‘This Isn’t The Republican Party Anymore!’ Don Jr. Proclaims Trump Leads the ‘America First’ and MAGA Party

LEAVING THE GOP TO WALL ST DEMOCRATS

Sean James
Sun, December 21, 2025 
MEDIAITE

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(Photo Credit: The Charlie Kirk Show on Rumble)

Donald Trump Jr. proclaimed the Republican Party is a thing of the past — his dad is now leading the “America First Party” and “Make America Great Again Party.”

President Donald Trump’s son made the claim during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday.

Trump Jr. said it is a new era for the conservative movement — one that is constantly under attack from the Democratic Party and Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). He said those attacks are ramping up as both parties plow towards the 2026 midterm elections.

Here is what the told the AmFest crowd:

Midterms are coming around the corner and make no mistake, the Democrat Party wants to do whatever they possibly can to shut this movement down. Not just the Democrats. The RINOs.

You see the manufactured attacks on JD [Vance], myself, my father — anyone who understands that this isn’t the Republican Party anymore. It’s the America First Party. It’s the Make America Great Again Party. And we are not going back!

His remarks drew a fairly big roar from the crowd — followed by a “USA! USA! USA!” chant.

“I love it, guys,” Trump Jr. said. “By the way, if someone wasn’t chanting USA next to you, you know they’re a Democrat plant, because they just can’t do it. It’s like pouring holy water on a vampire.”

He then urged the crowd to back Republicans — without using the term he just said was obsolete — in the ’26 midterms, because it will help his dad continue to fight for “Americans feeling left behind” like “young white men.”

“[Young white men] for a generation were left behind by DEI,” he said. “They were told ‘Well, you know, you don’t check a couple boxes, so you may be better, you may be smarter, but you’re not getting into that college. You’re not getting that job, you’re certainly not getting a promotion. But you better damn well realize you’re privileged, despite being discriminated against.’ It’s funny, but it’s actually happening.”

He spoke to the crowd right before Erika Kirk took the stage with rapper Nicki Minaj.


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Watch his comment on the Republican party being the MAGA/America First party

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 ALL WHITE KIRK KULTISTS 

Here's what you missed at Turning Point's chaotic convention

JONATHAN J. COOPER and SEJAL GOVINDARAO
Updated Sun, December 21, 2025 


TOPSHOT - Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, widow of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, speaks during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2025. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)(OLIVIER TOURON via Getty Images)

PHOENIX (AP) — When Turning Point USA's annual AmericaFest convention reached its halfway point, Erika Kirk tried to put a smiling face on things.

“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk, who has led the influential conservative organization since her husband Charlie was assassinated in September. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.”

That's one way to put it.

Some of the biggest names in conservative media took turns torching each other on the main stage, spending more time targeting right-wing rivals than their left-wing opponents.

The feuds could ultimately define the boundaries of the Republican Party and determine the future of President Donald Trump's fractious coalition, which appears primed for more schisms in the months and years ahead.

Here are some of the most notable moments from the four-day conference.

Shapiro criticizes podcasters

Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the conservative media outlet Daily Wire, set the tone with the first speech after Erika Kirk opened the convention. He attacked fellow commentators in deeply personal terms, saying some of the right's most popular figures are morally bankrupt.

Candace Owens “has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years,” he said.

Megyn Kelly is “guilty of cowardice" because she's refused to condemn Owens for spreading unsubstantiated theories about Kirk's death.

And Tucker Carlson's decision to host antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast was “an act of moral imbecility.”

Shapiro's targets hit back

Barely an hour later, Carlson took the same stage and mocked Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him.

“I watched it,” he said. “I laughed.”

Others had their chance the next night.

“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” said Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser.

Kelly belittled Shapiro as a marginal figure in the conservative movement and said their friendship is over.

“I resent that he thinks he’s in a position to decide who must say what, to whom, and when,” Kelly said.

Owens, who has spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk's death, wasn't welcome at the convention. But she responded on her podcast, calling Shapiro a “miserable imp."

A schism over Israel and antisemitism

Israel came up repeatedly during the conference.

Some on the right have questioned whether the Republican Party's historically steadfast support for Israel conflicts with Trump's “America First” platform. Carlson criticized civilian deaths in Gaza in remarks that wouldn't have been out of place in progressive circles.

Some attendees dug deep into history, highlighting Israel's attack on the USS Liberty off the Sinai Peninsula in 1967. Israel said it mistook the ship for an Egyptian vessel during the Six Day War, while critics have argued that it was a deliberate strike.

Bannon accused Shapiro, who is Jewish, and others who staunchly support Israel of being part of “the Israel first crowd.” Kelly said criticism from Shapiro and Bari Weiss, the newly installed head of CBS News, “is about Israel."

Vance says loving America is enough to be part of MAGA

In the conference's closing speech, Vice President JD Vance declined to condemn extremism or define a boundary for the MAGA coalition. The movement should be open to anyone as long as they “love America," he said.

“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” Vance said Sunday.

Erika Kirk pledged Turning Point’s support for Vance to be the next Republican presidential nominee.

“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said on the first night of the convention. Vance would be the 48th president if he takes office after Trump.

Turning Point is a major force on the right, with a massive volunteer network around the country that can be especially helpful in early primary states.

Newsom is political enemy No. 1

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a leading Democratic presidential contender, was a favorite punching bag.

