Hundreds of United Methodists rally to dismantle ICE outside Capitol

WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘We demand that ICE and CBP be dismantled,’ said retired United Methodist Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño at the rally.

Participants march past the U.S. Capitol during the United Methodist-organized “Faithful Resistance” day of action, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain

February 25, 2026

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Less than a day after President Donald Trump defended his mass deportation campaign during his State of the Union address, more than a thousand United Methodists and their allies rallied outside the U.S. Capitol, calling on Congress to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

“We demand that ICE and CBP be dismantled,” said retired United Methodist Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño at the rally. “We demand that ICE and CBP be defunded.”

That demand was underscored by speaker Rep. Shri Thanedar, who last month introduced the Abolish ICE Act. In addition to Thanedar, who is Hindu and an immigrant from India, Democratic Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon and Delia Ramirez both spoke, and the two drew on Christian rhetoric, with Scanlon telling attendees to be “salt and light” and Ramirez quoting from St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer for peace.

“When universities, and legacy media and law firms and corporations have failed to meet the moment, our faith communities have stepped up,” said Scanlon.

Retired United Methodist Bishop Minerva Garza Carcaño, top left, speaks at the “Faithful Resistance” rally near the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Ramirez, a United Methodist, said, “God is calling us for such a time as this — to stand up for justice.” She noted that she is the lead sponsor of legislation that would ban offensive-weapons transfers to Israel and said, “What many don’t know is that that call for that work came when I went with the United Methodist Church 20 years ago to Palestine.”

The group, largely United Methodists from the East Coast, though ecumenical partners spoke from the stage, gathered for a worship service, march and outdoor rally before splitting off to speak with their congressional representatives.

Addressing Trump from onstage at the rally, Carcaño said: “Shame on you for scapegoating immigrants in this country, blaming them for every single brokenness we have. Immigrants are essential workers in this country,” she said. “They are members of our congregations. They are our friends. Above all, they are beloved by God.”

The day of action, titled “Faithful Resistance,” was planned months ago, and organizers settled on their schedule before the date for the State of the Union was announced. For Carcaño, that was providential. “God is with us. We’ve got to keep listening to God and standing up for God’s justice.”

During a worship service before the rally at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, preachers connected current immigration policies to longer histories of racial injustice — some perpetuated by Christians.

“We have been taught that some are more entitled to land than others, that some are apparently entitled to freedom, while others can only exist in a subservient posture,” preached Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, “that God has ordained a hierarchical system of wealth and worth.”

The church was packed to standing room only, with volunteers outside the doors warning newcomers away due to fire capacity. Organizers told RNS they counted 1,300 people at the worship services, including the overflow sites of Ebenezer United Methodist Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Building, which also filled up completely, they said.

People attend a “Faithful Resistance” day of action worship service at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

“United Methodists, we come out,” said attendee the Rev. Kelly Grimes, pastor of Glenmont United Methodist Church, where she said 17 nations are represented. The congregation experienced a false report of an ICE sighting near its campus that disrupted the congregation about a year ago, but since then immigrant congregants have returned to worship, despite fear, Grimes said.

The immigrants in her congregation “are a blessing to the United States of America,” Grimes told RNS. “Everyone has a right to be on this land.”

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RELATED: In congregations, fear, misinformation and preparation after ICE policy change

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At the worship service, Easterling preached, “When immigration systems are designed to protect wealth rather than human dignity, that is systemic, structural sin.”

“When visas flow easily for investors and tourists, but not for farmworkers, domestic workers and refugees, we are showing who we believe really matters,” she continued.

Instead of that hierarchy, Easterling said, “the earth is the Lord’s,” and “to follow Jesus is to resist anything that destroys families and fractures communities.”

Bishop LaTrelle Easterling preaches at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church during a “Faithful Resistance” day of action worship service, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Easterling ended her sermon by denouncing nationalism: “You want to have the unmitigated gall to say God bless America, then at least get it right and understand you then got to say God bless Chile and Argentina … ”

As she continued her litany of pan-American countries, in an echo of Bad Bunny’s recent Super Bowl performance, raucous applause drowned out the names.

But despite the energy among attendees, there was a palpable sense that the current moment was serious and dire. During the worship service and rally, several speakers made a point to say the names of people who have been killed by immigration enforcement agents or while in ICE’s custody.

At the rally, the Rev. Noel Andersen, the national field director for Church World Service, one of several faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, said of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, “It is ever more clear that these policies are part of the administration’s wider xenophobic and white supremacist agenda” and that ICE was acting like “secret police.” Church World Service has warned about a recent administration memo that could lead to the arrest and detention of tens of thousands of refugees.

“As a father of two myself, it’s terrifying to see parents ripped from their children,” said Andersen, speaking about a breastfeeding mother, in the U.S. as a legal refugee from Myanmar, separated from her 5-month-old baby and held in detention for over a week before a court ordered that she be released.

The Rev. Noel Andersen, right, addresses the “Faithful Resistance” rally near the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

The Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune, chief operating officer for the National Council of Churches, invoked the words of the biblical Prophet Habakkuk, who asked, “Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?”

But Copeland-Tune said the dire moment calls for action. “When evil is all around us, when the enemy comes in like a flood, we must stand flat-footed, 10 toes down, and declare that we will not rest, we will not stop, we will not give up, we will not cower or back down until freedom comes,” she said.

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RELATED: How faith networks are building a safety net for immigrants released from detention

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The Rev. Carlos Malavé, president of the Latino Christian National Network, said that as Latino communities and other communities of color are feeling “fear and stress,” concerns about immigration are spreading.

In his recent visit to Minneapolis, he recalled hearing from conservative, evangelical and Pentecostal pastors who told him they were having a change of heart about Trump, saying “supporting that man is the worst decision I ever made.”

