Trump’s Justice Department Gives Up on Desegregation

President Trump’s Department of Justice doesn’t think desegregation is worth the effort.

The DOJ on Thursday announced it has dropped more than 50 school desegregation cases. As The New York Times reports, that brings the total to 57 dropped cases since Trump was reelected. Nearly 80 percent of the cases took place in the Southern states of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana.

The move drew backlash with Democrats on the House Education and Workforce Committee saying the move was “turning us back toward the Jim Crow era.”

“Schools are just as segregated today as they were in the late 1960s,” the committee wrote in a post on X Thursday. “Segregated schools mean segregated opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in the South celebrated.

“This is just the beginning,” Alabama Attorney Steve Marshall posted on X, thanking Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, for ending “three outdated orders” in his state. “We will keep working until every school district in Alabama is free from unnecessary consent decrees.”

Dhillon posted a video bragging about the move Thursday, claiming that “Ending outdated consent decrees means these school districts can finally redirect taxpayer dollars back to students.”

“In this administration, we are ending prolonged federal oversight of these school districts because the effort does not reflect the reality of those classrooms today,” Dhillon added in a statement.

The orders didn’t only seek to ensure racial diversity in schools. They also mandated equal funding, access to better facilities, encouraged fair representation in advanced classes, and are the product of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education making segregation unconstitutional. For years, the DOJ took school districts to court to enforce desegregation, with many of them being federally monitored and required to report enrollment data.

Now, with the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion, those efforts will end. Dhillon’s statement didn’t make any mention of discrimination. With no government enforcement, many southern school districts, along with others across the country, will soon be able to discriminate openly.

You’re paying for Trump’s newest “Love Me” campaign ad.

The president unveiled yet another hype video on Wednesday set to JMSN’s hit song “Love Me.” The ad goes full Red Scare, playing audio from Trump in which he proclaims that “together we will defeat communism, Marxism, and socialism in America. America will never be a communist country.” The ad then flashes pro-Trump claims like “Largest Tax Cuts in History,” “Reigniting American Manufacturing,” and “Defend Law and Order and Police,” all while “America Will Never Be a Communist Country” flashes on the screen. The ad notably states it was “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

The ad debuted Wednesday on Fox News during Primetime with Jesse Watters and began airing on CBS and other national networks the next day.

The White House is framing this blatantly biased advertisement for one of the most unpopular presidents in history as a “public service announcement.”

“These public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending, at home, at our borders, and abroad,” said a White House spokesperson. “The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country.”

The ad is not educational—it’s just a hype edit for a president who deserves none, especially seven months into a widely panned war on Iran that has resulted in death, destruction, and skyrocketing fuel prices. It’s one of many the Trump administration has been posting as midterms draw near, but this time, it’s paid for by taxpayers. Other presidents have made public service announcements, but never like this. For comparison, a public service announcement in the Biden administration urged Americans to obtain a Covid-19 vaccination.

JMSN decried the use of his song for the ad.

“To anybody who has followed my career and knows what I stand for and built my career on, it should go without saying that I would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign. For those who are new here, this could have gone 2 ways. 1. The President or his team reach out and ask to license the song, I respond ‘no’ and you never know about it. 2. The President illegally uses the song without asking but still the public goes full retard and immediately assumes that a license was granted,” he wrote Thursday afternoon. “Obviously it went the second way.”

The commercial was also criticized by congressional Democrats in a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“This is the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea, not the United States of America, and it is an egregious and illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.”

In the topsy-turvy MAGA world, some of America’s most prominent media outlets are choosing not to cover Donald Trump. In reality, they’re still under the Trump administration’s ban.

The president claimed on Truth Social Thursday afternoon that MS NOW and CNN “refused to cover” the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House.

“The event was magnificent—Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’ they refused to be there,” Trump wrote. “That’s why they have such poor Ratings.”

But that was far from the truth. Reporters from those two networks, as well as many others, refused to cover Xi’s arrival in protest of Trump’s attempt to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds. What’s more, just hours after Trump’s post, CNN and MS NOW were blocked from covering the state dinner at the White House Thursday night.

MS NOW’s White House reporter Laura Barrón-López explained she had attempted to cover the greeting ceremony as Xi arrived at the state dinner.