“It looks like they’re going to nominate a California liberal who’s presided over rolling blackouts, open borders and unchecked violent gangs,” Vance said. “They’re just trying to settle on whether it’s going to be Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris.”

Rapper Nicki Minaj, who made a surprise appearance, belittled the California governor, using Trump's favored nickname for him, Newscum.

“Please tread lightly," Minhaj said during an on-stage conversation with Erika Kirk. "That’s what I would say to Gabby-poo.”

A representative for Newsom did not respond to a request for comment.

MAHA teams up with MAGA

The Make America Healthy Again movement had a big presence at Turning Point, signaling its quick rise in the right-wing ecosystem.

MAHA is spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services. However, there has been friction with other parts of the Make America Great Again coalition, particularly when it comes to rolling back environmental regulations.

Wellness influencer Alex Clark, whose podcast is sponsored by Turning Point, asked the crowd whether the Environmental Protection Agency is “with us or against us?”

“Big chemical, big ag and big food are trying to split MAGA from MAHA so things can go back to business as usual, but we don’t want that, do we?” Clark said.

Clark and others have asked for Trump to fire EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who responded by reaching out to MAHA activists. The EPA also said it would release a MAHA agenda for the agency.

Erika Kirk greets Vice President JD Vance during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

CEO and Chair of the Board of Turning Point USA Erika Kirk (L) speaks with US rapper Nicki Minaj during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2025. This year's conference commemorates the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on a Utah college campus in September, sparking an outpouring of grief among conservatives and prompting President Donald Trump to threaten a crackdown on the "radical left." (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)(OLIVIER TOURON via Getty Images)

Conservative political commentator and podcast host Tucker Carlson speaks at Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference, in remembrance of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2025. Kirk was shot dead on a Utah college campus in September, sparking a wave of grief among conservatives, and threats of a clampdown on the "radical left" from President Donald Trump. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)(OLIVIER TOURON via Getty Images)


PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 21: Erika Kirk interviews surprise guest Nicki Minaj on the final day of Turning Point USA's annual AmericaFest conference at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 21, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona. Minaj spoke about her frustrations with California Governor Gavin Newsom, and about why she has embraced the conservative movement. (Photo by Caylo Seals/Getty Images)(Caylo Seals via Getty Images)

A prerecorded message from President Donald Trump is displayed on a screen after his son Donald Trump Jr. called him from the stage to address the audience by phone during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2025. This year's conference commemorates the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on a Utah college campus in September, sparking an outpouring of grief among conservatives and prompting President Donald Trump to threaten a crackdown on the "radical left." (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)(OLIVIER TOURON via Getty Images)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HORST WESSEL

I was 14 when Epstein recruited me. He demanded that girls show their school IDs

Susie Coen
Sun, December 21, 2025 
THE TELEGRAPH



Jeffrey Epstein would call high-profile friends while having a massage

Jeffrey Epstein demanded that young girls show their school IDs to prove they were underage.

Marina Lacerda, who was abused by Epstein from the age of 14, said the paedophile was “furious” when an 18-year-old was brought to him, immediately sending her away.

Ms Lacerda, now 37, was forced to recruit other victims, and told The Telegraph that Epstein instructed her to only present him with girls who had a student school ID.

Brazilian-born Ms Lacerda said Epstein stopped abusing her when she was 16 or 17 because he thought she was too old and she was not bringing him girls who were young enough.

“I did bring him somebody at the age of 18, and he booted her out... He just looked at her and knew she wasn’t the age of 14, 15, or 16. And he really, he was like, ‘Get the f--- out’... he was aggressive,” Ms Lacerda said.

“He turned to me, and he was like, ‘I’m done.’ He’s like, ‘You need to start bringing me IDs when you bring girls here... I want school IDs.’”

After the partial release of the Epstein files, Ms Lacerda accused the government of orchestrating a “cover-up” by redacting swathes of documents and failing to release everything it held to “protect” powerful men.

The US justice department released thousands of files on Friday and Saturday, but hundreds of pages were heavily redacted, and a huge tranche of documents is yet to be released.

Marina Lacerda has accused the US government of a cover-up over heavily redacted documents in the Epstein files - AP/Jose Luis Magana

Ms Lacerda’s testimony about being subjected to years of abuse was critical in securing the 2019 charges against the paedophile months before he died in jail.

She is referred to as “Minor-Victim 1” in the 2019 indictment and spoke publicly for the first time in September to call for the release of the Epstein files.

She said she had looked through some of the recently released files and saw notes about Epstein demanding to see girls’ IDs, information that appeared to be from her interview with the FBI in 2019, two months before Epstein’s arrest.

On Saturday, she also said the paedophile would “brag” to his powerful friends that he was being massaged by a “beautiful girl” while on a call, and make her say hello to them.

“We did speak to a lot of people on the phone who were, you know, politicians, some were princes... [they] were very important people,” she told The Telegraph.

He would “make it clear that he knew everybody and he owned everybody... he manipulated us,” she said.

After lying down for a massage, Epstein would ring his contacts to “talk business and would always bring up the fact like, ‘oh, you know, I have this nice, young, beautiful girl giving me a massage.’”

He would hand her the phone and tell her to “just say hello”, Ms Lacerda said. She would tell the men something like “Hey, how are you?” but would not discuss anything “deep”.

