Trump closing Kennedy Center was 'complete surprise' even to his handpicked board: report

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he attends the premiere of the documentary film "Melania" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, recently renamed to include U.S. President Donald Trump's name, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 29, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

Adam Lynch

February 10, 2026 

| 08:55PM ET

The Daily Beast's "The Swamp" newsletter reports Trump’s announcement of the closure of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was a surprise to everyone — including the people in charge of it.

“Well-placed sources have told The Swamp that Trump’s decision blindsided nearly everyone involved — including, awkwardly, [Interim Executive Director/President] Ric Grenell and his inner circle,” the Beast reported.

“It cannot be overstated the degree to which this came as a complete surprise to everybody in the organization, including the office of the president,” one insider said of Grenell, who replaced long-time president Deborah Rutter after Trump fired her last year.

“Painfully low ticket sales” were already forcing the cancellation of singer-songwriter Ben Rector’s upcoming Kennedy Center as well as the National Symphony Orchestra’s “American Promise” show. But Trump’s unexpected closure announcement, coupled with numerous cancellations either due to outrage of the center’s clumsy new name or poor did nothing for “Grenell’s optics.”

“On Monday night, the Kennedy Center’s social account posted a photo of [Grenell] striding through Capitol Hill (in what appeared to be red-soled Louboutin shoes) to ‘discuss responsible use of taxpayer dollars to renovate the Kennedy Center.’” The image landed less as reassurance than as performance art — one man power-walking through Congress while the institution he oversees hemorrhages artists, audiences, cultural significance, and credibility,” the Beast reported.

Meanwhile anonymous sources tell the Beast that the shutdown was seen by those inside the institution as an effort to “control the narrative.”

“But that narrative is slipping fast,” reported the Beast. “Artists are pulling out of contracts. New shows are refusing to book. Ticket buyers are staying home. And staff morale, already fragile, is sinking further as uncertainty spreads.

Other sources say the closure was also a move to bust the professional labor unions at the Kennedy Center, which are heading into negotiations this spring and summer.

“New management has made little effort to hide its disdain for unions, labor costs, and regulatory constraints. The goal, insiders say, is a shift toward a more ‘commercial model’ — a phrase that tends to translate as fewer protections, cheaper labor, and more pliable workers,” according to the Beast.

New details expose extensive prep behind Trump admin's controversial raid

(REUTERS)
Doug Bock Clark,
Jeremy Kohlerand
ProPublica

February 14, 2026

ALTERNET

The Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, has taken part in meetings since last fall with lawyers tasked by President Donald Trump to reinvestigate his loss to Joe Biden.

Thomas Albus, whom Trump appointed last year as U.S. attorney for Missouri’s Eastern District, has had multiple meetings set up with top administration lawyers to discuss election integrity.

At those meetings was Ed Martin, a Justice Department lawyer who until recently led a group investigating what the president has described as the department’s “weaponization” against him and his allies, according to a source familiar with the meetings who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

White House lawyer Kurt Olsen, who has been tasked with reinvestigating the 2020 election, also was directed to join at least one of the meetings, according to the source. Both Martin and Olsen worked on behalf of Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results, and a federal court sanctioned Olsen for making false claims about the reliability of voting machines in Arizona.

The meetings reveal new details about the length of the preparations for, and people involved in, the January FBI raid on Fulton County, which election and legal experts told ProPublica was a significant escalation in Trump’s breaking of democratic norms.


U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi picked Albus and has granted him special authority to handle election-related cases nationwide, even though his earlier work as a federal prosecutor didn’t involve election law or election-related cases. The meetings with Martin, Olsen and other lawyers for the Justice Department were described by the source as being about “election integrity,” a term the Trump administration has used to describe investigations into its false claims that elections are rigged.

Martin, Olsen, Albus and others declined to answer questions about the meetings and other detailed questions from ProPublica. The White House and the Justice Department also did not respond to questions.

The meetings came at a particularly crucial time.

Martin’s efforts to obtain election materials from Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, had hit a wall. In August, he sent a letter demanding that a Fulton County judge allow him to access tens of thousands of absentee ballots for “an investigation into election integrity here at the Department of Justice,” but he had reportedly received no reply.

Martin explained to Steve Bannon on a podcast that aired around the time of the meetings that although the White House had given Olsen the official mandate to reinvestigate the 2020 election, “inside DOJ, myself and a couple of others have been working also on the same topic” — including getting the Fulton County ballots. But Martin described progress as a “challenge.”

Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in his first term, asked why Martin didn’t just “get some U.S. marshals to go down and seize” the ballots.


Martin suggested it was easier said than done, but agreed: “Look, we’ve got to get” the ballots.

