Judge Forced to Pause Trial Because DOJ Lawyers Are so Unprepared

A federal judge stopped a hearing about Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members in its tracks Wednesday, calling for a recess from proceedings to invite the Department of Justice’s lawyer to actually read up on the policy they were defending.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes had criticized the department’s lawyer for not having read three reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited in his policy banning transgender members of the military, according to Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, who posted several updates on the hearing on X.

An internal memo issued by the Pentagon in February “disqualified” transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military.

“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are disqualified from military service,” the memo said, also banning individuals who had a “history of cross-sex hormone therapy or a history of sex reassignment or genital reconstruction surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria or in pursuit of a sex transition.”

Reyes claimed that Hegseth’s policy banning transgender service members had “egregiously misquoted” the three reports it cited, and she couldn’t believe that the Justice Department’s lawyer hadn’t bothered to actually read them.

Reyes requested that the court take a 30-minute break, and asked the department’s lawyer to review the reports and compare how they’d been misquoted by Hegseth in his policy. Then, they could tell her whether they believe she could reasonably rely on Hegseth’s interpretation of those reports.

When the court resumed, Reyes pointed out that one study Hegseth had relied on to demonstrate that transgender service members hurt troop readiness and weaken their unit, actually concluded the exact opposite. The study found that transgender service members were more deployable, and experienced fewer lapses in their service than those diagnosed with depression, who were not automatically excluded from service.

But that wasn’t all. As Reyes went through each of the findings cited in the ban, she found that “virtually every” one contradicted support for Hegseth’s policy, according to Cheney.

Reyes asked the DOJ lawyer why she should defer to Hegseth’s blatant “cherrypicking” and providing “misleading” analysis.

In a brief memo filed in court on February 10, Hegseth directed the military to stop integrating new recruits “with a history of gender dysphoria” and to pause “planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition.” The policy wouldn’t affect the estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender individuals currently serving the military.

Later in February, as part of a complaint the Pentagon filed against Reyes, accusing her of “misconduct,” indicating potential bias in the case, an internal Pentagon memo was revealed that pushed the ban even further.

Hegseth’s policy notes that transgender service members “may be considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, provided there is a compelling Government interest.”

To obtain an exemption, a soldier must demonstrate “stability” in their sex for 36 consecutive months, demonstrate that they have never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex, and be willing to adhere to any standards associated with their sex, according to Fox News.

Hegseth’s memo followed Trump’s executive order revoking a Biden-era policy allowing transgender service members in the military. “Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order said.

This story has been updated.

In a rare display of credibility, even Fox hosts aren’t buying the Trump administration’s lies about tariffs.

In an interview Wednesday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney pointed to the rising cost of aluminum, steel, and copper from Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported metals, which went into effect the same day.

“That could ripple through the entire manufacturing sector and raise the level of inflation. Could that lead to a recession?” Varney pressed Lutnick.

Lutnick dodged the question, proceeded to mansplain inflation, and—of course—blame national debt on the Democrats.

“Let’s take a step back and remember inflation, right? Inflation comes from a government printing too much money. The Biden administration having a $2 trillion deficit,” Lutnick said.

“You don’t get inflation from having a tariff, because what a tariff says is if it’s made in Europe, if it’s made foreign, it might cost a little more, but that which is made in America does not cost more,” he went on, before implying the solution is merely to support American manufacturers.

“We make plenty of steel in America.”

Seemingly stunned by Lutnick’s ignorance, Varney pointed to the obvious. “Domestic producers can’t keep up with the demand,” he said.

He’s right. In 2023, the U.S. imported 23.6 million tons of steel and imported 44 percent of its aluminum in the same year, a demand that is much too high for struggling American metal producers to meet.

A failure to meet demand will lead to higher prices on everything from cars, refrigerators, beers, and canned goods to home appliances, experts warn.

“The supply is limited, the demand is strong, the price is going up,” Varney added, pressing the former private equity CEO.

Lutnick’s solution? Build more manufacturing plants, which could take years. All the while, American manufacturers and consumers will continue to suffer from Trump’s disastrous global trade war.