Ms Lacerda said Epstein never explicitly told the powerful men that she was underage.

She met one Hollywood star she had spoken to on the phone in person, but was not abused by them or anyone else, other than Epstein.

Ms Lacerda is one of a number of Epstein’s survivors who have been calling for the full release of the files, believing there is information about men in his orbit that has not been disclosed.

‘100 per cent total cover-up’

Only a fraction of the government’s files on the paedophile have been released, some of which have been heavily redacted, prompting bipartisan outcry about an alleged cover-up.


At least 16 files, including one photograph of Donald Trump, the US president, were also deleted from the justice department website after being published on Friday.

In Friday’s release, dozens of photographs of Bill Clinton, including one of the former US president topless in a hot tub, were published for the first time, as well as pictures showing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sprawled over the laps of five women with Ghislaine Maxwell grinning behind him at the Royal family’s Sandringham retreat.

“There’s a reason why everything’s redacted,” Ms Lacerda said, adding that it was “100 per cent a total cover-up”.

“It’s almost like a joke, right? Like, we have to look at it as it’s like, this has to be a comedy show. Like, why did you even put out all these files?”

She added: “Who are we really trying to protect? Are we protecting survivors, or are we protecting these powerful men?... We’re tired of it. It’s gotten to the point where, you know, we’ve protected these powerful men for a long time.”

Bill Clinton, the former US president, is in dozens of photos in the documents released on Friday - AFP

There is no suggestion Mr Clinton has done anything wrong. The former president, who admits travelling on Epstein’s private plane, wrote in his memoir that he had “stopped contact” with Epstein before he was first arrested in 2005, for soliciting a child for prostitution.

Allegations of new cover-up over Epstein files

By AFP
December 21, 2025


Redacted documents after the US Justice Department began releasing the long-awaited records from the investigation into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN
Imran VITTACHI

Allegations of a fresh cover-up over the Jeffrey Epstein files grew Sunday, as Democrats accused President Donald Trump of trying to protect himself by defying an order to release all files on the convicted sex offender.

Victims of Epstein have expressed anger after a cache of records from cases against the late financier, who amassed a fortune and circulated among rich and famous people, were released Friday with many pages blacked out and photos censored.

Several images were removed from the trove after being published on Friday evening — including one of Trump.

“It’s all about covering up things that, for whatever reason, Donald Trump doesn’t want to go public either about himself, other members of his family, friends,” Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The tranche of materials that the Department of Justice (DOJ) released included photographs of former president Bill Clinton and other famous names such as pop stars Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.

But the many redactions — and allegations of missing documents — only added to calls for justice in a case that has long fueled conspiracy theories from Trump’s right-wing base.

The DOJ said it was protecting victims with the blackouts and defended its decision to retract some files.

“Photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information,” said a DOJ statement.

– Republican: ‘Selective concealment’ –

Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has long pushed for complete disclosure of the files, on Sunday echoed the Democrats’ demands.

“They’re flouting the spirit and the letter of the law. It’s very troubling the posture that they’ve taken. And I won’t be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied,” he told CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

A 60-count indictment that implicates many rich and powerful people were not released, Massie charged.

“It’s about the selective concealment,” he said.

Senator Rand Paul, a fellow Kentucky Republican and frequent critic of Trump, warned during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that any evidence “that there’s not a full reveal on this, this will just plague them for months and months more.”

Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The president bowed to mounting pressure from Congress — including members of his own party — and signed the law compelling publication of the materials.

The Republican president, who once moved in the same party scene as Epstein, cut ties with him years before his arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader said on ABC’s “This Week” that justice officials must provide written explanation to Congress within 15 days why they withheld any documents.

“It does appear, of course, that this initial document release is inadequate. It falls short of what the law requires,” Jeffries said.

At least one file contained dozens of censored images of naked or scantily clad figures, while previously unseen photographs of disgraced former prince Andrew show him lying across the legs of five women.

Other pictures show Clinton lounging in a hot tub, part of the image blacked out, and swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, remains the only person convicted in connection with his crimes, and is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for the former banker, whose death was ruled a suicide.

He said that he always thought Epstein was “odd” but “had no inkling of the crimes he was committing”.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was ordered to leave Royal Lodge, his residence in Windsor, following weeks of scrutiny over his links to Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, his accuser. He has always denied the claims and any other wrongdoing.

Ms Lacerda met Epstein in 2002 when she was recruited by a friend, who did not give her details other than that she could make money massaging someone.

Ms Lacerda, a Brazilian immigrant, was sharing a single bedroom with her mother and sister at the time and saw it as an opportunity to support her family.

“It got to the point where I think I got really desperate for money,” she said. However, she could not face working for him any more after being forced to recruit young girls.

She said: “I didn’t want to bring any more underage girls, being 17 and having some knowledge of what was really going on there.

“You had no choice but to bring him somebody because he’s so persistent and just he wanted to have, you know, a new face, a new girl.”

MISOGYNY U$A

Boys at her school shared AI-generated, nude images of her. After a fight, she was the one expelled

HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JACK BROOK
Sun, December 21, 2025 
\

A school bus carries children at the end of a school day at Sixth Ward Middle School in Thibodaux, La., on Dec, 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) — The teasing was relentless. Nude images of a 13-year-old girl and her friends, generated by artificial intelligence, were circulating on social media and had become the talk of a Louisiana middle school.

