Hyundai Raid Shows Trump Can't Deport His Way To a Manufacturing Boom

Autumn Billings
Tue, September 9, 2025 
REASON.COM


ICE/UPI/Newscom at a $7.6 billion electric vehicle battery factory near Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, September 4, in what immigration officials are calling the "largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations." The operation was a coup for President Donald Trump's mass deportation goals, but it could come at the expense of another Trump priority: boosting domestic manufacturing.

During a press conference, Steven Schrank, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Georgia and Alabama, said the operation was part of a multimonth criminal investigation into the factory's alleged unlawful employment practices. A judicial search warrant was filed on September 2, naming four people to be searched in connection with the criminal investigation. But immigration authorities arrived in force, ready to question and detain hundreds of workers. Of the 475 detained for offenses ranging from crossing the border illegally to overstaying their visa, over 300 were South Korean nationals. The arrests were meant to send a message that "those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy, and violate federal laws will be held accountable." No criminal charges have yet been filed. 

Video provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and released by WJCL News, a local ABC News affiliate, shows federal and state officers descending on the site to line up, frisk, and shackle hundreds of workers. Each individual, Schrank said, was questioned on their status, and their documents and backgrounds were reviewed before being transported to a detention facility.  

Although Schrank claims all documents were reviewed, one South Korean official told The Wall Street Journal that many of the South Korean nationals were working as instructors in Georgia and had the appropriate visas, like the B-1 Temporary Business Visitor visa, which allows someone to enter the U.S. for an eligible business purpose for between one and six months, and up to one year with an extension. Family members of detained workers interviewed by CNN following the raid said valid work permits did not stop agents from making arrests. Detained Korean nationals have since been released and are allowed to leave the country voluntarily, rather than through deportation, which would have triggered a multiyear entry ban into the United States.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump called on foreign companies to follow U.S. immigration law and encouraged them to "LEGALLY bring your very smart people" to train American workers. But while Trump is confident the immigration raid won't harm an otherwise strong allyship, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun called the incident "a very serious matter." 

South Korea's response could have significant implications for Trump's stated goal of restoring domestic manufacturing. In July, South Korea announced that it would invest $350 billion in U.S. projects (which will be selected by the Trump administration) and purchase $100 billion worth of American energy in exchange for a reduced tariff rate (15 percent instead of 25 percent). It wouldn't be inconceivable if South Korea started to reconsider this arrangement in light of Thursday's events. In fact, it appears that it already has. During a legislative hearing on Monday, Korean politicians questioned how "companies investing in the U.S. [can] continue to invest properly in the future," reports the Associated Press. Others even called for retaliatory investigations on Americans working in South Korea. 

Meanwhile, LG Energy Solutions—which saw 47 of its employees detained last Thursday—is pausing all business trips to the U.S. and directing other employees on assignment in the U.S. to return immediately. Construction at the Georgia facility—which was part of the state's largest-ever economic development project and expected to employ 8,500 people—has been halted. Given South Korea's rich history of investing in the U.S., and a recent jobs report showing America's manufacturing shrinking, Trump can't afford for South Korea to pull back from U.S. investments.

Trump campaigned on a promise to help American workers through mass deportations of criminal aliens and rebuilding the U.S. manufacturing industry. His immigration policies have failed to capture violent criminals. Now they're jeopardizing jobs for Americans, too.

The post Hyundai Raid Shows Trump Can't Deport His Way To a Manufacturing Boom appeared first on Reason.com

Hyundai’s $7.6B EV Bet Shaken by Historic Plant Raid and Worker Exodus as 300+ Workers Flown Home

Chase Bierenkoven
Tue, September 9, 2025 

AUTOBLOG


This weekend, around 475 people were detained during an immigration raid at Hyundai's massive Georgia Metaplant. Steven Schrank, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, called it the "largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations." Following the raid, more than 300 workers will be flown home by the South Korean government.

ICE Conducts Raid At Hyundai Plant

Hyundai MetaplantHyundai

"This operation underscores our commitment to jobs for Georgians and Americans," Schrank said in a news conference. Schrank said the investigation leading up to the ICE raid had been ongoing for months, and authorities reportedly received intel from "community members and former workers."

A spokesperson for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said that detained workers were part of a "network of subcontractors" working for companies on-site. Hyundai said it is "committed to full compliance with all laws and regulations in every market where we operate. This includes employment verification requirements and immigration laws."

300+ South Koreans Flown Home

Hyundai

Speaking to Korean reporters, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said: "We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals." South Korean President Lee Jae Myung stressed that "...the rights and interests of South Korean nationals and the business operations of South Korean companies investing in the United States must not be infringed upon."