Before long, Albus and Olsen were interviewing witnesses for their case. Kevin Moncla, a conservative researcher, told ProPublica that he spoke to Albus and Olsen a couple of times, both together and separately, around the turn of the year. He identified himself as Witness 7 in the affidavit that persuaded a judge to sign off on the raid, and the affidavit mentions a 263-page report he authored that activists believe may have justified the raid, ProPublica has reported. Moncla has a long history of working with Olsen, dating back to an attempt by Kari Lake, a Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, to overturn her 2022 loss.

Just a few weeks after those interviews, in late January, Albus was listed as the government attorney on the search warrant that authorized the seizure of roughly 700 boxes of election material in Georgia, far outside of Albus’ usual jurisdiction.

Former U.S. attorneys from both parties said it was rare for a federal prosecutor from one region to take on cases in other states or be granted the nationwide authority Albus has been given.


Under Trump, senior roles across the White House, DOJ and FBI have increasingly been filled by a small, interconnected group of Missouri lawyers with longstanding ties to one another.

Another top federal official in the meetings was Jesus Osete, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights. Before joining the Justice Department, Osete worked in the Missouri attorney general’s office, where he represented the state in at least five lawsuits against the Biden administration regarding vaccine mandates, immigration and other policies. Osete did not respond to requests for comment or to a detailed list of questions.

When the FBI raided Fulton County’s election center, Andrew Bailey, another lawyer from the same political circles, was in charge. Before joining the FBI as deputy director, he had used his position as Missouri’s attorney general to pursue high-profile cases against prominent Democrats and said he supported all efforts to investigate Biden, his family and his administration.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to answer detailed questions about Bailey.


Last year, Roger Keller, a veteran federal prosecutor from Albus’ office, was brought in to help prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud in Virginia after the original career prosecutors on the case were replaced by political appointees. After a judge dismissed the case, two federal grand juries declined to indict James again, and Keller returned to Missouri.

Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, previously served as Missouri’s solicitor general under state attorneys general Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt. He and Schmitt signed Missouri’s amicus brief supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Sauer later represented Trump in his presidential-immunity case, successfully arguing before the Supreme Court that Trump was entitled to broad immunity from prosecution.

Albus’ connection to the other Missouri lawyers goes back decades. Unlike some of the others, though, he has never held elected office or had a high public profile, nor has he waged culture-war campaigns like Bailey or Martin. Instead, he spent most of his career as a federal prosecutor and as a judge in a Missouri state circuit court.

Emails show Albus exchanging brief messages with Martin in 2007, when Albus was an assistant U.S. attorney in St. Louis and Martin was chief of staff to then-Gov. Matt Blunt. The emails were part of records from the Blunt administration that became public after being released under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.


In the email exchange, Albus put in a good word for a St. Louis lawyer who was a finalist for an appellate court judgeship, and Blunt ultimately selected that candidate.

Albus served as first assistant to Schmitt from early 2019 until Albus was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson to fill a circuit court judge vacancy in early 2020. Schmitt, now a U.S. senator, praised Albus as “one of the finest prosecutors I have ever met” when endorsing his nomination for U.S. attorney in December.

Lawyers who appeared in Albus’ court rated him as well prepared, professional and attentive, according to Missouri judicial performance reviews. They said he followed the evidence, applied the law correctly and gave clear reasons for his rulings.

Albus came under more critical scrutiny after Trump named him interim U.S. attorney last summer. Much of that attention centered on a fraud case he inherited when he took office. Prosecutors alleged that developers in St. Louis falsely claimed to be using minority- and women-owned subcontractors to qualify for city tax breaks, conduct the Justice Department has historically treated as wire fraud.

One of the defendants was represented by lawyer Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi.

The developers’ lawyers argued that even if the government’s claims were true, they were legally irrelevant because the Trump administration had taken the position that tax breaks based on race or gender were unlawful. Albus accepted those arguments and dropped the case. As part of the resolution, Albus personally hand-delivered to City Hall a check of about $1 million from one of the developers’ companies as restitution. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he intervened “to make it clear” his office wanted to drop charges and hand-delivered the check “to make sure they got it.”

In a letter to Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Congressional Democrats said the dismissal of the St. Louis case and other cases in which the Justice Department intervened on behalf of Brad Bondi’s clients raised “significant broader ethical concerns.” In the St. Louis case, and in a separate matter involving another Brad Bondi client whose charges were dropped, a Justice Department spokesperson said Pam Bondi’s relationship with her brother had “no bearing on the outcome.”

A spokesperson for the developers said their lawyers communicated only with the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis about the case and had no direct contact with Pam Bondi. He said the dismissal reflected “a recognition that this case should never have been brought in the first place.” Brad Bondi did not respond to a request for comment.

Weeks later, around the time of Albus’ meetings about election integrity, he posed with Martin in Martin’s office, flanked by a framed photo of Trump and a copy of “A Choice, Not an Echo,” the influential conservative manifesto by Phyllis Schlafly arguing that Republican voters were being manipulated by party elites and the media.