The girls begged for help, first from a school guidance counselor and then from a sheriff’s deputy assigned to their school. But the images were shared on Snapchat, an app that deletes messages seconds after they’re viewed, and the adults couldn’t find them. The principal had doubts they even existed.

Among the kids, the pictures were still spreading. When the 13-year-old girl stepped onto the Lafourche Parish school bus at the end of the day, a classmate was showing one of them to a friend.

“That’s when I got angry,” the eighth grader recalled at her discipline hearing.

Fed up, she attacked a boy on the bus, inviting others to join her. She was kicked out of Sixth Ward Middle School for more than 10 weeks and sent to an alternative school. She said the boy whom she and her friends suspected of creating the images wasn’t sent to that alternative school with her. The 13-year-old girl’s attorneys allege he avoided school discipline altogether.

When the sheriff's department looked into the case, they took the opposite actions. They charged two of the boys who'd been accused of sharing explicit images — and not the girl.

The Louisiana episode highlights the nightmarish potential of AI deepfakes. They can, and do, upend children's lives — at school, and at home. And while schools are working to address artificial intelligence in classroom instruction, they often have done little to prepare for what the new tech means for cyberbullying and harassment.

Once again, as kids increasingly use new tech to hurt one another, adults are behind the curve, said Sergio Alexander, a research associate at Texas Christian University focused on emerging technology.

“When we ignore the digital harm, the only moment that becomes visible is when the victim finally breaks,” Alexander said.

In Lafourche Parish, the school district followed all its protocols for reporting misconduct, Superintendent Jarod Martin said in a statement. He said a “one-sided story” had been presented of the case that fails to illustrate its "totality and complex nature.”

A girl’s nightmare begins with rumors

After hearing rumors about the nude images, the 13-year-old said she marched with two friends — one nearly in tears — to the guidance counselor around 7 a.m. on Aug. 26. The Associated Press isn’t naming her because she is a minor and because AP doesn’t normally name victims of sexual crimes.

She was there for moral support, not initially realizing there were images of her, too, according to testimony at her school disciplinary hearing.

Ultimately, the weeks-long investigation at the school in Thibodaux, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of New Orleans, uncovered AI-generated nude images of eight female middle school students and two adults, the district and sheriff's office said in a joint statement.

“Full nudes with her face put on them” is how the girl’s father, Joseph Daniels, described them.

Until recently, it took some technical skill to make realistic deepfakes. Technology now makes it easy to pluck a photo off social media, “nudify” it and create a viral nightmare for an unsuspecting classmate.

Most schools are “just kind of burying their heads in the sand, hoping that this isn’t happening,” said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and professor of criminology at Florida Atlantic University.

Lafourche Parish School District was just starting to develop policies on artificial intelligence. The school-level AI guidance mainly addressed academics, according to documents provided through a records request. The district also hadn’t updated its training on cyberbullying to reflect the threat of AI-generated, sexually explicit images. The curriculum its schools used was from 2018.

A school investigation hits obstacles

Although the girls at Sixth Ward Middle School hadn’t seen the images firsthand, they heard about them from boys at school. Based on those conversations, the girls accused a classmate and two students from other schools of creating and spreading the nudes on Snapchat and possibly TikTok.

The principal, Danielle Coriell, said an investigation came up cold that day as no student took responsibility. The deputy assigned to the school searched social media for the images unsuccessfully, according to a recording of the disciplinary hearing.

“I was led to believe that this was just hearsay and rumors,” the girl’s father said, recounting a conversation he had that morning with the school counselor.

But the girl was miserable, and a police incident report showed more girls were reporting that they were victims, too. The 13-year-old returned to the counselor in the afternoon, asking to call her father. She said she was refused.

Her father says she sent a text message that said, “Dad,” and nothing else. They didn't talk. With the mocking unrelenting, the girl texted her sister, “It’s not getting handled.”

As the school day wound down, the principal was skeptical. At the disciplinary hearing, the girl’s attorney asked why the sheriff's deputy didn’t check the phone of the boy the girls were accusing and why he was allowed on the same bus as the girl.

“Kids lie a lot,” responded Coriell, the principal. “They lie about all kinds of things. They blow lots of things out of proportion on a daily basis. In 17 years, they do it all the time. So to my knowledge, at 2 o’clock when I checked again, there were no pictures.”

A fight breaks out on the school bus

When the girl stepped onto the bus 15 minutes later, the boy was showing the AI-generated images to a friend. Fake nude images of her friends were visible on the boy’s phone, the girl said, a claim backed up by a photo taken on the bus. A video from the school bus showed at least a half-dozen students circulating the images, said Martin, the superintendent, at a school board meeting.

“I went the whole day with getting bullied and getting made fun of about my body,” the girl said at her hearing. When she boarded the bus, she said, anger was building up.

After seeing the boy and his phone, she slapped him, said Coriell, the principal. The boy shrugged off the slap, a video shows.

She hit him a second time. Then, the principal said, the girl asked aloud: “Why am I the only one doing this?” Two classmates hit the boy, the principal said, before the 13-year-old climbed over a seat and punched and stomped on him.

Video of the fight was posted on Facebook. “Overwhelming social media sentiment was one of outrage and a demand that the students involved in the fight be held accountable,” the district and sheriff’s office said in their joint statement released in November.