“They’re coming around. Let us not lose hope of the church,” Malavé said.

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Participants rally near the U.S. Capitol during the United Methodist-organized “Faithful Resistance” day of action, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Iliana Lopez Mantos and her husband, the Rev. Gabe Lopez, said they are relying on the faith of their immigrant parents right now. Iliana said her mother “always made sure that people were OK before her, and I think that’s what we’re being taught too.”

Attendee Bill Howell, a member of Edgehill United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, told RNS that persistence could create change. 

He was part of a group of protesters who in April disrupted Tennessee legislative hearings on a bill to deny immigrant children the right to education with tactics that included singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and saying the Lord’s Prayer. The bill was not passed.

That kind of protest, Howell said, “has been and will continue to be, and may be the only thing, that really can bring about change.” He said, “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”

“Faithful Resistance” participants march toward the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

Op-Ed


As the Status Quo Shatters, Afrofuturists’ Visions Offer a Way Forward


Afrofuturism takes us to strange futures. In its kaleidoscope lens, the future is a canvas to imagine free Black life.

By Nicholas Powers , 

Truthout

February 25, 2026

Performers take part in a dress rehearsal of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, on October 31, 2023. This musical biography of civil rights leader Malcolm X infuses history with Afrofuturism, and first premiered in the mid-1980s to favorable reviews from critics, but went unrevived for decades, with just a few stagings over nearly 40 years.

ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

Years ago, I stood at the Black Fist statue, and felt the heaviness of George Floyd’s death. I also felt hope from the protests in his name. The corner of 38th St. and Chicago Ave. in Minneapolis was liberated by the people into an art-filled, open space. The joy was electric. Maybe, I thought, maybe this is a glimpse of a Black future.

Now, nearly six years after Floyd’s murder, the state violence that took his life has expanded its targets to include white protesters, journalists, and politicians. Two new memorials have been built in Minneapolis. One is for Renee Nicole Good, a lesbian mother and poet, and another for Alex Pretti, a nurse. Both were killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Right-wing state violence, on every level, is trying to stomp out the vision of a multiracial, pluralistic democracy and replace it with plans for a white ethnostate. If the right wing wins, its victory will come at a cost. The United States will likely implode. Already, millions of people in the U.S. have lost faith in the rule of law, a faith that was shaky to begin with. Already, the U.S. has transformed into an early-stage authoritarian state with President Donald Trump threatening the integrity of the midterm elections.

In the face of increasing right-wing violence and national implosion, Black America has to ask questions: What does freedom look like after the U.S.? How does the Black freedom struggle reimagine the “promised land”? Black writers have long mapped alternative futures that led away from the “American Dream.” Some are Pan-African. Some envision a worker’s democracy. Some articulate a new religion of change. What they share in common is a vision for a Black future free of racism that builds community on the lessons learned from surviving slavery. It is a vision of a new world struggling to be born from the ruins of this one.


Black History Has the Power to Ignite Movements. That’s Why the Right Fears It.
The administration’s preemptive assault on history is a desperate attempt to stop new social movements from starting.By Nicholas Powers , Truthout November 29, 2025


A Burning House



“I will fucking kill you,” the Indianapolis cop told 17-year-old Black teen Trevion Taylor, dragging him from his car. The young man’s eyes filled with fear. He and his friends were at an anti-ICE rally when police stopped them, claiming they “smelled weed.” The cop’s casual threatening of Taylor’s life is just one example of the current widespread increase in state violence. This growing violence includes ICE killings of migrants and protesters.

Today it is ICE or police. Yesterday it was the FBI’s COINTELPRO or the National Guard killing student protesters at Kent State. When the people mobilize to protect their rights or each other, they are killed. The tear gas used looks like smoke from a nation on fire.


Right-wing state violence is trying to stomp out the vision of a multiracial, pluralistic democracy and replace it with plans for a white ethnostate.

“I suspect [we’re] integrating into a burning house,” Martin Luther King Jr. told fellow civil rights activist Harry Belafonte in 1968. Belafonte recalled King’s warning at a 2005 town hall with Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. In the decades since, the flames have risen higher and higher. They rose during the Reagan era. They rise higher in the Trump era. The right has been so intent on destroying the seeds of diversity and tolerance planted by the civil rights movement that it is willing to destroy the U.S. and rule over its ashes.

Right now, we face a political crisis. President Trump wants to “nationalize” the midterm elections. He sent the FBI to raid a Georgia voting center and take ballots and records. He transformed ICE into a paramilitary force and more than doubled its personnel from 10,000 to 22,000, luring new recruits by using white supremacist ads. Trump has called Democrats “traitors,” threatened to kill them, and labeled “antifa” a terrorist threat. Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist, has urged him to use ICE to “surround the polls” in order to stop Democrats from “stealing the election.” There’s a very real constitutional fight ahead.

Right now, Black America is in the crosshairs. Trump waited for Black History Month to unleash a racist video of the Obamas portrayed as monkeys. This follows his executive order to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the “Department of Government Efficiency” cuts that led to a dramatic increase in Black women’s unemployment, with nearly 300,000 losing work. Overlap that data with the 25 percent of Black families with single mothers, and it becomes clear that these actions will push whole families and neighborhoods toward collapse. In October 2025, the Supreme Court heard a case that could disembowel the Voting Rights Act. For now, the court dodged on fully ending it — currently, the case is being actively reviewed, which means the Voting Rights Act is on a knife’s edge. Then, on February 13, Trump said on Truth Social he will issue an executive order mandating voter ID for the midterms. What we see is only the visible part of the larger Project 2025 agenda that also includes rigging the census to undercount Black people, eliminating student loan forgiveness, ending federal consent decrees, shifting oversight of housing programs to the states, and giving a free hand to polluters to poison Black communities.