Martin posted the photo on X with the caption, “Good morning, America. How are ya’?”

Trump's former White House lawyer lays out the case for his third impeachment

Adam Lynch

February 13, 2026

ALTERNET


Ty Cobb, an attorney who served the White House under President Donald Trump’s first administration, says Democrats have their articles of impeachment writing themselves after the 2026 elections.

“With the president, you've got really extraordinary information out there: the $500 million bribe from the UAE in exchange for our ai chips, the $480 million plane from Qatar in exchange for an air force base and him parking his Venezuela oil revenue account in Qatar,” Cobb told MS NOW anchor Ari Melber.

“You know, the facts here are just extraordinary and unprecedented. This is not a matter of degree. This is a ripple in the force,” he added.

But Melber asked if Trump himself might not be the sole target of an impeachment effort. In fact, it’s easier to remove unpopular lieutenants who are embarrassing themselves with their own party. This could include rank incompetence, such as U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth exposing war plans to the public or DOP officials carrying out political prosecutions against people Trump does not like.

“You're suggesting that they could also try to impeach, say, [US AG Pam] Bondi or [US Deputy AG Todd] Blanche over politicized justice?” Melber asked.

“Certainly with regard to Bondi, who is obviously unfit for office based on her performance [before the House Judiciary Committee], [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem, who's supervising the execution of American citizens and lying about them being alleged terrorists,” said Cobb. “And then Hegseth and the multitude of classified violations that he has [exposed] as well as the war crimes being committed at his behest. All of those people should be impeached, for sure. And I expect that we will see articles introduced if the Democrats are lucky enough to take over the House.”

But Cobb added that it would have to be Democrats pushing the effort due to the flaccid nature of the Republican Party and its lockstep devotion to Trump.

“Impeachment, however, is a weak tool in the hands of a Congress where you have people like [Speaker] Mike Johnson and others willing to do whatever the president desires, and certainly not willing to honor their oaths of office to work for the American people as opposed to Donald Trump.”

Trump’s ignites an 'incompetence-corruption singularity': NYT editorial

Adam Lynch

February 14, 2026 

A New York Times panel reports that President Donald Trump’s unique fondness for yes-men making him a kind of Geiger counter for identifying miscreants.

“You know, one of the things I think the second Trump term is showing is that Trump is performing a function of ‘the great illuminator’ of the true core of people,” said Times Columnist David French. French cited as example U.S. AG Pam Bondi’s recent attempt to dodge lawmakers’ questions about why she halted a federal investigation into associates of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“The most telling moment [in her testimony] was when she tried to stop questioning about Epstein, which was ostensibly the subject of the testimony, by saying the Dow was at 50,000 … which is about as relevant as saying, ‘Why are we talking about Epstein when the Knicks won last night?’” said French. “ … [H]e really is putting in front of Pam Bondi: ‘Hey, Pam, here is your job in one corner. And here in the other corner is reason, logic, morality, and decency. You have to give up all of those things. But if you do, you can continue to be the attorney general of the United States.’ And this is the test he’s putting in front of basically everyone in Republican politics right now.”

Times Opinion Columnist Jamelle Bouie agreed, saying Trump has “selected for people whose sense of morality … is somewhat deficient.”

“Pam Bondi, [who is] not known for running a clean A.G. office in Florida, right? She’s not known for being a super scrupulous person. So, she’s primed to do exactly what Trump wants her to do,” Bouie said, adding that this effectively weeded out more scrupulous people in the administration and created a kind of distilling process for sleaze.


“The practical purpose is that when you’re asking the attorney general to do things like prosecute members of Congress, or asking the attorney general to do things like investigate the partners of people killed by your government — as was the case after Renee Good was killed — what will happen is that the good faith, highly competent, patriotic prosecutors that work for you will quit. They don’t want to do that. They want to do the thing that they signed up to do, which was enforce the law and try to bring some measure of justice to people who have been victims.”

But competence is inversely proportional to corruption, warned Bouie, so the resulting “hollowing out” of the DOJ has also left it “unable to do its actual job.”

“Well, you do wind up with this cycle where … people who have a moral core or who have a respect for our kind of government and the Constitution [leave]. And then the Trump administration continues its hiring of people who, let’s just say, have a certain ethical flexibility, and whose guiding star is the political whims of an autocratic leader, as opposed to any kind of actual values,” said Times opinion writer Michelle Cottle.


“And those people are often bottom of the barrel,” Bouie said.

“I mean, the incompetence that we’re dealing with here, it’s not just corruption — it’s corruption plus staggering levels of incompetence. And when you combined them all, you reach almost the incompetence-corruption singularity, with the effort to indict the six Democratic members of Congress,” said French. “I mean, that was impeachable stuff. That is absolutely impeachable stuff. It’s not just a direct attack on a competing branch of government. It’s also a direct attack on free speech, just basic free speech. I mean, this is about as core of speech as you can imagine.”