Donald Trump is getting rid of a program that supports affordable housing, threatening the homes of thousands of Americans.

The $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, which maintains livable residences for low-income residents around the country, is being slashed as part of many cuts and funding freezes at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. With these cuts, poor Americans will be tossed out of hundreds of thousands of low-rent apartments, some of them in dire need of repair.

The program has already spent enough funds to upgrade at least 25,000 affordable units, and how it will be shuttered is yet to be determined. But, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press, the program is being “terminated” by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The program was passed by Congress in 2022 in order to fund energy-efficiency improvements with grants and loans to owners of affordable housing. With the funds, these owners can replace or repair heating and cooling systems, leaky roofs, old insulation, and windows and pay for flood-proofing.

Ultimately, beyond making these residences more energy efficient, the program requires those who utilize its funds to keep their buildings affordable for up to 25 years. The money is also used as leverage to invest in other major repairs and renovations to keep the buildings habitable.

DOGE has cut funds and programs across the federal government without regard to the purposes they serve or the lives that depend on them. Many of the people who depend on this HUD program are low-income seniors or destitute families who have little or no other options. Ultimately, Trump and Musk are taking aim at a safety net they probably don’t know exists. Do they even care?

A new CNN/SSRS poll shows a majority of Americans don’t trust the way President Trump is handling the economy—lower than any point during his first term.

Fifty-six percent of Americans disapprove of his economic actions, while 52 percent disapprove of how he’s handled the federal budget, and 61 percent of Americans disapprove of the tariffs specifically. The findings come as the stock market plummets further while Trump levies tariffs on allies in China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. 

Fifty-three  percent of Americans also have an unfavorable view of Elon Musk, who has been by Trump’s side carrying out his mass cuts and purges of the federal government. About 62 percent said that Musk had neither the experience nor the judgment to “make changes to the way the government works.” And 62 percent also believe that the DOGE cuts “will go too far and important federal government programs will be shut down.”

Trump has yet to respond to the poll.

In his latest attack on education and transgender rights, Trump is punishing the University of Maine System, the state’s largest educational organization, which spans seven universities, after the Democratic governor refused to ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports.

According to an email Monday obtained by Bangor Daily News, the Department of Agriculture has frozen millions of dollars in funding to UMS and has been directed to “no longer issue any payments or any other releases of funding” to the University of Maine System or Columbia University.

“This pause is temporary in nature while USDA evaluates if it should take any follow-on actions related to prospective Title VI or Title IX violations,” the email reads, referring to Trump’s executive order banning trans women athletes from participating in women’s sports. “Please take any necessary actions to effectuate this direction from leadership. This pause will remain in effect until further notice.”

Last month, following outrage over a transgender athlete who won a statewide high school pole vault event, Trump singled out Maine Governor Janet Mills at an address to the nation’s governors and told her to comply with the executive order … or else.

“You better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Trump threatened Mills at the time.

“See you in court,” Mills replied, refusing to legitimize gender discrimination.

In the following days, Trump unleashed an assault on Maine’s education system. The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services targeted the state’s Education Department, and the USDA launched an investigation into the University of Maine.

“President Trump has made it abundantly clear: taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars will not support institutions that discriminate against women,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement on February 21. “USDA is committed to upholding the President’s executive order, meaning any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding.”

As a land-grant university, UMS receives more than $100 million in funding from the USDA. Last year, the school received nearly $30 million to support research that benefited farmers and fishermen, a UMS spokesperson said in an email response to the USDA, the Bangor Daily News reported.

UMS is the second university to be punished in Trump’s war on dissent. Last month, he froze $400 million in contracts to Columbia University for failing to address antisemitism on campus, despite the school having expelled two students who took part in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

At least nine other schools, including New York University and Harvard University, could be next.

Greenland’s parliamentary election results have thrown a massive wrench in Donald Trump’s fantasies of acquiring the mineral-rich territory.

The center-right, pro-business party Demokraatit won nearly 30 percent of the vote on Tuesday, and the party seemed less than open to Trump’s wild dreams of annexation.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves, not with his hope,” party leader Jens-Friederik Nielsen told SkyNews on the eve of the election.