The girl had no past disciplinary problems, but she was assigned to an alternative school as the district moved to expel her for a full semester — 89 school days.

Weeks later, a boy is charged

It was on the day of the girl’s disciplinary hearing, three weeks after the fight, that the first of the boys was charged.

The student was charged with 10 counts of unlawful dissemination of images created by artificial intelligence under a new Louisiana state law, part of a wave of such legislation around the country. A second boy was charged in December with identical charges, the sheriff's department said. Neither was identified by authorities because of their ages.

The girl would face no charges because of what the sheriff’s office described as the “totality of the circumstances.”

At the disciplinary hearing, the principal refused to answer questions from the girl’s attorneys about what kind of school discipline the boy would face.

The district said in a statement that federal student privacy laws prohibit it from discussing individual students’ disciplinary records. Gregory Miller, an attorney for the girl, said he has no knowledge of any school discipline for the classmate accused of sharing the images.

Ultimately, the panel expelled the 13-year-old. She wept, her father said.

“She just felt like she was victimized multiple times — by the pictures and by the school not believing her and by them putting her on a bus and then expelling her for her actions,” he said in an interview.

The fallout sends a student off course

After she was sent to the alternative school, the girl started skipping meals, her father said. Unable to concentrate, she completed none of the school's online work for several days before her father got her into therapy for depression and anxiety.

Nobody initially noticed when she stopped doing her assignments, her father said.

“She kind of got left behind,” he said.

Her attorneys appealed to the school board, and another hearing was scheduled for seven weeks later.

By then, so much time had passed that she could have returned to her old school on probation. But because she’d missed assignments before getting treated for depression, the district wanted her to remain at the alternative site another 12 weeks.

For students who are suspended or expelled, the impact can last years. They're more likely to be suspended again. They become disconnected from their classmates, and they’re more likely to become disengaged from school. They're more likely to have lower grades and lower graduation rates.

“She’s already been out of school enough,” one of the girl's attorneys, Matt Ory, told the board on Nov. 5. “She is a victim.

“She,” he repeated, “is a victim.”

Martin, the superintendent, countered: “Sometimes in life we can be both victims and perpetrators.”

But the board was swayed. One member, Henry Lafont, said: “There are a lot of things in that video that I don’t like. But I’m also trying to put into perspective what she went through all day.” They allowed her to return to campus immediately. Her first day back at school was Nov. 7, although she will remain on probation until Jan. 29.

That means no dances, no sports and no extracurricular activities. She already missed out on basketball tryouts, meaning she won’t be able to play this season, her father said. He finds the situation “heartbreaking.”

“I was hoping she would make great friends, they would go to the high school together and, you know, it’d keep everybody out of trouble on the right tracks,” her father said. “I think they ruined that.”

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60 MINUTES SPIKED

CBS Journalist Says Bari Weiss Spiked Segment on Notorious El Salvador Prison for ‘Political’ Reasons

“When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship,” wrote veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.


A man is escorted by a CECOT guard on February 6, 2024 in San Vicente, El Salvador.
(Photo by Alex Peña/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Dec 22, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


A CBS News correspondent on Sunday accused Bari Weiss, the outlet’s editor-in-chief, of pulling a “60 Minutes” segment on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison for “political” reasons, shortly before it was scheduled to air.

Late Sunday afternoon, “60 Minutes” said in an editor’s note that the broadcast lineup for the night had been “updated,” removing the planned “Inside CECOT” segment. The note said the report on the maximum-security prison—to which the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants—would “air in a future broadcast,” without providing any specifics.

Bari Weiss: Bounds of ‘Acceptable Debate’ at CBS News Will Range From Alan Dershowitz to Dana Loesch

In an internal email obtained by the New York Times, veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the segment, said she learned on Saturday that “Bari Weiss spiked our story” and did not grant the journalist’s request for a phone call to discuss the decision.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

CBS News is owned by Paramount Skydance, a company headed by David Ellison—the son of Trump ally and GOP megadonor Larry Ellison

Alfonsi went on to note that “60 Minutes” had “been promoting this story on social media for days,” and “when it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship.”

“I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,” she added.

Below is a trailer of the shelved segment, which included interviews with people sent to CECOT. Alfonsi said participants “risked their lives to speak with us.”

In a statement issued late Sunday, Weiss—whose brief tenure at the helm of CBS News has been embroiled in controversy—suggested she pulled the plug on the “Inside CECOT” segment because it lacked “sufficient context” and was “missing critical voices.” Unnamed people familiar with internal discussions at CBS News told the Times that Weiss pushed for the inclusion of a “fresh interview” with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, an architect of President Donald Trump’s lawless mass deportation campaign.

But Alfonsi wrote in her email that “we requested responses to questions and/or interviews with [the Department of Homeland Security], the White House, and the State Department,” but the requests went unanswered.

“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO,” Alfonsi wrote. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.”

The decision to spike the CECOT segment has further inflamed internal tensions at CBS News over Weiss’ leadership. CNN reported that “some employees are threatening to quit” over the move.

“It is unclear when Weiss first viewed the [CECOT] story,” CNN noted. “But she has recently become personally involved in ‘60 Minutes’ stories about politics, the CBS sources told CNN.”