“We had submitted our credentials for this event last night, at the deadline that was issued by the White House to submit them,” she said. “A pretty typical event here at the White House that we would regularly cover.”

“When I went up to the wrangler, who is one of the press assistants who handles press and logistics like this, after most of the press had gone through I said, ‘Will I be admitted? I’m with MS NOW and I submitted my credential.’ I was told, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t let you in. I’m sorry, I can’t.’”

Barrón-López said she was then directed by a White House staffer to speak to White House Communications Director Steven Cheung for an explanation as to why she was restricted. She said she texted Cheung, though it was not clear if he responded.

Barrón-López added that she did receive a credential to cover Trump and Xi’s visit to the National Archives on Friday, though that trip is notably not on the contested White House grounds.

Trump announced last week that he was banning MS NOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House, writing on Truth Social that the prohibition was the result of “FAKE NEWS.” Within days, the trio had filed a lawsuit against the president and his administration, describing the selective ban as a “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment.

Other broadcasters considered the ban an affront to news institutions across the country. By Monday, every reputable broadcaster in the White House press pool—including NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News—had joined together to suspend coverage of the president and his actions until he reversed course.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly reinstated the outlets’ access for a two-week period on Thursday, though the Trump administration immediately defied the order.

“The big question is: Is this going to continue?” Barrón-López added. “Are we not going to be credentialed into these daily events?”

The soon-to-be owner of CNN ate with President Trump Thursday night at the White House’s state dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping while Trump still barred the broadcast network from the premises.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison was among the guests at the event, reports Deadline, as he awaits a judge’s approval of a settlement in Paramount’s merger with CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Meanwhile, neither CNN nor MS NOW were allowed to cover Xi’s evening arrival at the dinner, despite a Wednesday court order giving them and Politico access to the White House.

On Thursday morning, the three outlets were also barred from covering Xi’s arrival to the White House in defiance of the order, and they immediately notified the court. In response to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, the White House claimed in a court document that access was restored to Politico, CNN, and MS NOW as of 9:55 a.m. In reality, the outlets reported not being allowed on the premises until around noon, long after the press conference with Xi.

Trump again revived his ban later that evening, showing his contempt for Kelly’s ruling and daring him to take further action. Trump’s disdain for the free press seems to match his disdain for federal judges who rule against him, and Ellison is demonstrating that he will suck up to Trump instead of standing up for any of his journalists. 

Paramount also owns CBS, which was boycotting broadcasts of the president along with the rest of the White House press pool. Ellison, though, is more concerned with making money off of a $110 billion merger instead of any kind of critical journalism.  

The Trump administration is preparing for possible military action in Cuba.

Documents reviewed by CBS News reveal that U.S. Southern Command is exploring the availability of combat sustainment, engineering, and medical units—as well as a military police brigade—within the next “90-120 days.”

The administration and USSOUTHCOM have remained vague about their intentions for these units.

“Due to operational security concerns, we do not disclose details or comment on U.S. operational movements or potential deployment timelines associated with current or future operations, contingencies, or planning,” a spokesperson for USSOUTHCOM told CBS. “However, U.S. Southern Command continuously coordinates with the Joint Force to assess a range of potential requirements across its [area of responsibility] in support of assigned missions.”

This comes just days after Trump’s incendiary United Nations General Assembly speech in which he called for the downfall of the Cuban government, claiming that “freedom will be coming to Cuba” while the Cuban delegation walked out.

This recent development also aligns with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s aggressive, paternalistic approach to the island, slowly choking it to death—blocking key resources and enacting harsh sanctions—while claiming that the government is a “state sponsor of terrorism that spies on America.”

“What we’re trying to teach them is there are no escape valves.... Every time they create a new mechanism in which they try to get out of the noose, we just close it off,” Rubio said last month. “They certainly can’t wait us out. Certainly this isn’t going to go away for the next [two and a half] years.”

Cubans have suffered immensely since President Trump’s return to power. The administration has carried out a blackout-inducing oil blockade since January that has directly contributed to widespread food insecurity, economic collapse, and death, as infant mortality doubled on the island. The U.S. has attacked Cuba on multiple fronts, from accusing its doctor export program of human trafficking to claiming that it’s aiding international terrorism. Now, with this recent USSOUTHCOM report, military intervention seems imminent.