Nielsen has previously called Trump’s unwanted advances onto Greenland “a threat to our political independence.”

In general, Demokraatit prefers a slower route to independence.

“People want change.… We want more business to finance our welfare,” Nielsen said, after the results. “We don’t want independence tomorrow, we want a good foundation.”

This approach, which flies in the face of Trump’s pleas to have Denmark cede the island territory, certainly seems to be gaining popularity among the 56,000 Greenlanders—or at least the ones who voted Tuesday. Demokraatit won only 9 percent of the vote four years ago, according to the Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation, or KNR TV.

Naleraq, the most aggressively pro-independence party, came in second in the election with almost 25 percent of the vote, up from 12 percent four years ago.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede’s left-wing party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, or United Inuit, won only 21 percent of the vote, down from the winningest 36 percent four years ago. Egede had called for the election in February, citing a “serious time” in Greenland.

The election was called amid ongoing threats from Trump that he would levy tariffs to squeeze Denmark into relinquishing the territory, which the president has said has great geopolitical significance to the United States, as well as massive mineral resources.

During an address to Congress last month, Trump claimed to “strongly support” Greenland’s right to self-determination, while also promising that the territory would be his. “We need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” Trump said.

Trump’s rhetoric about making the territory the “fifty-second state” reportedly electrified the independence movement in Greenland—but evidently not enough to make way for a government that’s willing to play ball with his outrageous demands.

In his congratulation to the Demokraatit Party, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that the government would likely continue to to “deal with massive pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.”

He warned that “it’s not the case that you can just take part of the Danish Realm—the future of Greenland is based on what the Greenlandic people and government want.”

Canada is responding to President Trump’s tariffs against steel and aluminum with $20.7 billion in tariffs against U.S. goods.

A senior Canadian government official told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity about the plan Wednesday. The move follows Trump claiming victory for getting Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to back off tariffs on electricity the province provides to select U.S. states, after Trump threatened to double the metal tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Canada’s fresh round of sanctions is in response to Trump’s decision to plow ahead with 25 percent tariffs on metal imports. The country is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S.

The European Union also hit back against Trump’s tariffs Wednesday with its own tariffs of $28 billion of U.S. goods including steel and aluminum, textiles, home goods, agricultural products, motorcycles, alcohol, and even jeans, with a focus on Republican-led states. Meanwhile, Trump’s incoherent economic measures are causing consternation within the Republican Party and even among Trump’s own staff.

It seems that the U.S. is waging a full-fledged trade war on multiple fronts with the EU, Mexico, China, and Canada, punctuated by Trump’s wild idea that America’s northern neighbor should be the fifty-first state. Trump claims that this is all necessary to change the U.S. economy, regardless of the negative effects on American consumers. Meanwhile, the stock market has continued to drop as a result of the chaos.

On Tuesday, Trump’s press secretary struggled to explain how tariffs would save the U.S. economy, lashing out at Associated Press reporter Josh Boak, saying it’s “insulting you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions this president has made.” As Trump stubbornly continues to double down on tariffs without a real plan, regular people across the world will end up paying higher prices in an unstable economy.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had a mask-off moment while bending over backward to defend President Trump’s destructive tariffs.

“Will these policies be worth it if they lead to a recession? Even a short-term recession?” Nancy Cordes asked Lutnick on CBS Evening News on Tuesday.

“These policies are the most important thing America has ever had,” Lutnick responded dramatically.

“So it is worth it?”

“It is worth it.… The only reason there could possibly be a recession is because of the Biden nonsense that we had to live with. These policies produce revenues.”

“So you’re saying when it looks chaotic and unpredictable from the outside, that there actually is a master plan when it comes to these tariffs?” Cordes asked.

“It is not chaotic. And the only one who thinks it’s chaotic is someone who’s being silly. He said reciprocal tariffs.”

“Nobody expected him to announce 50 percent tariffs this morning!” Cordes pushed back, referencing Trump’s short-lived announcement of tariffs on Canada.

“He needed to break some guy in Ontario who said he was gonna tax American energy 25 percent,” Lutnick declared, referring to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “The president of the United States and the White House says, ‘Oh no you won’t’ and breaks him. Breaks him. In what? By a tweet and a Truth. And you think that’s chaotic?”