Trump’s 'stupid' obsession with manufacturing makes no sense: report

Donald Trump as he makes a campaign stop at manufacturer FALK Production in Walker, Michigan, U.S. September 27, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Adam Lynch

February 14, 2026 

ALTERNET


Guardian writer Eduardo Porter reports President Donald Trump’s purported dedication to U.S. manufacturing is a pointless delusion.

“There is an undeniable appeal to the hard hat and the grease-stained overalls; to the sweat on the brow of hard men in vintage posters; to the virtue of a hard day’s labor on the production line. But the American political class would do well to overcome its nostalgia for the past and forget about promises to make manufacturing great again,” said Porter.

Objectives to increase manufacturing don’t even work politically, Porter added, with one study concluding that job losses in big manufacturing counties did not push voters toward Trump in 2016. And despite Biden’s spirited efforts to grow the manufacturing sector through his Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, even rust belt counties that “benefited richly” from his incentives still voted for Trump in 2024.

“If the politics don’t work, the efforts to ‘restore’ manufacturing – which accounts for less than 8 percent of the jobs in the country – make even less sense in economic terms,” said Porter. “It’s about as sensible as a commitment to restore agriculture – which employs less than 2 percent of Americans – to the place it occupied at the center of the U.S. economy in the 19th century.”

Trump’s tariffs on imports, which the president claims gives U.S. manufacturing a boost, don’t work because more than half of American imports are “capital equipment and intermediate goods” that U.S. manufacturers assemble into finished products, often for export. About 91 percent of respondents in a National Association of Manufacturers survey admit they use imported components, and by raising the price of such inputs, Trump’s tariffs make domestic firms less competitive.

“While the Biden administration’s strategy was not quite as stupid, it was nonetheless ineffectual,” said Porter. “Indeed, despite all the help from the White House, manufacturing output has not recovered its level from before the Covid pandemic. It remains at roughly where it was 20 years ago. And manufacturing jobs show no sign of a revival.”

Porter said there is still “a valid case” for the U.S to nurture some manufacturing industries, particularly advanced semiconductors and advanced energy technologies like the kind required to reduce carbon emissions.

“But the many campaigns Washington has embarked on over the years to restore manufacturing to some image of past glory are largely driven by misplaced nostalgia,” Porter said. “It is true that manufacturing workers earn more, on average, than those employed in the service economy. But that is an argument for policies to raise wages for low-wage service sector workers.”

'Drunk on power': Experts say Trump's cult of personality rivals history's worst dictators

A 15-foot-tall gold-leafed bronze statue of U.S. President Donald Trump, designed by sculptor Alan Cottrill, at his studio in Zanesville, Ohio, U.S., February 10, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Cox

Sarah K. Burris

February 15, 2026 

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump’s cult of personality is reaching a whole new level in his second term.

New York Times reporter Peter Baker notes that Trump has always been obsessed with his own image and with slapping his name on buildings; now that impulse is escalating. It’s not just that Trump put his name above the sign for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His supporters are also building a gold‑plated bronze statue version of him. The 15-foot-tall Trump will tower over his Miami golf course. It will be called “Don Colossus,” and while the name sounds like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, the project is very real.

The branding push goes beyond his base. Baker reports that the administration is considering a new class of battleships that would also bear Trump’s name. Staff is already suggesting that Trump will name his ballroom, which will replace the East Wing, after himself. One conservative even joked that Trump should simply rename the moon after himself.

“This is a man drunk on power with an already enormous ego that was further inflated by winning the presidency again — and the popular vote,” said Sarah Matthews, a former deputy press secretary in Trump’s first administration, who, like many others, eventually walked away. “It reinforces the perception that this presidency is more about elevating one man than serving the country.”

“This is not just egotistical self‑satisfaction, it’s a way of expanding presidential power,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss said. “A president is more powerful, I assume he believes, if he is ever‑present than if he keeps his head down.”

Baker compares Trump’s self‑glorification to that of dictators such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Benito Mussolini, and writes that Trump seems unconcerned he may be heading down a dangerous path. At rallies, Trump regularly boasts of being a “strong” leader; at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he went further, embracing the label.

“Usually they say, ‘He’s a horrible dictator‑type person, I’m a dictator,’” Trump said in his trademark rambling style. “But sometimes, you need a dictator.”

Baker notes that America’s first president, George Washington, may loom large in Trump’s mind. Washington appointed the commission that ultimately named the nation’s capital after him.

“He was surprised that the commissioners chose the name, though he did not object,” biographer David O. Stewart told Baker. “As near as the evidence shows, George Washington very much liked having the city named after him. He was not without ego, and devoted great energy and attention to developing the capital city.”