As of Sunday, September 7, negotiations had been finalized and led to the release of the detained workers, with South Korea making arrangements for a charter plane to fly home more than 300 workers. Meanwhile, LG, which will operate a battery production facility on the grounds of Hyundai's Metaplant, said it has suspended all business trips to the US and told visiting workers to stay in their accommodations or immediately return to South Korea. LG will also send its chief human resources officer to the US to "address the issues on site," according to NPR.

SAC Schrank alleged the workers were either unlawfully working in the US or had immigrated illegally. President Trump backed SAC Schrank's allegations in a statement: "I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE was just doing its job."

Immigration Raids And Tariffs Stress Auto Industry

Hyundai MetaplantHyundai

The messaging from Georgia officials and lawmakers has shifted in the days since the plant's construction. Initially, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) praised the "historic benefits" the plant would bring to the state: "With more Georgians working than ever before, record jobs and investment coming to all parts of our state, and award-winning workforce development programs and infrastructure, the Peach State’s economy is reaching new heights. Our partnership with Hyundai Motor Group and the groundbreaking of this innovative facility exemplifies that unprecedented success."

Hyundai Metaplant Groundbreaking ceremony, attended by Congressman Carter and Gov. KempHyundai


Congressman Buddy Carter (R) indicated a change of heart from the above 2022 photo, when the Congressman attended the Metaplant groundbreaking ceremony: "I applaud the Trump Administration and our brave law enforcement officers for taking bold action to put American workers first and protect our communities from the scourge of illegal immigration," Carter said on X (formerly Twitter). "For anyone who thinks they can take jobs from hardworking Americans and give them to illegal immigrants, take note: not under Donald Trump's watch."



This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Sep 9, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Police arrested a 13-year-old in Washington state who had ‘everything ready to go’ for a mass shooting

Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN
Tue, September 9, 2025 

When police arrested a 13-year-old boy in Washington state last week accused of making threats to kill, they found he had “everything ready to go to commit a mass shooting” – including a trove of more than 20 guns in his home.

He was arrested after the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office received information Friday from an internet watch group that reports threatening online posts, Deputy Carly Cappetto told CNN.

“After reviewing the suspect’s social media posts, it was warranted to immediately move forward with an arrest,” Cappetto said. Authorities believe the boy had “school shooter ideations.”

When a SWAT team descended on the boy’s home, located in a suburban area of Parkland, Washington, around 1 a.m. Saturday, they found a collection of 23 firearms, several boxes of ammunition, loaded magazines “with school shooter writings on them,” as well as clothing and writings typical to a mass shooting scenario, Cappetto said.

The arrest comes as students around the United States settle into a new school year and the persistent threat of gun violence that comes with it. Last month, two young children were killed and more than a dozen people were wounded in a shooting during Mass marking the first week of classes at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, just as a wave of active shooter hoaxes at more than dozen universities strained law enforcement resources and stoked fears about carnage on school campuses.
Guns had no serial numbers and some appeared 3D printed

What investigators found in the boy’s bedroom revealed what they describe as an obsession with past school shooters. He “imitated similar behaviors, with photos and inscriptions spread throughout his room,” the sheriff’s office said.

“It is unknown who or what the intended target was going to be, but it’s clear it was a matter of time before a tragic incident occurred,” the sheriff’s office said.


Authorities found 23 firearms along with ammunition when they arrested a 13-year-old boy who allegedly had "school shooter ideations" in his Washington state home last week. - Pierce County Sheriff’s Office

Experts on the psychology of school shooters say one of the biggest red flags for future attackers is an unhealthy obsession with past perpetrators.

Investigators are serving warrants on the electronic devices found in the home in hopes of getting “a clear idea on who/what he intended to hit,” Cappetto said.

Some firearms were mounted on the walls, fully accessible, while others were spread around the home, unsecured, the sheriff’s office said.

Images released by authorities of the firearms seized show rows of long rifles and handguns, lined up one by one. It’s unclear whether the guns were purchased legally, Cappetto said, noting that many have no serial numbers and are essentially “untraceable.”

Some also appear to be homemade from a 3D printer, Cappetto said.

Suspect pleaded not guilty to charges

The boy, who is detained at a juvenile detention center in Tacoma, pleaded not guilty to five charges in juvenile court Monday, including one count of a threat to bomb or injure property and three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, CNN affiliate KOMO reported.

Outside the courtroom, his parents told KOMO the situation is a misunderstanding. His mother suggested his social media posts were an attempt to “be cool” among peers, and his father said he had no intention to harm anyone, KOMO reported.