CBS News 'torched' over last-minute cancellation of report on Trump's 'concentration camp'

Travis Gettys
December 21, 2025 

ALTERNET


FILE PHOTO: Inmates sit inside a jail during a media tour at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File Ph

The network's flagship news magazine had been scheduled to broadcast a report Sunday on a group of Venezuelan men thought they were being deported back to their country of origin, but instead, they were delivered to CECOT, until the plans were scrapped about two hours before the program was set to air.

"The broadcast lineup for tonight's edition of 60 minutes has been updated," the program posted on its social media accounts. "Our report 'Inside CECOT' will air in a future broadcast."

The decision sparked criticism and raised questions about its newly installed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss immediately.

"Murrow dies again," sighed popular Bluesky account Grudgie the Whale.

"A news program with a legacy built up over 55 years," lamented Bluesky user Skeet Child O' Mine. "All torched by Bari Weiss in under a year."


"I grew up watching 60 Minutes every Sunday with my dad," stated Bluesky user Lee Marvin Oswald. "I continued that tradition with my own family. No more. You have really failed us. What a sad end to such a storied and long-running institution. And for what? Pathetic."

"Bari Weiss going from purported brave defender of free speech and open debate to chief censor of reporting about a federal concentration camp is so grimly hilarious," opined Bluesky user Stephen Judkins.

"Bari Weiss is really bad at her job," posted journalist Dave Itzkoff, "until you realize it's her job to be really bad at her job, in which case she is excellent at her job."

"WOW. They're not going to air their special on CECOT," noted popular Bluesky user Mueller, She Wrote. "I'd like to know who made this decision, and whether the federal government had a hand in it."

"Perhaps we should film a debate between a concentration camp guard and an abandoned toilet over whether CECOT is good," suggested journalist Matt Pearce, alluding to another highly criticized recent decision by CBS News. "Brought to you by Bank of America."

"What changed between now & Friday’s press release about this now delayed (or actually canceled?) @60minutes.bsky.social segment on the CECOT torture prison? Seems very odd," pondered journalist Jennifer Schulze. "Anyone know if 60 Minutes has ever delayed a piece at the last minute before?"

"Bari’s CBS pulled their CECOT report which included interviews with immigrants who were tortured in this concentration camp," said journalist Krystall Ball. "The Trump regime does not want you to know what was done to these people."

Trump set to expand immigration crackdown in 2026 despite brewing backlash

\
Mon, December 22, 2025 at 3:27 AM MST


FILE PHOTO: U.S. federal agents smash a car window while trying to detain a man during an immigration raid, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., December 17, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: A person gestures amid tear gas as law enforcement officers advance to disperse demonstrators near U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Portland, Oregon, U.S., October 4, 2025. REUTERS/John Rudoff/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: U.S. military members walk near the Washington Monument, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department under the Home Rule Act and the deployment of the National Guard to assist in crime prevention in the nation's capital, in Washington, D.C., August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

FILE PHOTO: Police officers check individuals at the Anacostia bus station in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 20, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez/File Photo


FILE PHOTO: Federal agents chase a man through a parking lot in the Avondale neighborhood following a confrontation during immigration raids, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 25, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska/File Photo


By Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by raiding more workplaces — even as backlash builds ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Trump has already surged immigration agents into major U.S. cities, where they swept through neighborhoods and clashed with residents. While ​federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and Border Patrol ‌will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 - a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July.

Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centers, pick up ‌more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Miami, one of the cities most affected by Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the president. Other local elections and polling have suggested rising concern among voters wary of aggressive immigration tactics.

"People are beginning to see this not as an immigration question anymore as much as it is a violation of rights, a violation of due process and militarizing neighborhoods extraconstitutionally," said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican ⁠political strategist. "There is no question that is a problem for the president and Republicans."

Trump’s ‌overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in several major U.S. cities, to 41% in mid-December, for what had been his strongest issue.

Rising public unease has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and detaining U.S. citizens.

'NUMBERS WILL EXPLODE'

In addition to expanding enforcement ‍actions, Trump has stripped hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants of temporary legal status, expanding the pool of people who could be deported as the president promises to remove 1 million immigrants each year – a goal he almost certainly will miss this year. So far, some 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office in January.

White House border czar Tom Homan told Reuters Trump had delivered on his promise of a historic deportation operation and removing criminals while shutting down illegal immigration across ​the U.S.-Mexico border. Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more officers and expands detention capacity with the new funding.

“I think you're going to see the numbers explode greatly next year,” Homan said.

Homan ‌said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at workplaces

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, said U.S. businesses have been reluctant to push back on Trump's immigration crackdown in the past year but could be prompted to speak up if the focus turns to employers.

Pierce said it will be interesting to see "whether or not businesses finally stand up to this administration."

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House promising record levels of deportations, saying it was needed after years of high levels of illegal immigration under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. He kicked off a campaign that dispatched federal agents to U.S. cities in search of possible immigration offenders, sparking protests and lawsuits over racial profiling and violent tactics.

Some businesses shut down to avoid raids or because of a lack of customers. Parents vulnerable to arrest kept their children home from school or had neighbors walk them. Some U.S. citizens started carrying passports.

Despite ⁠the focus on criminals in its public statements, government data shows that the Trump administration has been arresting more people who have ​not been charged with any crimes beyond their alleged immigration violations than previous administrations.