Black America is in the crosshairs. Trump waited for Black History Month to unleash a racist video of the Obamas portrayed as monkeys.

In the years to come, Trump’s wacky handling of the economy is poised to put the U.S.’s decline into hyper-speed. The disingenuously named Big Beautiful Bill is projected to increase the federal debt by $3.4 trillion over the next decade while cutting health care for 10 million people and starving millions more. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) cited a study that found 51,000 will die annually because of these policy chances. What’s more, U.S. allies like Canada are openly saying that U.S. hegemony is over, and their governments intend to make trade deals with China. The inevitable decline of the dollar as the global reserve currency threatens to lead to deep cuts to social services to pay interest on the U.S. debt. Politicians may then print money, which could accelerate hyperinflation and financial collapse. Oh, yes, add to that the massive layoffs as businesses adopt AI. MS NOW analyst Chris Hayes said, “The project of the Big Tech oligarch billionaires is to do to white-collar workers what globalization and deindustrialization did to blue-collar workers.”

Here is the burning house that King predicted nearly 60 years ago. The U.S. threatens to become a charred hollow shell. Black people are stranded in a jobless nation run on algorithms. The government cannot afford welfare or social services. Its elections are rigged. The police are militarized, and you and everyone you know are under AI-enhanced state surveillance. You can be thrown into one of the new, high-tech detention sites for protesting. The American Dream, which has always been mostly fiction, is officially dead.


Carrying the Cross



So how did we get here? How did the “promised land” become a burning house? Maybe because the very idea was a dead end.

“Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream,” MLK Jr. intoned at the 1963 March on Washington. “It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.” His words washed over the massive crowd. Yet in his beautiful vision was a trap.

Much of Black America chose integration as the dominant strategy for freedom. Many chose the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Sometimes, segments of Black America chose to adapt to and even adopt white culture. All this is understandable for a people stolen from their homes and enslaved in a strange land. Imagine stumbling from a slave ship, blinking in the sun, rubbing red welts from chains. You are forced to an auction block. People buy you. At night, you look at the stars and know your family is gone forever. You see other slaves whipped and killed by the Christian owner who prays to Jesus. Maybe if you pray to Jesus too, the Christian will treat like you like a human being.

Much of Black America chose integration because of being a terrorized people who hoped to achieve safety by adopting the symbols and culture of white America. We see this in the internalized racism expressed by Phillis Wheatley, the first published Black American poet of modern times, who wrote in 1773, “Remember Christians, Negros Black as Cain / May be refined, and join the angelic train.”

Seventy-nine years later, after the American Revolution, in 1852, just shy of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass gave his speech, “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July,” where he said, “your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless.” In his speech, we see Black leveraging of national symbols to force empathy.

Meanwhile, in a 1926 essay titled, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote on “this urge within the race toward whiteness … and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” Again, an artist tells us the terrible cost of being American. The price of integration was internalized racism, classism, and nationalism.

In the 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Black America grew from approximately 500,000 to now 42 million. It has also grown apart. Integration sped up a serious class division that is now agonized over by academic Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that was made into a comedy skit by Chris Rock in his 1996 “N***as vs. Black People.” The giant split between the upper-class Black elite and the poor and working classes enables the Democratic Party to use the Black freedom struggle like a poker chip.

The civil rights movement’s legacy is exhausted. President Obama’s election was sold to us as King’s dream come true. It wasn’t. Obama waxed poetic on King, saying in 2009, “One of my favorite expressions was Dr. King’s expression that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” This from a man who killed 3,797 people with drones, including 324 civilians, and bragged, saying, “Turns out I’m really good at killing people.” He deported more than 3 million people. His housing policy destroyed Black wealth by saving banks rather than homeowners. He was willing to gut Social Security in a “grand bargain” with Republicans. He and the utter failure of Sen. Kamala Harris’s campaign are the nails in the coffin of the hollow version of Black history.


I’ve Known Rivers



“I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human / blood in human veins” Langston Hughes wrote in his 1921 poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” I read it at the African Burial Ground in New York, and the imagery resonated in the hushed air. Free and enslaved Africans were buried here before the United States was a nation. We came to pay respect to the ancestors. The act made one thing clear: Black history did not begin in the U.S. and it will not end here.


Our ancestors lost everything but not their humanity. They were sold and bought but were never objects. They had a vision of freedom that arced over their lives into ours today.

Not all of Black America saw the U.S. as the promised land — it had two main alternate visions. One looked to the past to recreate a golden age in Africa. The other gazed into Afrofuturism. For a long time, more people were drawn toward the first vision, advocating for a Pan-African right of return. This vision flickered in the Black antebellum folklore of slaves who remembered their true language and flew home to Africa. The story was richly sung by Paul Robeson. Versions of it were passed down through generations. You hear it in the speeches of Marcus Garvey. You hear this vision in Malcolm X’s call to form a Black nation with the U.S. by “any means necessary.” And most recently we “flew” home during the Black Panther movies. I remember cheers when T’Challa arrived in Wakanda and the holographic curtain was pulled back to reveal a glittering high-tech and free African city.

The dream of return can reinforce integration if it just serves as a catch-basin for our rage at fighting racism while integrating. James Baldwin pointed out that whole ways of thinking would have to change in order for Black separatism to become reality. In his famous 1963 essay, “The Fire Next Time,” Baldwin was driven home after meeting with the Nation of Islam’s leader Minister Elijah Muhammad. He questioned his driver, “How we were — Negroes — to get this land?” Quietly, Baldwin thought, “I was thinking, your entire frame of reference will have to change, and you will be forced to surrender many things that you know scarcely know you have.”