The boy has not been enrolled in school since 2021 when he was registered with the Franklin Pierce School District in Tacoma, the sheriff’s office said.

“We have not received any specific threats toward individuals or schools in our community,” said Joel Zylstra, the school district’s executive director of strategic partnerships and communications, confirming the boy was a student in 2021.

Washington state law dictates guns must be stored out of reach of children.

The boy’s parents had not been arrested as of Tuesday morning, though police still need to conduct many interviews with the adults who were in the home, Cappetto said.

The prosecutor will ultimately decide whether the parents will be charged with improper storage and safekeeping of firearms or other potential crimes, Cappetto noted.

CNN.com

Democratic senator warns colleagues of 'distorted system' if college sports bill passes

Story by AP



Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Ranking Member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., speaks Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

FILE - The NCAA logo is displayed at center court at The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, March 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

EDDIE PELLS
Wed, September 10, 2025 

Sen. Maria Cantwell warned her colleagues Wednesday that a bill heading to the House floor that would regulate college sports would solidify an unsustainable and growing gap between the nation's biggest athletic conferences and everyone else.

In a letter to members of the Senate Commerce Committee, where Cantwell, D-Wash., is the ranking member, she references the SCORE Act, which the House is set to vote on next week.

The NCAA and its top conferences support the bill. It would provide limited antitrust exemption for the NCAA, override state laws governing paying players in favor of one national statute and remove the possibility of athletes being considered employees of their schools.

Cantwell argued it would lock in a “distorted system" that would ultimately favor the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences — the “Big 2,” she called them.

“The SCORE Act would entrench a college sports arms race that rewards power conferences at the expense of smaller schools and conferences, student athletes and America’s future Olympic competitiveness," she wrote.

Though the bill has bipartisan support in the House, there are a handful of Republicans who have come out against it. If it passes, it would face an uphill climb in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes if it were considered as a stand-alone bill.

In a report attached to her letter, Cantwell outlined the growing gap between the Power Four conferences and everyone else. One statistic: Power conferences will receive an average of $63 million more than other leagues from the College Football Playoff in 2025, an increase of $20 million in the gap between the groups since the CFP began at the end of the 2014-15 season.

The Big Ten and SEC benefit the most, Cantwell's report outlined. She argued it was no fluke that those “Big 2” conferences, which have been able to increase spending on men's basketball by around 70% since 2023, saw a corresponding surge in at-large bids to March Madness last season.

“This dominance also heightens the risk of the SEC and Big Ten demanding a greater share of TV rights revenue for the tournament when the current TV media rights deal expires in 2032, or even leaving the NCAA altogether,” the report read. “And it hurts fans who want to see Cinderella stories during March Madness.”

Among those lobbying for change on Capitol Hill is Cody Campbell, a billionaire member of the Texas Tech board of regents. Campbell is running ads during college games this season urging Congress to amend a law that prevents conferences from pooling their TV rights — a move he said could create a more even playing field for all schools in Division I.

Cantwell's report makes no mention of Campbell's proposal, though her concerns sound similar.

“I look forward to working with you to develop a more durable growth model for college athletics that will provide opportunities and reward all student athletes, increase audiences and revenues for college sports, and preserve women’s and Olympic sports,” she wrote.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Matthew Dowd Fired From MSNBC for Charlie Kirk Comments

Jack Dunn
Wed, September 10, 2025

 at 8:08 PM MDT
VARIETY


Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways

Political analyst Matthew Dowd has been fired from MSNBC after his comments about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to a network source.

During MSNBC’s coverage of Kirk’s shooting, anchor Katy Tur asked Dowd about “the environment in which a shooting like this happens.” Dowd responded with the following about Kirk: “He’s been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions. And I think that is the environment we are in. You can’t stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have and then saying these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place. And that’s the unfortunate environment we are in.”

More from Variety

MSNBC Apologizes for Analyst Matthew Dowd's Commentary on Charlie Kirk's Death: 'Insensitive and Unacceptable'


The remarks sparked outrage across social media, and MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler issued an apology in response. She slammed Dowd’s comments as “inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable.”

“We apologize for his statements, as has he,” Kutler said in a statement shared to the MSNBC Public Relations X account. “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”

Dowd issued his own apology for his commentary on his BlueSky account. He wrote, “I apologize for my tone and words. Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack. Let us all come together and condemn violence of any kind.”

Kirk died on Wednesday after he was shot at a college event in Utah. He was 31 years old.

Donald Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social on Wednesday afternoon. In his post, he wrote, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Matthew Dowd on MSNBC wonders if Charlie Kirk shooting may have been “supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.”