Some 41% of the roughly 54,000 people arrested by ICE ​and detained by late November had no criminal record beyond a suspected immigration violation, agency figures show. In the first few weeks in January, before Trump took office, just 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or previously convicted.

The Trump administration has taken aim at legal immigrants as well. Agents have arrested spouses of ‍U.S. citizens at their green card interviews, pulled people from ⁠certain countries out of their naturalization ceremonies, moments before they were to become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas.

PLANS TO TARGET EMPLOYERS


The administration’s planned focus on job sites in the coming year could generate many more arrests and affect the U.S. economy and Republican-leaning business owners.

Replacing immigrants arrested during workplace raids could lead to higher labor costs, undermining Trump’s fight against inflation, which analysts expect to be a major issue ⁠in the closely watched November elections, determining control of Congress.

Administration officials earlier this year exempted such businesses from enforcement on Trump’s orders, then quickly reversed, Reuters reported at the time.

Some immigration hardliners have called for more workplace enforcement.

"Eventually you’re going to have to go after these ‌employers,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs lower levels of immigration. “When that starts happening the employers will start cleaning up their acts on their own.”

Another man dies at ICE facility near Philipsburg. Advocates renew calls for closure

Bret Pallotto
Fri, December 19, 2025 

The sign for the GEO Group’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an immigration detention facility, in Clearfield County.

A man died Sunday at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, marking the second death at the privately owned immigration detention facility this year and the third in the past four.

Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, 46, from the African country of Eritrea, died about 3:21 a.m. Sunday in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after experiencing what the federal agency described in a news release as medical distress.

Hours after ICE announced his death Friday, the Shut Down Detention Campaign renewed calls for Clearfield County’s governing body to end its contracts with ICE and the company that operates the facility.

“Imam Fouad’s death is not an isolated tragedy, it is the predictable outcome of a violent detention system that continues to cage people for profit and punishment,” the group said in a written statement. “... No amount of ‘oversight’ can fix a profit-driven system that treats human beings as disposable, a system designed to cage people.”

The cause of Abdulkadir’s death is being investigated. Messages left Friday afternoon with state police at Clearfield and the Clearfield County Coroner’s Office were not immediately returned. He was a father of four.

ICE said medical staff transported him to the medical department, contacted local emergency medical services and began CPR after Abdulkadir complained of chest pain. EMS personnel pronounced him dead after arriving at the facility that’s about three miles from Philipsburg.

He was in ICE custody for about seven months and was waiting for a hearing with the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review.

Immigration rights advocates have long called for the closure of the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest federal immigration detention center in the Northeast. It is owned and operated by the Florida-based GEO Group.

Chaofeng Ge, a 32-year-old Chinese citizen and New York City resident, died by suicide in August. He was found hanging by his neck in a shower stall and his family said his hands were bound behind his back.

Frankline Okpu, a 37-year-old Cameroonian national, died in December 2023 of ecstasy toxicity combined with other three other significant conditions. His death was ruled accidental. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said he was found unresponsive while in solitary confinement.

Each death resulted in a lawsuit seeking greater transparency from ICE. A 59-page report also detailed what it described as “punitive, inhumane, and dangerous” conditions at the facility.

Abdulkadir was a native of Saudia Arabia. ICE said he adjusted his status in the U.S. to a lawful permanent resident in April 2018, though records showed he had no claim to citizenship. The Shut Down Detention Campaign said he was a green-card holder.

He was convicted by a jury in December 2023 of wire fraud and theft of public money. He was accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $80,000 in benefits from three public assistance programs. Abdulkadir had appealed his conviction.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi sentenced him in April 2024 to one year and nine months in federal prison, as well as three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $80,000 in restitution.

The judge said he “manipulated and controlled others for selfish financial gain,” Cleveland.com reported. A federal prosecutor described him as a “conman.” Nearly four dozen people wrote letters to Lioi seeking leniency.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations took him into custody in July 2024 and transported him to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center.

The Shut Down Detention Campaign said Abdulkadir was an imam and former leader at the Islamic Center of Northeast Ohio. A GoFundMe — which has raised more than $9,000 to cover his funeral expenses — described him as a “gentle guide who illuminated our paths.”

The page said he died while “unjustly incarcerated, after pleading for medical care for over a year.”

“He spent his life selflessly caring for others, nurturing our children with the wisdom of the Quran, healing family rifts, and offering kindness to everyone he met,” the page said. “His boundless generosity touched countless souls, and the space he leaves behind feels immeasurably quiet and deep.”

A record average of 1,600 people were at the detention center as of Nov. 28, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data distribution organization founded at Syracuse University. The facility has a capacity of 1,876.

Trump removes nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial positions

MATTHEW LEE
Sun, December 21, 2025 


President Donald Trump holds a cell phone with a call to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as he departs on Air Force One at Rocky Mount-Wilson Regional Airport, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Elm City, N.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts as it moves to reshape the U.S. diplomatic posture abroad with personnel deemed fully supportive of President Donald Trump’s “America First” priorities.

The chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.

All of them had taken up their posts in the Biden administration but had survived an initial purge in the early months of Trump’s second term that targeted mainly political appointees. That changed on Wednesday when they began to receive notices from officials in Washington about their imminent departures.

Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president although they typically remain at their posts for three to four years. Those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them, the officials said.