Other major memorials — the Washington Monument and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials — were built after those leaders’ deaths. Jennifer Mercieca, a communications professor at Texas A&M University and author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” told the Times that, historically, presidents have not named things after themselves.

She argues there is a crucial difference between a beloved leader being honored by others and a president using political power and taxpayer dollars to plaster his own name on public projects.

Trump’s loyalists are all in. “President Trump is going to go down in history as the most successful and consequential president in our lifetime,” communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. “He built the most powerful political and cultural movement ever. His successes on behalf of the American people will be imprinted upon the fabric of America and will be felt by every other White House that comes after him.”

Trump's new commission wants to 'redefine the boundaries between government and religion'

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner leads a prayer as U.S. President Donald Trump hosts his first cabinet meeting with Elon Musk in attendance, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Sarah K. Burris

February 15, 2026  

ALTERNET

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was founded after the Wall Street Crisis and mortgage collapse that happened in 2007 and 2008, with the specific purpose of having a government agency that would regulate the financial industry for customers, not prioritize profits. But the top conversation wasn't the affordability crisis. It was prayer.

The president now welcomed prayers at the start of every government meeting. Federal employees are also encouraged to spend an hour each week in prayer while at work, CNN reported Sunday.

While Trump may not be focused on it, his allies are plotting to remake America in the image of a kind of Christian version of Sharia Law.

"By this summer, the group — Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission — is expected to produce a blueprint for policy changes that could redefine the boundaries between government and religion in American life," wrote CNN.

Trump told the commission that they must bring religion back to America. The group is focusing on ways to sue state and local governments that they say block "religious freedom." They'll try to block public funding of K-12 schools, they say, that are hostile to faith.

They're also watching for ways to bring cases before the Supreme Court that could give them an opportunity to remake the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars the government from endorsing a national religion.

“We are in a religious and cultural war right now, and every single one of us is a combatant,” said TV "psychologist" Dr. Phil McGraw during a September meeting. “Nobody can afford to sit on the sidelines.”

The White House continues to berate devout Catholic President Joe Biden, claiming that he "weaponized" the federal government against the church.

While the Trump commission has some Jewish and Muslim leaders on it, the panel is dominated by far-right Christianity.

It wasn't until last week that the commission broke into the popular zeitgeist, when commissioner and "former beauty pageant contestant Carrie Prejean Boller, challenged Jewish speakers about their beliefs and Israel’s war against Hamas."

She's one of many on the commission eager to talk about the "satanic" forces coming from other religions they deem incorrect.

The commission, housed in the Justice Department, issues only nonbinding recommendations, but its influence is already evident. The Education Department recently warned schools they could lose funding if they block students or staff from praying, mirroring a proposal floated at a commission hearing, and the Pentagon moved to reinstate faith into the U.S. military after commissioners pushed for more power for chaplains and a return of prayer.

Commission member Kelly Shackelford claimed the group is finding “problems” with religious freedom across schools, government, the private sector, health care, and the military.

It's all part of a wider Trump‑era shift to faith‑based units across federal agencies that have been repurposed from mainly coordinating with religious charities to actively promoting far-right Christianity.

Right-wing Catholic booted off Trump panel after remarks at antisemitism event

U.S. President Donald Trump in Clive, Iowa, January 27, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Brett Wilkins

February 12, 2026

COMMON DREAMS

A conservative Catholic was expelled from President Donald Trump’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission this week over remarks at a hearing on antisemitism in which she pushed back against those who conflate criticism of Israel and its genocidal war on Gaza with hatred of Jewish people.

Religious Liberty Commission Chair Dan Patrick, who is also Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor, announced Wednesday that Carrie Prejean Boller had been ousted from the panel, writing on X that “no member... has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue.”


“This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America,” he claimed. “This was my decision.”

Patrick added that Trump “respects all faiths”—even though at least 13 of the commission’s remaining 15 members are Christian, only one is Jewish, and none are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or other religions to which millions of Americans adhere. A coalition of faith groups this week filed a federal lawsuit over what one critic described as the commission’s rejection of “our nation’s religious diversity and prioritizing one narrow set of conservative ‘Judeo-Christian’ beliefs.”

Noting that Israeli forces have killed “tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza,” Prejean Boller asked panel participant and University of California Los Angeles law student Yitzchok Frankel, who is Jewish, “In a country built on religious liberty and the First Amendment, do you believe someone can stand firmly against antisemitism... and at the same time, condemn the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, or reject political Zionism, or not support the political state of Israel?”

“Or do you believe that speaking out about what many Americans view as genocide in Gaza should be treated as antisemitic?” added Prejean Boller, who also took aim at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been widely condemned for conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.