The Recount
Wed, September 10, 2025 

Political analyst Matthew Dowd wondered Wednesday on MSNBC whether a Charlie Kirk supporter accidentally shot the Turning Point USA founder, shortly before Kirk was pronounced dead.

“We don’t know any of the full details of this yet,” Dowd said on “Katy Tur Reports” shortly after the shooting and before more details were revealed. “We don’t know if this was a supporter shooting their gun off in celebration or — so we have no idea about this.”

“He’s been one of the most divisive — especially divisive younger figures in this — who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups,” Dowd continued. “And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.”

Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck in the afternoon during a Q&A with students at Utah Valley University. FBI Director Kash Patel said a suspect was in custody, although local officials confirmed only that a “person of interest” was in custody. The university said the shot came from a building about 200 yards away, and law enforcement said it was a “targeted attack.”

In the evening, MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler apologized for Dowd’s comments.

“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise,” Kutler said in the statement.

PATRIARCHY IN PRACTICE

Longtime head of Mexican megachurch is indicted in New York on federal sex trafficking charges

LARRY NEUMEISTER
Wed, September 10, 2025


FILE - Naason Joaquin Garcia, the leader of a Mexico-based evangelical church with a worldwide membership, attends a bail review hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court on July 15, 2019. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The longtime head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers has been charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for allegedly victimizing members of the church for decades, federal authorities said Wednesday.

A New York grand jury returned the indictment alleging that Naasón Joaquín García, 56, and five others, including his 79-year-old mother, exploited the church for decades, enabling the systemic sexual abuse of children and women for the sexual gratification of García and his father, who died in 2014.

García is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers in more than 50 countries. Believers consider him to be the “apostle” of Jesus Christ

The newly unsealed indictment said the criminal activity included the creation of photos and videos of child sexual abuse and had begun after the church was founded a century ago by Garcia's grandfather, who died in 1964. Garcia's father, Samuel Joaquin Flores, led the church from then until his death.

Sexual abuse alleged to have occurred for over 50 years

The indictment said the sexual abuse went on for so many decades that many of the grandfather's victims were mothers of girls and women abused by García's father and many of the father's victims were the mothers of girls and women abused by García.

The indictment listed 13 female victims anonymously and specifically, describing when they were allegedly attacked while they were under the age of consent. Some victims, it said, were as young as 13.

The church is based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and there are church locations throughout the United States, including in California, New York, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., according to the indictment.

FILE PHOTO: Devotees of the La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World) church are seen after they prayed for their leader Naason Joaquin Garcia

In a court document seeking detention of all indicted without bail, prosecutors said sex trafficking of women and children occurred as a result of the case in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere.

García was taken into federal custody early Wednesday in Chino, California, where he is serving a sentence after pleading guilty in 2022 to two state counts.

Defense lawyer calls charges ‘reckless campaign of government overreach’

In a statement, attorney Alan Jackson, representing García, called the indictment the result of “a reckless campaign of government overreach.”

He said the charges were “a rehashing of old, recycled claims that have been made before, scrutinized before, and ultimately debunked and disproven before.”

“We categorically deny these charges," Jackson said, adding that the defense will expose them as “desperate, unfounded, recycled and driven by ulterior motives.”

Federal authorities said García used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused. His efforts were enabled by others, including his mother, who helped groom the girls to be sexually abused, they said.

Prosecutors said García also directed girls, boys and women to engage in group sex with each other, often in his presence, for his sexual gratification.

Sometimes, they added, he required the children to wear masks so they would not realize they were having incestual sex.

García's 79-year-old mother portrayed as key member of conspiracy

Besides García, his mother, Eva García De Joaquín, was taken into custody in Los Angeles. A third defendant, Joram Nunez Joaquín, was arrested in Chicago, authorities said. Three others were at large and were believed to be in Mexico, where authorities said extraditions would be sought.

The indictment said De Joaquín on at least one occasion held down a girl so that her husband — García's father — could rape her.

Nunez Joaquín falsely held himself out as a lawyer working on behalf of the church as he tried to prevent sexual abuse victims from reporting the abuse to law enforcement, the indictment said.

A message seeking comment was sent to the law firm representing Nunez Joaquín. It was not immediately clear who would represent De Joaquín at a Los Angeles court appearance Wednesday.

According to the indictment, two of the defendants and others tried to destroy evidence and prevent victims of the sexual abuse from speaking to law enforcement after García was arrested.

It said they pressured victims to sign false declarations disclaiming that any abuse occurred, drafted and distributed sermons stating that all sexual abuse victims were lying and reinforced church doctrine that doubting the apostle was a sin punishable by eternal damnation.