The State Department declined to comment on specific numbers or ambassadors affected, but defended the changes, calling them “a standard process in any administration.” It noted that an ambassador is “a personal representative of the president and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.”

Africa is the continent most affected by the removals, with ambassadors from 13 countries being removed: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda.

Second is Asia, with ambassadorial changes coming to six countries: Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam affected.

Four countries in Europe (Armenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia) are affected; as are two each in the Middle East (Algeria and Egypt); South and Central Asia (Nepal and Sri Lanka); and the Western Hemisphere (Guatemala and Suriname).

Politico was the first to report on the ambassadorial recalls, which have drawn concern from some lawmakers and the union representing American diplomats.

US awards no-bid contract to Denmark scientists studying hepatitis B vaccine in African babies

The contract did not undergo a customary ethics review

MIKE STOBBE
Fri, December 19, 2025


FILE - This 1981 electron microscope image made available by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows hepatitis B virus particles, indicated in orange. (Dr. Erskine Palmer/CDC via AP, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has awarded a $1.6 million, no-bid contract to a Danish university to study hepatitis B vaccinations on newborns in Africa that is raising ethical concerns.

The unusual contract was awarded to scientists who have been cited by anti-vaccine activists and whose work has been questioned by leading public health experts. Some experts have suggested the research plan is unethical, because it will withhold vaccines that work from newborns at significant risk of infection.

The contract did not undergo a customary ethics review, The Associated Press has learned.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the grant to a research team at the University of Southern Denmark that has been lauded by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a federal notice posted this week.

One of the team's leaders is Christine Stabell Benn, a consultant for a Kennedy-appointed committee that recently voted to stop recommending a dose of hepatitis B vaccine for all U.S. newborns.

The study is to begin early next year in Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished West African nation where hepatitis B infection is common. The researchers are funded for five years to study 14,000 newborns.

It’s to be a randomized controlled trial, with some infants given the hepatitis B vaccine at birth and some not. Children will be tracked for death, illness and long-term developmental outcomes.

Most of the children will be followed for less than two years to look for side effects, but the first 500 enrolled will be followed for five years to look for behavior and brain development problems. There is no placebo involved, according to a copy of the study protocol prepared earlier this year that was obtained by the AP.

Hepatitis B can be passed from an infected mother to a baby. It also can be spread by other infected people a baby comes in contact with.

Research and widespread medical consensus holds that the hepatitis B vaccine protects newborns, so withholding it from some babies — in this case, Black babies — has raised ethical alarms.

Medical evidence is clear that the vaccine protects infants from developing liver disease and an early death. The well-documented infection risk far outweighs hypothetical concerns about side effects, said Dr. Boghuma K. Titanji, an Emory University infectious diseases doctor.

She called the study “unconscionable,” and said it likely will exacerbate existing vaccine hesitancy in Africa and elsewhere.

“There’s so much potential for this to be a harmful study,” said Titanji, who is from Cameroon.

Benn did not respond to an email seeking comment about the proposal. An automatic response said she is out of the office until early January.

But, in a statement, the research team said the study “will be the first and likely the only one of its kind.”

They said it takes advantage of an unusual window of opportunity: Guinea-Bissau doesn't currently recommended a birth dose of the hep B vaccine, but the nation will be implementing universal vaccination of newborns in 2027.

Vaccine skeptics and opponents have suggested that all the vaccine's possible side effects were inadequately studied before the CDC began recommending it for newborns in 1991. Public health experts counter that over more than three decades no serious side effect has been documented.

The award is highly unusual. The CDC did not announce a research funding opportunity and invite proposals.

The proposal was unsolicited and the award did not go through customary review, said a CDC official with knowledge of the decision. Department of Health and Human Services officials told CDC officials to approve it and said HHS would provide special funding for it, the CDC official said.

In private communications channels, CDC staffers were expressing outrage about the award, said the official, who is not authorized to talk about it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some of those CDC scientists have compared the work to the infamous Tuskegee Study, which the agency oversaw in its later stages. In that decades-long study, health workers withheld treatment from unsuspecting Black men infected with syphilis so doctors could track the horrible ravages of the disease.

Like Tuskegee, this study involves the prospect of researchers watching people grow ill when a medical intervention could have kept them healthy, Titanji echoed.

“It is an apt comparison,” she said.

The new study's researchers say the trial was approved by a national ethics committee in Guinea-Bissau. But it did not undergo a customary ethics review within the CDC, the agency official told the AP.

In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said "we will ensure the highest scientific and ethical standards are met.”

Public health scientists noted questions have been raised in the past about research led by Benn and her husband, Peter Aaby, in their Bandim Health Project.

Other Danish researchers who reviewed Aaby and Benn's work have described questionable research practices. Earlier this year, former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden wrote an editorial calling a 2017 study co-authored by Aaby and Benn “fundamentally flawed."

Several researchers had harsh words about the latest award.

“Aaby and Benn are doing the Guinea-Bissau HBV vaccine depravation trial," Carl Bergstrom, a University of Washington evolutionary biologist, wrote in a post on Bluesky. "Did RFK Jr. just call up the first name in the antivax yellow pages?”

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virus expert at the University of Saskatchewan, said Kennedy was giving taxpayers' money to his “cronies” for a “grossly unethical study that will expose African babies to hep B for no reason.”

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