The other vision, Afrofuturism, instead takes us to strange futures. It is rooted in the arts — from the jazz explorations of Sun Ra’s 1974 film Space Is the Place, to the eclectic works of Janelle Monae. It comes in the novels of Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler. Its themes were crystallized in Mark Dery’s 1993 essay, “Black to the Future” that coined the term “Afrofuturism.” In its kaleidoscope lens, the future is a canvas to imagine free Black life: Free from white supremacy. Free from capitalism. Free from racial romanticism. Free from homophobia and binary thinking. Everything and anything is questioned — even old dreams of liberation, like the American Dream.

In Afrofuturism, one work stands out: Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel Parable of the Sower. Imagine the U.S. has collapsed. Global warming has set the land on fire. Pyromaniac junkies loot and burn. In this hellscape, the protagonist, a Black teen named Lauren, develops a hyper-empathy that gives her a near-telepathic ability to feel others’ feelings. After her gated community is ransacked, she and a small band strike out in search of safety. Lauren develops a religion called Earthseed that celebrates change, saying, “All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change.” Earthseed is a fusion of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus’s ideas of endless flux (hence his saying, “You never step into the same river twice”) and MLK Jr.’s concept of “soul force,” or using nonviolent resistance to transform violence into mutual recognition of each other’s humanity. The novel ends with Lauren’s religion spreading in the ruins of the U.S.

When I returned to the African Burial Ground, I brought Parable of the Sower, as if to measure its message against the nightmare our ancestors endured. Is Afrofuturism a way forward? Does our imagination honor their lives? I stood where they were buried, and asked: What does home mean now? Is there a promised land left?

I believe there is. Our ancestors lost everything but not their humanity. They were sold and bought but were never objects. They had a vision of freedom that arced over their lives into ours today. We are more precious than any nation or religion. We are a river flowing from the beginning of humanity to its end. It’s time to wash away the old dream and imagine new ones. It’s time for a new Black future.


This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Nicholas Powers


Nicholas Powers is the author of Thirst, a political vampire novel; The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street; and most recently, Black Psychedelic Revolution. He has been writing for Truthout since 2011. His article, “Killing the Future: The Theft of Black Life” in the Truthout anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? coalesces his years of reporting on police brutality.

THE GRIFT

Trump Says US Giving $10B to ORWELLIAN

 “Board of Peace” — 12 Times US’s UN Contribution


Critics have said Trump is angling to replace the UN with the “Board of Peace,” which he is in charge of.

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

February 19, 2026

US President Donald Trump (C), flanked by US Vice President JD Vance (L) and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), joins leaders for a group photo during the inaugural meeting of the "Board of Peace" at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 2026.SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will be giving $10 billion to his neocolonialist “Board of Peace” — over 12 times the U.S.’s contribution to the UN this year and more than double the amount that the U.S. currently owes the international organization.

Trump made the announcement while addressing the Board of Peace at its meeting on Thursday, stating that the Board of Peace — which he founded and controls — is “showing how a better future can be built.”

“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” he said. “We’ve had great support for that number. And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war. That’s two weeks of fighting.”

It’s unclear how the U.S. government would provide the funding. The Board of Peace was unilaterally established by Trump and his administration, and has not been approved by Congress or any other legislative body. Congress is typically in charge of appropriating funds, but the Trump administration has bucked procedure countless times with impunity.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said it would be “[t]otally illegal” for Trump to unilaterally fund the board through the U.S. government.

The Trump administration is requiring countries to commit $1 billion to the board to become permanent members. Trump said on Thursday that 10 nations have contributed $7 billion to a supposed relief package for Gaza so far, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

The U.S.’s contribution would be more than 12 times its $767 million pledge to the UN’s budget, which typically hovers around $3 billion to $4 billion each year. However, UN officials say that the U.S. has neither paid for its contribution nor coughed up its pledged funding for other programs like the UN peacekeeping initiatives. In all, the U.S. owes about $4 billion, UN officials say.

On Thursday, the U.S. paid about $160 million of the $4 billion it owes, the UN said — amounting to about 4 percent of its debts, and less than 2 percent of the amount Trump pledged to his board.

The UN warned last year that it will financially collapse if its members — mostly the U.S. — failed to pay up.

Trump also said on Thursday that he wanted to give funding to and “strengthen up” the UN, and make sure it “is viable.”

This statement is nearly nonsensical when considering that his administration is withholding funding from the UN, withdrawing from participation in numerous UN agencies, and undermining the international legal system.

The announcement appears to confirm the Trump goal of replacing the UN with his own dystopic system that would serve to implement whatever colonialist vision pleases him and fellow officials like Jared Kushner.

It’s not immediately clear how the funding will be used. The president has claimed that the funding would be used for “developing” Gaza. Kushner, one of his top advisers for the Middle East, has presented a plan to turn Gaza into a techno-capitalist “smart city,” seemingly under military control by the “International Stabilization Forces (ISF).” Palestinians, still facing Israel’s ongoing genocide, appear to have no role in determining the future of Gaza in Trump’s plan.

The Guardian reported Thursday that the Trump administration is planning to build a 5,000 person military base in Gaza to be staffed by the ISF. The base would be 350 acres, surrounded by barbed wire, and guarded by 26 armored watchtowers.

Palestinian Activist Targeted by Trump Hails Order That Blocks His Deportation

“I will continue to work for the freedom of the Palestinian people,” says Mohsen Mahdawi.

By Amy Goodman , 

DemocracyNow!