García family alleged to have lived opulent lifestyle

The indictment said church followers were required to forward a portion of their income to the church, a portion of which would fund the García family's extravagant lifestyle, which included luxury cars, watches, designer clothing and first-class travel worldwide.

In a release, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said García and the others “exploited the faith of their followers to prey upon them.”

He added: “When they were confronted, they leveraged their religious influence and financial power to intimidate and coerce victims into remaining silent about the abuse they had suffered.”

Ricky J. Patel, the head of the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations, said the charges resulted from a “yearslong investigation that spanned the country and involved the support of dozens of courageous victims.”

White House doubles down on Trump claim domestic violence should not be counted as a crime: ‘Made up’

John Bowden
Tue, September 9, 2025


The White House defended Donald Trump’s remarks about crime statistics on Tuesday after the president seemed to downplay counting domestic violence incidents among those numbers a day earlier.

On Monday, the president spoke about his federalized occupation of Washington D.C. with National Guard troops, while claiming that he’d turned the city into a “safe zone”. During his remarks, made at the Museum of the Bible downtown, Trump went on a side tangent about what he referred to as “lesser” infractions: “things that take place in the home,” in his words.

“Things that take place in the home, they call crime,” Trump groused. “They’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime scene.’”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that the president was downplaying the importance of prosecuting domestic violence at her briefing on Tuesday, but instead of walking back Trump’s remarks insisted that her boss was somehow making a point that members of the media were using domestic violence incidents to distract from efforts to combat street crime.

“He wasn't referring to crime. That's exactly the point he was making,” Leavitt told reporters. “The president is saying, in fact, is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.”

Karoline Leavitt claimed that Donald Trump was not downplaying the seriousness of domestic violence when he dismissively called ‘thinks that take place in the home’ an example of a ‘lesser’ infraction (AP)More

The White House’s latest statement comes as Trump himself has faced pushback from the media and locals on his notion that the District of Columbia has been made crime-free by the deployment of troops on the streets. But Leavitt’s explanation seemed to clash with what seemed to be the intent of Trump’s words a day earlier when the president made a clear definition of domestic conflict and possible spousal abuse, before seeming to suggest it wasn’t a matter for the police.

Crime in D.C., Trump claimed on Monday, was now “virtually nothing”, adding that in crime statistics police and media were counting “much lesser things. Things that take place in the home that they call crime. You know; they’ll do anything they can to find something.”

He continued: “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘this is a crime.’ See? So now I can’t claim [to have reduced crime in D.C. by] 100%.”

In the same remarks, Trump repeated his claim that “you can walk to a restaurant” in D.C. without fear, putting aside the fact that D.C. restaurant foot traffic has actually plunged since the deployment of troops and federal law enforcement began across the city.

Even the Museum of the Bible itself admitted to CNN in an email that attendance was suffering amid the takeover, which is now entering its second month.

D.C. Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton delivers a speech opposing President Donald Trump's threat to deploy National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to combat crime on the streets of Chicago, Baltimore, and other American cities, at the Capitol on Sept. 3. (AP)More

Shawn Townsend, CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington which represents hundreds of businesses across the city and runs the popular season D.C. Restaurant Weeks featuring local spots, called the imposition of National Guard troops on the city D.C.’s “pandemic 2.0” in a statement this week to Axios. The Covid pandemic shuttered many businesses permanently, and the slow return of workers to downtown areas was more brutal to those that survived the initial closures.

Last month, Townsend’s group extended D.C.’s summer 2025 Restaurant Week for the first time in years as businessses once again as tourism and local economic activity both declined sharply with the troop deployments.

“I've heard from folks that won't renew leases or even consider D.C.,” Townsend told Axios.

While businesses told news outlets that the flashy imagery and rhetoric of the White House’s focus on crime-fighting in cities was directly impacting their bottom lines and contributed to an inaccurate image of city life even under occupation, there’s no sign that the Trump administration is listening to business leaders in Washington D.C. or anywhere else. No major local business groups have endorsed the president’s efforts in D.C. or his threats to expand the takeover to Baltimore, New York, Chicago or New Orleans.

And on Tuesday, Leavitt’s only words on the matter were to insist that the murder of a Ukrainian immigrant on public transport in Charlotte, North Carolina justified expanding the campaign nationwide — and to tout the administration’s latest arrest numbers in the capital.

By Tuesday, Leavitt said, more than 2,177 people have been arrested in Washington D.C. since the takeover began. A New York Times analysis noted that this represents only a slight increase over the city’s overall arrest rate prior to the occupation.


Trump downplays domestic violence in speech about religious freedom

Mel Leonor Barclay/The 19th
Tue, September 9, 2025 


Trump in the White House Sept. 2. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This story was originally reported The 19th.