Frankel replied “yes” to the assertion that anti-Zionism is antisemitic.

Prejean Boller also came under fire for wearing pins of US and Palestinian flags during Monday’s hearing.

“I wore an American flag pin next to a Palestinian flag as a moral statement of solidarity with civilians who are being bombed, displaced, and deliberately starved in Gaza,” Prejean Boller said Tuesday on X in response to calls for her resignation from the commission.

“I did this after watching many participants ignore, minimize, or outright deny what is plainly visible: a campaign of mass killing and starvation of a trapped population,” she continued. “Silence in the face of that is not religious liberty, it is moral complicity. My Christian faith calls on me to stand for those who are suffering [and] in need.”

“Forcing people to affirm Zionism as a condition of participation is not only wrong, it is directly contrary to religious freedom, especially on a body created to protect conscience,” Prejean Boller stressed. “As a Catholic, I have both a constitutional right and a God-given freedom of religion and conscience not to endorse a political ideology or a government that is carrying out mass civilian killing and starvation.”

Zionism is the movement for a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine—their ancestral birthplace—under the belief that God gave them the land. It has also been criticized as a settler-colonial and racist ideology, as in order to secure a Jewish homeland, Zionists have engaged in ethnic cleansing, occupation, invasions, and genocide against Palestinian Arabs.

Prejean Boller was Miss California in 2009 and Miss USA runner-up that same year. She launched her career as a Christian activist during the latter pageant after she answered a question about same-sex marriage by saying she opposed it. Then-businessman Trump owned most of Miss USA at the time and publicly supported Prejean Boller, saying “it wasn’t a bad answer.”

Since then, Prejean Boller has been known for her anti-LGBTQ+ statements and for paying parents and children for going without masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) commended Prejean Boller Wednesday “for using her position to oppose conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism and encourage solidarity between Muslims, Christians, and Jews,” calling her “one of a growing number of Americans, including political conservatives, who recognize that corrupted politicians have been trying to silence and smear Americans critical of the Israeli government under the guise of countering antisemitism.”

“We also condemn Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick’s baseless and predictable decision to remove her from the commission for refusing to conflate antisemitism with criticism of the Israel apartheid government,” CAIR added.

In her statement Tuesday, Prejean Boller said, “I will not be bullied.”

“I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite,” she insisted. “It makes me a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure.”

“Zionist supremacy has no place on an American religious liberty commission,” Prejean Boller added.

Trump’s brutish tactics prove he’s not a good Christian: analysis

President Donald Trump prays during a group prayer during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., February 5, 2026. REUTERS/Al Drago

Thomas Kika

February 11, 2026 

ALTERNET


Donald Trump's forceful and brutish handling of his foreign and domestic policies saw him likened to a "pagan king" in a new analysis in The New York Times, with documentary filmmaker Leighton Woodhouse arguing that he has abandoned the true ideals at the heart of "Christian values."

In a piece for the Times published Wednesday, Woodhouse took inspiration from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's comments about Trump's leadership style, which he summed up as, "the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must." Woodhouse delved extensively into the philosophies of ancient, pre-Christian societies, which he argued more closely resemble the operating philosophy of Trump's second presidency.

Trump, Woodhouse wrote, operates as is if "the weak and the vanquished" have no "inherent moral value at all," meaning that the U.S. can do whatever it likes, so long as it has the power to do so. He also cited comments last month from Trump's controversial adviser, Stephen Miller, in which he justified the president's desire to take Greenland by arguing that the world is "governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power," and that the U.S. can not be bound by "international niceties" if it has the power to do something it wants.

All of that flies in the face of the core principles of Christianity, which Trump and many others in his administration have claimed to fight for. The true values of the religion, Woodhouse explained, are based on the notion that even the weak have inherent worth, and that assaults on them are an affront to God. In this way, he concluded, Trump's conduct puts him more in line with Ancient Greek or pre-Christian Roman rulers.

"By brazenly jacking Venezuela for its oil and threatening to acquire Greenland against its will, the U.S. is acting as the ancient Greeks, the ancient Persians and the Germanic tribes conducted themselves: brutishly, without shame or apology," Woodhouse wrote.

He continued: "And the abdication of Christian values is already shaping the conduct of our government toward its citizens, as in Minneapolis, where immigration agents have killed two protesters. The Trump administration appears unconstrained not only by the limits imposed by the Constitution but by the standards of an average American’s conscience. Federal agents’ treatment of both immigrants and U.S. citizens in Minneapolis is the reflection of a government that has abandoned the moral instinct that it is wrong for the powerful to abuse the weak."

Similar analysis also recently came from The Bulwark's Andrew Egger, who wrote that Trump seems to view himself "as Christianity’s Punisher," someone willing to do the "dirty work" of committing violence to protect the faith. This, Egger argued, runs directly against the religion's core values.