February 20, 2026

An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University graduate and green card holder who was detained last April at what he thought was a citizenship interview. Mahdawi grew up in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and was an outspoken critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza while attending Columbia. He spent two weeks in ICE custody before a federal judge ordered his release. Mahdawi’s case is part of a broader pattern of the Trump administration targeting international students for expressing solidarity with Palestinians and demanding divestment from the Israeli government.

Mahdawi says even though immigration judges are part of the executive branch, the Trump administration clearly “violated the rules of law” in targeting him. “The harder they come on me, the more energy and power I will have, and I will continue to work for the freedom of the Palestinian people and the right of return and equal rights and human rights for Palestinians.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form


AMY GOODMAN: “People Have the Power” by Patti Smith joined by Michael Stipe performing at Democracy Now!’s 20th anniversary. On Monday night we will be streaming our 30th anniversary celebration with Michael Stipe and Angela Davis, with Wynton Marsalis and Maria Ressa, also with the Palestinian Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mosab Abu Toha and many others. Go to Democracynow.org for that livestream.

This is Democracy Now!, Democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a graduate student at Columbia University who was detained last April for his outspoken support for Palestinian rights. Mohsen is a green card holder who grew up in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. At Columbia, he served as co-president of the Palestinian Students Union and served as president of the Buddhist Association.

Activist Mohsen Mahdawi Freed From Prison After Judge Orders His Release
“I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” he said after his release. By Sharon Zhang , Truthout April 30, 2025

Last April, masked and hooded ICE agents detained him when he appeared for what he believed would be a naturalization interview in Vermont. He spent two weeks in ICE custody before federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered his release. At the time, Judge Crawford wrote, “Our nation has seen times like this before, especially during the Red Scare and Palmer Raids of 1919-1920 and during the McCarthy period in the 1950’s.”

Mohsen is just one of many international students targeted by the Trump administration solely for expressing solidarity with Palestinians and opposing the Israeli war on Gaza. Mohsen Mahdawi joins us now. Mohsen, welcome back to Democracy Now! We spoke to you right after you were released from jail. It was right before graduation at Columbia, at the reception in front of SIPA, the School of International Affairs where you are now a graduate student. Can you talk about the significance of this immigration judge’s ruling?

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: Thank you for having me, Amy. This is very significant and actually it’s unprecedented considering all of the cases that were brought forward against students for deportation, student activists. What Judge Nina Froes has done, she has actually taken a very brave and courageous step towards justice by holding the rule of the law.

Even though this immigration court is under the executive branch, still the judge has found that the document which was used, which was the memo by Marco Rubio, was unauthenticated. And the hope that this same finding will apply on other students and based on this determination of the case was done without prejudice.

Now, I have to share with you, Amy, that we also have to consider the many different circumstances. The first step that allowed me to get here was to not be deported, to not be transferred from Vermont to Louisiana, which allowed me to be freed on bail by Judge Geoffrey Crawford. And then to be able to be heard in this immigration court which is in Massachusetts rather than one that is in Louisiana. So that gives you hope that there are judges who still hold integrity and refuse to sell their souls to Trump’s administration.

AMY GOODMAN: For people who don’t understand how the system works, explain the difference between an immigration judge and a federal judge. You have cases in both courts.

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: Correct. And I hope my lawyers would not be angry at me, because I am not a lawyer, but my understanding that technically—and actually it’s part of the vision of this country to have checks and balances, and federal courts are part of the checks and balances. This actually has been designed and envisioned by Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers. And the idea is to separate the executive branch from the judicial branch.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting that this is an immigration judge who is under the executive branch.

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: That’s exactly right. So even though the immigration judge is bounded by the executive branch, the immigration judge has to go through the rules and the rules of law, and based on those rules of law, what the Trump administration has done, in fact, they have violated the rules of law. And that’s why the case was terminated.

AMY GOODMAN: This was your message to Trump after you were released from an ICE jail in Vermont last year following more than two weeks in custody.


MOHSEN MAHDAWI: And I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet—I am not afraid of you.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about that moment as you say you are “not afraid of you” and what it meant to be released and what it meant after you had gone for your naturalization hearing, for these federal immigration agents to move in on you when you had been told to come for the hearing.

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: By this time, I would imagine that it’s becoming very clear to the American people and to the rest of the world that this administration’s mentality, the Trump administration, is to intimidate people, to scare people, and to make an example of people like me so others would not actually dare to raise their voice and to share their truth. And what I meant to say, actually, why I wanted to say that I am not afraid—because if I am afraid, I would lose sight. And I would lose not only sight; vision and imagination.

AMY GOODMAN: Mohsen, we just have a minute. You were raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. You are a permanent U.S. resident. You enrolled in Colombia University to study philosophy where you are also president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association. How has your faith and upbringing in the occupied West Bank guided your activism and your stance today?

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: Amy, I have to share—because of one minute—I have to share with you that I was attacked and other students were attacked not merely for protesting. The media has missed the point. They started saying the pro-Palestine protests or the Palestinian movement. The movement had an actual goal, an objective, and that is divestment—divestment, boycott, and sanctions—because this is the only way that we can bring peace and justice in a nonviolent and peaceful way. And we do it with love, compassion, and empathy.

That is why the Trump Administration gets so scared of people like me who organize, and are still organizing, because I will not be deterred and I will not actually give up to their exhaustion tactics. The harder they come on me, the more energy and power I will have, and I will continue to work for the freedom of the Palestinian people and the right of return and equal rights and human rights for Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: Mohsen Mahdawi, graduate student at Columbia University, thank you so much for being with us. I’m Amy Goodman.

DNC “Autopsy” Finds Kamala Harris’s 

(AND DEMOCRATS)

Silence on Gaza Genocide Cost Her Votes

The refusal to condemn Israel’s genocide of Palestinians resulted in a “net-negative” of voters’ support, sources said.