President Donald Trump on Monday downplayed the severity of domestic violence crimes, saying that were it not for “things that take place in the home they call crime,” the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., would have resulted in a bigger statistical reduction in crime.

“They said, ‘Crime’s down 87 percent.’ I said, no, no, no — it’s more than 87 percent, virtually nothing. And much lesser things, things that take place in the home they call crime. You know, they’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime. See? So now I can’t claim 100 percent but we are. We are a safe city,” Trump said.

The president’s comments were part of a speech he delivered at the Religious Liberty Commission’s meeting at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Domestic violence has long been recognized by the federal government as a national public health and safety crisis. A national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 4 in 10 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced physical or sexual violence or stalking by an intimate partner.

Next month marks the 25th annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which coincides with the 2000 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The law increased federal funding to combat domestic violence and other crimes that disproportionately affect women, recognizing the matter as a public health and safety issue, not a private domestic matter.

The federal government is by far the biggest source of funding for anti-domestic violence efforts, and since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to restrict nonprofits’ access to federal domestic violence grants. They have also laid off a top official and several teams working on the issue, threatening to destabilize domestic violence services and prevention efforts nationwide.

In a statement to The 19th, the White House said the president wasn’t “talking about or downplaying domestic violence.”

“President Trump’s Executive Order to address crime in DC even specifically took action against domestic violence,” said Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House. The order urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate housing providers who don’t comply with requirements to “restrict tenants who engage in criminal activity,” including domestic violence.

The White House also pointed out that the administration barred transgender women from women’s domestic abuse shelters, a move that advocates warn makes trans women less safe.

“While President Trump is making America safer, the Fake News is whipping up their latest hoax in real time to distract from the Administration’s tremendous results,” Jackson said.

Some groups focused on combating domestic violence criticized the president’s comments.

“The DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence believes that intimate partner violence is a crime and more than a ‘little fight with the wife’ as President Trump stated earlier today. Per federal and local statute, domestic violence is a crime and one that is not only a precursor to domestic violence homicides, but also a common factor in community violence, including mass shootings, where perpetrators often have a history of committing domestic violence,” said Dawn Dalton, the coalition’s executive director.

“The idea that domestic abuse is serious and criminal is not up for debate. Words cannot take us backwards and the days of treating domestic and sexual violence as ‘private matters’ are long gone. Any attempt to minimize these crimes does not change the impact of domestic violence and cannot change the reality of crime statistics in Washington, D.C.,” said Casey Carter Swegman, director of public policy at Tahirih Justice Center.

“By reducing domestic violence to a ‘little fight,’ President Trump revives a regressive view from an era when survivors were expected to endure abuse alone, without legal protections or public support, said Susanna Saul Director, Legal Programs at Her Justice, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to women living in poverty in New York City. “This does more than trivialize domestic abuse. It emboldens abusers to increase their violence and risks undoing decades of legal and cultural progress that have made safety a community responsibility, rather than a private burden.”

Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat from Wisconsin who has championed legislative efforts against domestic violence, said such crimes amount to “abuse that devastates families, endangers women and children, and takes lives every single day.”

“As a survivor of domestic violence, I found President Trump’s comments today downplaying domestic violence deeply offensive and disturbing,” she said in a statement. “Trump has a long history of violence against women that makes his dismissiveness unsurprising.”

Opinion

Judge to Dismiss Absurd RICO Charges Against Cop City Protesters

At 61 defendants, this was one of the largest RICO cases in U.S. history.

Malcolm Ferguson
Tue, September 9, 2025 
THE NEW REPUBLIC



A Georgia judge plans to throw out the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, charges against the 61 defendants who were protesting the construction of “Cop City,” the $90 million, 85-acre police training facility in the lush forest of a majority-Black Atlanta neighborhood in 2023. The facility opened in April.

Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer told the court that he did not think Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to pursue the sweeping RICO indictments under Georgia law, as he had never obtained the necessary permission from Governor Brian Kemp.

“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”

The “Stop Cop City” protests and subsequent arrests that followed were sparked by the police killing of environmental activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a.k.a. Tortuguita, at the Stop Cop City Encampment in January 2023. Autopsy reports showed that they were shot over 50 times while sitting cross-legged with their hands up, and no traces of gunpowder were found on them, contradicting the police report stating that Terán shot first.

“The 61 defendants together have conspired to prevent the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center by conducting, coordinating and organizing acts of violence, intimidation and property destruction,” Carr said when the Cop City protesters were first indicted.