The Trump administration seems determined to throw the country into a recession after its spiteful tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union have caused the stock market to plummet, badly damaging investor confidence.

One Republican lawmaker isn’t backing down to Donald Trump, and it’s sending the president for a spiral.

Representative Thomas Massie was the only House Republican to vote against passing a stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the Trump administration funded through September. The budget bill narrowly passed 217–213, with one Democrat—Representative Jared Golden—voting for the measure.

“So Massie can vote for Debt Ceiling AND Budget to be put into the Trump Administration, making them both the Republicans problem and responsibility, but can’t give us a simple Continuing Resolution vote allowing us the time necessary to come up with a ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL???’” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “Republicans only ‘NO’ Vote. GRANDSTANDER!”

The Senate now has until Friday to pass the legislation and avert a government shutdown.

Massie has been Trump’s go-to target this week after the Kentucky Republican made it clear Monday he would vote against the bill. The president took to his usual tactic: threatening party members on social media until they cave.

“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night.

But this time, it didn’t work. Instead of cowering to the GOP’s autocrat like many of his colleagues have done before him, Massie responded to the president’s threat with humor and a smile.

“He’s going after Canada and me today. The difference is Canada will eventually cave,” Massie told reporters Tuesday, Politico reported.

In his 15 years in the House, Massie has had no problem breaking from his colleagues. In fact he’s voted against so many bills that it earned him the nickname “Mr. No.”

The 54-year-old is well-versed in responding to Trump’s empty threats too. In 2020, after Massie forced the House to vote in person on a Covid-19 response bill, the president called him a “third-rate-grandstander” and threatened to boot him from the GOP.

But Massie’s still here, and he will no doubt continue to vote according to his own hawkish budgetary principles.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. equated the health risks of getting the measles vaccine to contracting measles itself, in a dangerous escalation of his misinformation campaign amidst massive outbreaks.

Kennedy continued to emphasize that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night.

“The government shouldn’t force them to do it, there are adverse events from the vaccine, it does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy warned.

“It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis, and blindness, et cetera,” he continued. “And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information, and encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.”

But Kennedy doesn’t actually think that the vaccine and the illness are the same—he thinks one is better. During the interview, the health secretary claimed that contracting measles was somehow a better method at prevention than getting the vaccine, because it gave people natural immunity.

“It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

To put it simply, within one interview, Kennedy suggested people might be better off just letting themselves get sick—promoting the spread of the deadly illness that has already infected more than 220 people across several states, resulting in the death of at least one child. Then, the health secretary said that people could get the vaccine, but suggested that it was just as dangerous as contracting a viral illness.

The Centers for Disease Control states that the MMR vaccine is the safest way to protect against measles, and is “much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella.” The side effects of the measles vaccine are “usually mild and go away on their own,” according to the CDC.

Encephalitis International, a health non-profit, found that only one to two children in one million who received a measles vaccination developed encephalitis from the vaccination, “which is less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.”

While measles can cause childhood blindness, the CDC does not consider blindness as a possible side effect of MMR.

Throughout the current outbreak, Kennedy has continually downplayed the importance of getting vaccinated while promoting unproven medicines, such as cod liver oil, which contains vitamin A. He has also claimed that the inhaled steroid budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin resulted in “almost miraculous and instantaneous.” While these may help to treat some of the symptoms associated with measles, they will not prevent infections.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist, tore into Kennedy’s remarks in a post on X Tuesday calling his claims “two truths & a lie.”

“Truth: There are adverse events from MMR and all vaccines. Truth: People die, albeit very, very, VERY rarely,” she wrote. “BIG FUCKING LIE: the MMR does NOT cause measles or any sequelae. It prevents measles. It’s safe & effective. Measles disables & kills children.”

In a separate post, she noted that the vaccine’s mortality rate was often “grossly exaggerated” by the anti-vaccine movement, of which Kennedy has long been a fixture.

Not only are Kennedy’s claims false and misleading, and not the position of the government he purports to represent, but they are a dangerous message for Americans in the midst of ongoing measles outbreaks.