By Chris Walker , TruthoutPublishedFebruary 23, 2026

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks onstage during her "107 Days" book tour on October 8, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia.Paras Griffin / Getty Images

As part of its secret “autopsy” report on how former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to President Donald Trump, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) now seems to concede that the Biden administration’s support for Israel amid its continued genocide against Palestinians in Gaza played a large role in her losing votes, sources with knowledge of the report’s contents say.

According to reporting from Axios, members of the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, who were given access to the autopsy report, claim that the DNC’s own data indicated that Harris’s backing of the Biden administration’s pro-Israel policies led voters (particularly younger ones) to withhold support for her as a candidate for president.

“The DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a ‘net-negative’ in the 2024 election,” said Hamid Bendaas, a spokesperson for the IMEU Policy Project.

Two other IMEU Policy Project sources came to the same conclusion regarding the report’s contents, and Axios itself said it had “independently verified that Democratic officials conducting the autopsy believed the issue harmed the party’s standing with some voters.”

Harris received just over 75 million votes from Americans overall, while Trump received over 77 million. By contrast, in 2020, Biden received over 81 million votes, while Trump received close to the same number of votes that he received against Harris, attaining support from 74 million Americans.

Study: More People Were Killed in First 16 Months of Gaza Genocide Than Reported
The Lancet found that there were 75,200 “violent deaths” in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025. By Jake Johnson , CommonDreams February 19, 2026

Polling conducted by Data for Progress shortly after the 2024 election confirmed that a significant portion of voters withheld support for Harris. That survey demonstrated 36 percent of voters knew at least one individual in their personal lives who didn’t vote for her because of her support for Israel.

Last year, DNC chair Ken Martin initially promised to make the party’s autopsy report public. But the DNC backtracked on that idea in December, claiming the decision to keep it private was made in order to focus on maintaining electoral successes Democrats have seen in recent months.

Privately, DNC officials expressed concerns that releasing the document could embarrass the party, and wanted to avoid another debate on how the election was lost.

Harris has expressed slight remorse over not differentiating her campaign from the Biden administration’s actions relating to support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. During a recent tour stop promoting her new book, she said the administration “should have spoken publicly about our criticism” of Israel, and said she had privately “pleaded” with former President Joe Biden to become more empathetic to Palestinians.

However, during her own campaign — which she had complete control and management of, without administration interference — Harris also refused to express those disagreements out loud, stating in one interview there was “not a thing that comes to mind” over what she would have done differently than him while serving as vice president.

During the Democratic National Convention in 2024, which was co-managed by the DNC and the Harris campaign, delegates who expressed opposition to the Biden administration’s actions (and inaction) relating to the ongoing genocide in Gaza were often ignored. During the count of delegates to determine the party’s presidential nominee, Kentucky delegates who were “uncommitted” were not acknowledged at all in the roll call vote.

“As one of Kentucky’s uncommitted delegates, I am sad to report that 32,908 Democratic Kentuckians’ voices were not upheld at last night’s roll call at the DNC,” said Victoria Olds, an uncommitted delegate from that state who spoke to Truthout at the time.

The DNC also refused to allow pro-Palestinian speakers to take part in the convention, even though their speeches weren’t set to be critical of the Biden administration. Georgia House of Representatives member and Palestinian American Ruwa Romman, for example, had submitted a draft speech to the DNC that aimed to emphasize Trump’s racist comments toward Palestinians and omitted any judgment against either Biden or Harris. Party leaders refused requests by uncommitted delegates to have Romman speak.

The party also chose to ignore, rather than acknowledge, large pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening throughout Chicago during the week of the convention. Around 30,000 demonstrators took part in those protests, with some stating that Harris’s refusal to oppose genocide would lead them to not vote for her.

“Our votes are no longer free or a given just for the sake that we are Democrats,” a demonstrator named Inan said. “[Harris] has to earn our votes by ending genocide today, tonight.”

Pentagon Threatens Retaliation If Anthropic Bars Use of AI for Mass Surveillance

Anthropic’s CEO has expressed concerns about the use of AI for autonomous drones and surveillance.

By Sharon Zhang , TruthoutPublishedFebruary 25, 2026

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at Blue Origin in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 2, 2026.Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has threatened Antropic with blacklisting if the AI company refuses to allow its tools to be used for autonomous drone attacks or mass surveillance – a chilling show of the Pentagon’s priorities.

In a meeting with the company on Tuesday, Hegseth said that the company must lift its demands for the safety restrictions by Friday at 5:01 pm. Otherwise, officials warned, the Pentagon will declare the company a “supply chain risk” and effectively blacklist it — or, paradoxically, it will invoke the Defense Production Act to force Antropic to comply.

Sources familiar with the meeting have said that the company’s representatives at the meeting expressed safety concerns over AI’s ability to reliably control weapons. A lack of regulations over AI use in mass surveillance could also pose risks, they reportedly told officials.

The company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, has repeatedly voiced concerns over these issues.

“I am worried about the autonomous drone swarm, right? The constitutional protections in our military structures depend on the idea that there are humans who would, we hope, disobey illegal orders. With fully autonomous weapons, we don’t really have those protections,” Amodei said in an interview with podcaster Wes Roth.

Prisons & Policing

Super Bowl Ad for Ring Cameras Touted AI Surveillance Network
Ring’s AI-powered network is likely to be used in its partnerships with law enforcement and agencies like ICE. By Sharon Zhang , Truthout February 9, 2026

Amodei also worries that AI could access and process private conversations captured by technology within people’s homes that could be used to label people politically and “undermine” the Fourth Amendment.

However, Anthropic announced after its meeting with Hegseth that it is dropping a central safety policy that would put guardrails on its AI development to mitigate risks posed to society by AI. It’s unclear if the changes are related to the Pentagon’s demands, but the timing raises suspicion.