In addition to the RICO charges, three of the defendants were originally hit with charges of money laundering after organizing a bail fund, but those charges also failed to stick. Another three activists were charged with federal intimidation after making flyers calling Jonathan Salcedo, the state trooper who murdered Tortuguita, a “murderer.” Five of the protesters were charged with domestic terrorism and arson. Farmer is considering dismissing all of the separate charges attached to the RICO, allowing Carr to pursue the domestic terrorism ones.

Even still, this is a massive victory in the face of a state looking to bring the hammer down on people trying to stop an environmentally destructive, military-style police base from being built in their city after all legal options had been exhausted. That shouldn’t get you charges that used to be reserved for the Mafia.

At 61 defendants, this was one of the largest RICO cases in U.S. history.

Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against 'Cop City' protesters

R.J. RICO
Tue, September 9, 2025 


FILE - Andrew Douglas, of Atlanta, raises his fist during a protest over plans to build a police training center, March 9, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, file)


ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”

Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot a protester. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charges.

Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp's permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded that they did not obtain any such order.

“It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren't followed.”

The case is not over yet

Five of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson connected to a 2023 "night of rage" in which masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer said Carr also didn't have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.

Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge proceed.

Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge's decision is “wholly incorrect.”

Carr plans to “appeal immediately,” spokesperson Kara Murray said.

“The Attorney General will continue the fight against domestic terrorists and violent criminals who want to destroy life and property," she said.

Defense attorney Don Samuel said the case was rife with errors. Defense attorneys had expected to spend the whole week going through dozens of dismissal motions that had been filed. During an impassioned speech on Monday, the first day of the hearing, Samuel called the case “an assault on the right of people to protest" and urged Farmer to “put a stop to this.”

“We could have spun the wheel and seen which argument was going to win first,” Samuel told The Associated Press after Farmer announced his decision from the bench.

The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed an activist, known as "Tortuguita," who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers' actions “ objectively reasonable,” though Tortuguita's family has filed a lawsuit, saying the 26-year-old's hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.

Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued civic paths to halt the facility, including packing City Council meetings and leading a massive referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.

Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat "out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”

But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement against the 85-acre (34-hectare) project that ultimately cost more than $115 million.

Environmentalists and anti-police activists were united

Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.

Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.

The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of it due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.

But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.

As the delays continued, defendants said their lives had been wrecked by the charges, with many unable to secure steady jobs or housing.

Three of the defendants, organizers of a bail fund that supported the protesters, had also been charged with 15 counts of money laundering, but prosecutors dropped those charges last year.

Prosecutors had previously apologized to the court for various delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.

Defense attorney Xavier de Janon said Farmer's decision is a “victory,” but noted that there are other defendants still facing unindicted domestic terrorism charges in DeKalb County, as well as numerous pending misdemeanors connected to the movement.

“The prosecutions haven’t ended against this movement, and I hope that people continue to pay attention to how the state is dealing with protests and activism, because it hasn’t ended," de Janon said. "This is a win, and hopefully many more will come.”

Trump Is No Nationalist
David Frum
Tue, September 9, 2025

THE ATLANTIC

President Donald Trump tells a lot of untruths, but one of the untruthiest is that his movement is “national.” Again and again, in fact, Trump and his core followers seem to care a lot more about what is happening in other countries than about what is happening in the United States.

Last week, for example, Trump hosted the president of Poland at the White House. From the cordial photos, the meeting might seem a welcome change from MAGA’s usual contempt and hostility to U.S. allies. But look again.

Trump’s meeting with President Karol Nawrocki was a carefully staged insult to Poland’s elected government—and the latest move in a campaign to manipulate European political systems in favor of Trump’s ideological allies.

Like many European countries, Poland has both a president and a prime minister. Day-to-day policy, including foreign policy, is set by the government, which is headed by the prime minister, who is answerable to Parliament. The president’s role is mostly negative: He wields a powerful veto, and can use the threat of its exercise to bend the government to his will.

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, leads a coalition strongly supportive of Ukraine in its fight with Russia. That fight has been costly to Poland. Almost 1 million Ukrainians have been displaced to Poland, where they are allowed to work and receive social benefits such as schooling and health care. Some Poles have begun to resent Ukrainians. Their votes helped elect Nawrocki in two rounds of balloting, on May 18 and June 1.

Nawrocki is an amateur historian whose work seems calibrated to inflame the historic mutual grievances between Poles and Ukrainians. He campaigned on the slogan “Poland First.” Although not as overtly pro-Russian as his political allies in Hungary and Slovakia, Nawrocki has used his powers in ways that put pressure on the Ukrainian side. He is trying to limit benefits to Ukrainians in Poland and end their right to work. He opposes Ukrainian entry into NATO.

