that his fellow GOPers don’t have to be in town to answer to their complicity in this monthslong campaign to avoid their release—as he did by egregiously delaying the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for weeks.

“Like I said: view all political developments for the rest of the week in light of the fact that the Epstein Files are supposed to be released on Friday,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday evening on X. “House Republicans just suddenly canceled Congressional session Friday and are sending everyone home Thursday evening.”

While recent releases have produced photos of notable people alongside Epstein—like Bill Clinton, President Trump, Bill Gates, Woody Allen, and Noam Chomsky—it’s unclear what Friday’s drop will reveal. If Johnson has his way, it might not happen at all.