"This is part of what makes Trump-brand Christianity as a cultural and political force so dangerous," Egger concluded. "Trump’s political project is seen by the MAGA faithful as utterly righteous, the work of God on earth against the forces of Satan. But he has broad license to transgress all moral boundaries as he does that work... None of this, it should probably go without saying, is compatible in the slightest with the teachings of actual Christianity. Sin is sin, the faith teaches, no matter whom it’s directed against..."

'Circular firing squad': Trump's Religious Liberty Commission derailed by 'infighting'

Evangelical Pastor Paula White with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosia/Flickr)

Carl Gibson

February 10, 2026

ALTERNET

A recent meeting of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission rapidly devolved into a shouting match between commission members over the issue of antisemitism.

That's according to a Tuesday article by MS NOW's Ja'han Jones, who wrote that several conservative Christian members of the commission got into a "fit of infighting" when discussing antisemitism on college campuses. Commission members Carrie Prejean Boller (who was Miss California U.S.A. in 2009) and Seth Dillon — who is the CEO of conservative satire site The Babylon Bee — battled over far-right commentator Tucker Carlson and whether MAGA influencer Candace Owens is antisemitic.

"I have not heard one thing out of her mouth that I would say is antisemitic," Boller said of Owens, despite Owens being named "Antisemite of the Year" in 2024 by advocacy group StopAntisemitism.

Boller also argued loudly with several Jewish commission members over the difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, the latter of which is typically defined by support for the modern state of Israel (though it is also seen as a coded attack on Jewish people). Boller, who is Catholic, proclaimed "Catholics do not embrace Zionism," and garnered boos from the crowd when condemning Islamophobia.

Now, Boller is facing calls from within the MAGA world to either resign for the commission, or for her to be removed if she refused to step down. This includes far-right commentator Laura Loomer (known as Trump's informal "loyalty enforcer") who called Boller's comments "disgraceful."

"The Trump administration should not reward individuals who openly spread anti-Jewish propaganda," Loomer tweeted.

Trump convened the Religious Liberty Commission last year, whose members include Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Dr. Phil McGraw, as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Rev. Franklin Graham, Pastor Paula White and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, among others. Their commission itself is set to disband on July 4 of this year, unless Trump chooses to extend it. Jones wrote that given the outburst at its latest meeting, the commission may likely sunset this summer.

"That MAGA world is engaged in this kind of circular firing squad over antisemitism is no surprise and, one might argue, the natural outcome for a political movement fueled by bigotry of varying sorts," Jones wrote.

Trump spat in the faces of veterans from the halls of the White House

Sabrina Haake
February 15, 2026 

RAW STORY

Parts of the winter world are frozen. Europe, the U.S. Midwest, and even southern states are enduring the worst cold in years as the North Pole rapidly melts, pushing frigid Arctic air through a weakened polar vortex into non-Arctic regions.

So far, in the U.S., power grids are holding. Although some states experienced significant power outages in late January, they were short-lived.

Ukrainians are not so lucky.

A monster tries to freeze a nation

On Feb. 13, more than half the residents of Ukraine woke up in one of the coldest winters on record with no heat, no electricity, and no water. Ukrainians are fighting both climate change and a Russian invasion, both driven by evil and greed.

When he attacked Ukraine in 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin began strategically targeting its power grid, bombing one facility more than 200 times. By December 2024, more than half of Ukraine's energy-generating capacity had been knocked out. Now, roughly 60 percent of Ukraine’s families are living without heat during an extreme subzero winter, sleeping with pets and barn animals to share body heat and keep children alive.

Putin has targeted high-voltage substations and power lines to break electricity connections within and between geographic regions. Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, Denys Shmyhal, acknowledged that there is “not a single power plant in Ukraine” that Putin hasn’t bombed. Putin’s “plan is instability through total blackout.”
An American president celebrates a war criminal

Cutting off heat, electricity and water, deliberately freezing and starving non-combatant civilians to death, is a war crime. Kidnapping young Ukrainian children, stealing them to punish, torture or indoctrinate, is also a war crime. By credible counts, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been taken in Putin’s sick push to erase Ukraine’s national identity.

Putin is not only committing high-visibility war crimes in Ukraine as he murders critics at home, he is also responsible for the deaths of more than 50,000 Ukrainians whose only offense was choosing democracy over dictatorship.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest. As a result, he is now barred from entering more than 120 nations including nearly all of Europe, where border officials would immediately arrest him for crimes against humanity.

Despite the ICC warrant, in August, 2025, Trump mocked the international rule of law and welcomed Putin on Alaskan soil.

Putin is a notorious war criminal, an international pariah hated by leaders of the free world. So, on Jan. 28, when Trump installed a framed photo of Putin, standing side by side with Trump, in the White House, the collective response was disbelief.