The Trump administration blatantly favored Nawrocki during the election campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to Poland after the first round of voting to endorse Nawrocki by name and insult his principal opponent as one of the “weak” leaders who have allowed in immigrants who “destroyed their civilizations.” Poland is one of the few countries in Europe where views of the United States remain generally favorable, so Noem’s intervention may have made a difference in an election decided by less than a single point of the popular vote.

The Trump administration is exploiting partisan animosities within Poland to advance its own goals of wrecking the European Union and ending the Ukraine war on terms favorable to Russia.

Or take another example: Last month, Vice President J. D. Vance spent his summer holiday in the United Kingdom. He fished with the British foreign minister, visited U.S. service personnel, and made a side visit to Scotland to play golf on a Trump course. The first two of those activities would be normal for any U.S. vice president. The third is the kind of corruption that’s just a normal day’s business under President Trump. But Vance also made time for something out of the ordinary: a personal intervention in Britain’s internal politics.

Unlike in Poland, the Trump administration is highly unpopular in the United Kingdom. Only about one-fifth of Britons have a favorable view of Donald Trump. Vance polls even lower than that. But on the British right, Trump and Vance command attention and support—and Vance’s summer project was to lever that attention to shift British conservatism in a Trump-like direction.

The British right is now contested between two parties: the familiar Conservative Party and a new Reform Party. Reform has pulled ahead in the polls. The situation is volatile. Emotions are running strong. Resolving the impasse might seem a matter best left to the British.

Yet Vance’s itinerary seemed designed to insert and assert himself into the middle of the melee—and to favor the most extreme anti-immigration, pro-Russian factions. Vance deputed as his “British sherpa” a Cambridge academic disdainful of Ukraine and those Conservatives who have supported its cause. Vance met with Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-immigration Reform Party, and with Robert Jenrick, an anti-immigration activist seeking to topple the faltering Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch.

Vance tried to muscle his way into German politics in the same way earlier in the year. On February 14, scarcely a week before Germany held its federal elections, Vance delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference that sounded to German ears like an outright administration endorsement of the Alternative for Germany, another anti-immigration, pro-Russian far-right party. Vance scolded Germans for excluding the Alternative for Germany from public forums like the one where he was speaking. And indeed, Germany for obvious historical reasons restricts some forms of expression by the anti-democratic extremes of far right and far left. These German rules differ from American conceptions of free speech. Yet the recent American practice where the president of the United States threatens media corporations with reprisals unless they make multimillion-dollar payoffs to the president and his family must seem equally alien to German ideas of rights and liberties. German politicians don’t come to the United States to criticize the Trump shakedown system on American soil. Vance did not return the courtesy. In this case, at least, his intervention failed. While the AfD gained 20 percent of the popular vote, it did not do well enough to block the traditional parties from forming a center-right coalition committed to European unity and the defense of Ukraine against Russia.

In Canada in April and in Australia in May, anti-Trump sentiment defeated mainstream conservative parties that were tainted and discredited by Trump’s attacks on Australian and Canadian sovereignty and trade.

Proper conservatism has always been rooted in the local. But as conservatism has transmuted into Trumpism, that sense of the local has been lost. MAGA has developed into a truly global political movement, as ready to be franchised across national lines as a fast-food chain.

Far-right parties copy Trump’s slogans and Vance’s sarcastic, trollish rhetorical style. The message is everywhere the same, regardless of local conditions: blame immigrants for crime, disorder, housing prices, and anything else voters might be discontented about; reject vaccinations and promote quack remedies; back Russia and vilify Ukraine. The globalist quality of MAGA authoritarianism is powerfully symbolized by the willingness of the American Conservative Political Action Conference to lease its brand to far-right movements across Europe and Asia who want to host their own events in Budapest, Tokyo, or Warsaw. And everywhere, the message is amplified by social-media channels that seem to regard extremism as the pathway to engagement—and fear retaliation from Donald Trump if they ever try to diminish the volume of anger and disinformation.

Americans often try to seek the origins of Trumpism in their unique national past: episodes like McCarthyism in the 1950s or the overthrow of Reconstruction after the Civil War. It’s at least equally important to recognize what is not unique about Trumpism. The United States is not the only society confronting reactionary authoritarian grabs for power. The Trump movement, as the biggest and richest, acts as a kind of patron to all the others. But the smaller movements contribute to the common project. So much of what Trump and Vance say, so much content from their mass-media and social-media allies, originates not in the United States, but from their Hungarian, British, and German movement affiliates.

Those movements appreciate that they have a lot in common. They are learning to cooperate against their common adversaries. Those adversaries need to develop at least equal awareness, before it’s too late.

Article originally published at The Atlanti