Legal experts have said it’s unclear if the Trump administration could use the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic’s hand.

Anthropic is in negotiations for a contract with the Pentagon, and has reportedly previously offered to allow its AI systems to be used for missile and cyber defense. However, the Pentagon is saying that the company must allow use of its tools for all military purposes.

The company’s AI model Claude was reportedly used by the Pentagon during its operation to bombard Caracas and abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an operation that killed 83 people, including civilians. A Wall Street Journal report, citing sources familiar, said that the Pentagon made use of Claude through Anthropic’s partnership with Palantir, which has a contract with the U.S. government.

A Pentagon official said in a statement that Hegseth’s demands have “nothing to do with mass surveillance and autonomous weapons being used,” but the Trump administration has doggedly worked to overstep legal authorities to inflict more violence and surveillance of Americans.

“I want to clarify what responsible AI means at the Department of War. Gone are the days of equitable AI, and other DEI and social justice infusions that constrain and confuse our employment of this technology,” Hegseth said during an address at SpaceX’s headquarters in January. “We will not employ AI models that won’t allow you to fight wars.”

Experts have warned that the use of AI models for warfare is dangerous. A recent study in which a researcher pitted ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini models against each other in 21 war scenarios found that one of the models deployed a nuclear weapon in 95 percent of the simulated games.

Why Trump is the worst person to lead a 'war on fraud'

Alex Henderson

February 25, 2026 
ALTERNET


In late January, President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new position: fraud czar. And he nominated federal prosecutor Colin McDonald for the position.

Trump, in a January 28 post on his Truth Social platform, wrote, "I am pleased to nominate Colin McDonald to serve as the first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People. My Administration has uncovered Fraud schemes in States like Minnesota and California, where these thieves have stolen Hundreds of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars. Colin McDonald is a very Smart, Tough, and Highly Respected AMERICA FIRST Federal Prosecutor who has successfully delivered Justice in some of the most difficult and high stakes cases our Country has ever seen."

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing on McDonald in late February.

But MS NOW's Steve Benen, in a February 25 column, argues that Trump is the last person who should be declaring a "war on fraud."

"At this point, we could talk about the fact that Trump lied about the scope of the fraud controversy in Minnesota," Benen writes. "We could also talk about the fact that the administration has produced no evidence of 'worse' fraud in other states. We could even explain why his claims about balancing the budget by eliminating fraud were absurd. But as important as those elements are, there's another dimension to this that's arguably more important: the conflict between the message and the messenger."

The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer continues, "Indeed, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington noted via Bluesky, 'Trump announcing a war on fraud is like a criminal announcing a war on crime.'"

Benen goes on to lay out four "details" about Trump that "Republicans prefer to ignore."

Trump, Benen observes: (1) "ran a fraudulent 'university' that led him to pay a steep out-of-court settlement," (2) "oversaw a fraudulent charitable foundation and had to pay $2 million in court-ordered damages," (3) "ran a family business that was found to have engaged in systemic fraud," and (4) "issued a series of presidential pardons for people convicted of committing fraud."


"In the abstract, there's nothing inherently wrong with an administration trying to root out alleged abuses in social insurance programs," Benen explains. "But Trump is literally the only president in American history to have been found liable in a civil fraud case. If he were serious about fighting a 'war on fraud,' he should expect to see that war arrive at his own doorstep."

'Depraved': JD Vance skewered over 'evil' first move as Trump's fraud czar

Robert Davis
February 25, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks next to Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz about combating fraud at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S, February 25, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque REFILE - UPDATING SLUG

Observers blasted Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday after he announced the Trump administration's first moves in its new "war on fraud."

Vance said on Wednesday that the Trump administration is pausing certain Medicaid payments to Minnesota in response to allegations of fraud in the state's social services programs. Vance said the move was to ensure the state "takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money."

The announcement didn't sit well with observers and political analysts, some of whom described it as "murder" and "evil."

"So they found a different way to kill Minnesotans to satisfy Trump’s butthurt—because shooting them in the street wasn’t working fast enough," political writer Jim Stewartson posted on X. "All these people are all insane, depraved creatures who just need to be locked up and forgotten about forever."

"Really weird. That fancy JD from Yale and still @JDVance confused Medicaid fraudster Mississippi with Minnesota," journalist Marcy Wheeler posted on X.

"In what world is this legal?" New York sports reporter Jon Alba posted on X.

"The media should cover this as murder because it is," Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass, posted on X.

"It’s not enough that this administration has gutted Medicaid across the nation—now, less than a day after launching the new 'War on Fraud' initiative, JD Vance is continuing the partisan assault on Minnesota by trying to stop further payments for HEALTH CARE," Tahra Hoops, director of economic analysis at the Chamber of Progress, posted on X.

"This is just evil and so corrupt," writer Polly Sigh posted on

German Billionaire Media mogul who called for prayers backing Trump holds White House meeting

(REUTERS)

David Badash
The New Civil Rights Movement

February 25, 2026 


The billionaire head of a Berlin-based global mass media behemoth that owns influential outlets including Politico, reportedly met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday.

Mathias Döpfner serves as chairman and CEO of Axel Springer SE, a publishing group that operates in dozens of countries and counts U.S. private equity firm KKR — co‑founded by Republican donor Henry Kravis — among its principal owners. According to Forbes, Kravis gave one million dollars to Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration committee.


In the U.S., Axel Springer also publishes Business Insider and Morning Brew.

New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin reported that Wiles met with Döpfner in, according to a source, "an introductory, get-to-know-you meeting."

The meeting comes just one day after President Donald Trump delivered his controversial State of the Union address and less than nine months before the midterm elections.

Döpfner sent an email to his top executives before the 2020 election, asking if they would like to join him to pray for the re-election of Donald Trump, according to reports. The email came one year before Axel Springer sealed the deal to purchase Politico.

“Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” Döpfner wrote in the email, The Daily Beast reported, citing an article in The Washington Post.

“No American administration in the last 50 years has done more,” Döpfner added.

“When asked about the message,” The Daily Beast reported, “Döpfner initially denied it existed, going so far as to say: ‘It has never been sent and has never been even imagined.’ When confronted with a printout of the email, he explained that he may have sent it ‘as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump.’ ‘That is me,’ he added. ‘That could be.'”

In a 2022 analysis titled "The Scandalous History of America’s Newest Media Baron," Foreign Policy reported: “The new owner of Politico, Axel Springer, has a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes.”

Fox News just distorted CNN's documentary on Christian nationalism

Kayleigh McEnany at the 2022 Young Women's Leadership Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in Grapevine, Texas (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Alex Henderson

February 22, 2026 
ALTERNET

This Sunday night, February 22, CNN is airing reporter Pamela Brown's documentary on Christian nationalism, a far-right form of evangelical fundamentalism closely tied to the MAGA movement. Brown, in the documentary, notes that Christian nationalists are hailing the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk — who was fatally shot during an event in Utah last year — as a martyr for their cause. And she interviews Matthew Taylor, a religious scholar at Georgetown University; Taylor makes a clear distinction between "radicalized" Christian nationalists and the many Christians who reject their belief system.

In a February 21 segment, Fox News' Kayleigh McEnany — who served as the fourth White House press secretary during President Donald Trump's first administration — attacked the documentary as a "hit piece on the resurgence of Christianity in America." But according to Mediaite reporter Colby Hall, McEnany's comments were both misleading and painfully lacking context.

Hall, in an article published on February 22, points out that Brown interviewed self-described Christian nationalist Andrew McIlwain, a Texas resident, in the documentary and discussed Kirk's murder with him. During that part of the documentary, according to Hall, Brown made a statement that "Fox's audience never heard" — which was, "Kirk's death happened at a moment of unprecedented alignment between Christian nationalists and the Trump Administration."

Hall explains, "That sentence is not an aside. It is the documentary's thesis in miniature. It clarifies that the project is not an attack on churchgoing or orthodox belief. It is an examination of the political alignment between a self-described Christian nationalist movement and executive power. Fox cut it. Instead, McEnany presented the film as an assault on faith itself and amplified a Georgetown professor's warning about 'radicalized' Christians. She insisted the framing was 'so off base,' collapsing any distinction between Christianity as religion and Christian nationalism as an ideology seeking to shape public policy…. By trimming Brown's contextual line and McIlwain's own articulation of a faith-centered political vision, Fox transformed a documentary about political theology into an imagined attack on believers."

Hall adds, "The audience was invited to reject a caricature while being shielded from the actual argument…. The central question Brown is asking — whether a movement that openly ties America's future to 'scripture' and enjoys 'unprecedented alignment' with a presidential administration warrants scrutiny — never made it to the people most likely to vote on it."

Study reveals how Trump’s 2024 victory made prejudice cool again

 Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump react as Trump speaks from the Palm Beach County Convention Center, as they attend an election watch party at Maricopa County Republican Committee during the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Chandler, Arizona, U.S., November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo

Adam Lynch

February 25, 2026

ALTERNET

A new study reveals that President Donald Trump’s derogatory rhetoric is making prejudice fashionable again.

“Individuals naturally want to fit in,” reports PsyPost. “They tend to hide their prejudices when society disapproves of them. However, when a prominent political figure openly uses derogatory language against specific groups, it sends a signal that these negative attitudes are now socially acceptable.”


Making people express their “previously hidden biases” was a talent Trump showed in his 2016 election, but his weird superpower expressed itself again in 2024, researchers noticed.

“After his initial campaign, voters across the political spectrum agreed that expressing prejudice against specifically targeted groups, such as immigrants and Muslims, had become much more acceptable,” PsyPost reports, so researchers needed to determine if Trump’s 2024 reelection triggered an identical reaction in a different political climate.

They recruited undergraduate students from a large midwestern state university and required them to evaluate a wide variety of social groups, including immigrants, Muslims, Asian Americans, disabled people, and many others, totaling 128 distinct groups. Sure enough, when Trump spoke harshly about marginalized communities during his campaign, such as immigrants, Haitians, and Asian Americans, participants became more likely to view prejudice against these same groups as socially acceptable after he won.

“If people have any attitudes at all about a group, they’re likely to be stable,” said Christian S. Crandall, a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. “But Trump can create strong new prejudices, especially if people don’t have much of an opinion about the group in the first place. Attitudes are fairly difficult to change, but they’re much easier to create.”

PsyPost reports the negative political language also predicted a direct rise in the participants’ own internal biases. Following the 2024 election, individuals admitted to holding stronger personal prejudices against the exact groups that the campaign had heavily criticized, which also included Muslims and transgender people.

Crandall said the resulting prejudice was “spread out across the whole nation and population.”

“I think that various kinds of prejudice have become much more overt. Antisemitism (which the administration says it’s fighting, but that seems to be a cover to attack universities, and I’m saying that as a personal opinion, not on the data), and elimination of all DEI-relevant policies and grants seem to be backing off concern for civil rights.”

The participants were predominantly white college students from the midwestern United States, reports PsyPost, which leaves into question how thoroughly Trump’s talent as a prejudice accelerant jumps across race. The study also evaluated changes over a span of just a few weeks, making the long-term stability of these shifts difficult to interpret.