Leaders of the free world are aghast. As one European leader quipped, “The U.S. president considers it appropriate to hang on the White House wall a photo of the greatest war criminal of the 21st century.”

Meanwhile, Trump is too compromised — financially, politically, or cognitively — to comprehend that honoring THE enemy of NATO in the White House spits in the face of our allies, not to mention our veterans.

Get a room

Journalist Michael Andersen, who has written about Ukraine and the former U.S.S.R. for 15 years, asks whether Americans know, or even care, how this feels to people in Ukraine. He writes:

Dear Americans, your president just put up a photo in the White House of himself and the biggest war criminal of the 21st century, the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. It is ‘perfectly’ timed to mark that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year. Do you understand the feeling this provokes in Ukraine? In Europe? 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to run away from their homes, maybe 200,000 have been killed — and your country celebrates the monster responsible?


It’s a fair question.

Political analysts have long speculated that Trump owes Putin something considerable. The sooner main stream media stop sugarcoating the obvious, the better.

A love that was never free

In the late 1990s, after U.S. banks stopped lending money to the Trump Organization due to its repeated bankruptcies, Trump sought and obtained alternative financing from Russian sources. Since then, his financial ties to former Russian apparatchiks have only grown.

Trump-branded condos in New York and Florida are owned by wealthy Russians, often purchased through shell companies. In 2019, Newsweek reported that “Crime Infested” Trump Tower was home to convicted Russian criminals and “mobster tenants.” Trump’s financial ties to Russia are beyond speculation: Eric Trump told a reporter that Trump’s businesses “have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

KGB-trained Putin plays Trump like a cheap instrument: through flattery. In October, when Putin complimented Trump’s ability to “solve complex problems” and fix “crises that last for decades,” Trump ran to post a video of Putin’s praise, writing, “Thank you to President Putin!”

That Trump has solved anything, complex or otherwise, comes as a surprise to Americans suffering under his asinine tariffs, unsolved inflation, climate denial, and massive civil rights violations. That he is too stupid or narcissistic to understand how honoring Putin hurts our allies, compromising America’s vital security interests in a real and material way, is dangerous.

Michael Andersen finished his commentary on Putin’s new photograph in the White House by asking, “Where is your red line, Americans?”

If a Putin photo in the White House is fine with Americans, “How about one of Adolf Hitler?”

It’s another fair question.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Let me not mince words': DC insider blasts Kristi Noem in scathing open letter

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem,

 January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Robert Reich

February 15, 2026 

ALTERNET

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google (owner of YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing.

I’ll save them time.

Hello? Kristi Noem?

Robert Reich here. I hear you’re trying to find the names of people who are making negative comments on social media about ICE enforcement.


Look no further. I’ve done it frequently. I’m still doing it. This note to you, which I’m posting on Substack, is another example.

If you want more details, just type “Robert Reich” into an internet browser, followed by YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or X or TikTok or Reddit. Or Substack. Then type in your name, or ICE, or the Department of Homeland Security. That will give you plenty of evidence.

If you read what I’ve said, you’ll find it’s very critical. I’ve done some videos that are very critical of you and ICE, too.


Let me not mince words: I really truly believe you’re doing a s----- job.

I’ve said and will continue to say that many of the things you and ICE are doing are unconstitutional.

For example: Pulling people out of their homes in the middle of the night without search warrants. Arresting people without giving them due process of law to defend themselves. Putting innocent people into detention camps. Not giving them adequate food or medical care. Not letting their families know where they are. Sending them out of the country to brutal prisons in other lands. Even jailing children. Arresting journalists reporting on protests against you. And murdering two innocent Americans and not allowing a full criminal investigation of those murders.


All this is forbidden by the Constitution of the United States, Madam Secretary. The federal courts keep telling you this, but you and your department keep defying the courts. This is unconstitutional, too.

You’re even violating the Constitution by sending administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, and all the rest, seeking accounts like mine that criticize what you’re doing.

I have a right under the First Amendment to criticize you without fear of the consequences.

It’s my government, Madam Secretary. You see the possessive pronoun I’m using? My government. It’s your government because you’re a citizen of the United States, not because you’re a government official.


You and your boss are supposed to be working for me and every other American. You swore an oath. The people of the United States hired the two of you to do your jobs, which doesn’t including spying on us or jailing us or trying to intimidate us or murdering us.

I was once a Cabinet officer like you are, Madam Secretary. I had a big office like you do. I had a big staff, like you do. Taxpayers paid for all of it, as they do for everything you’re up to — except when Congress stops the funding, as they have now, because you’re doing so many despicable things.

When I was in the Cabinet, Madam Secretary, I was acutely aware of my responsibilities to the Constitution of the United States. I told myself every day that I had sworn an oath to uphold it. I worked very hard every day to fulfill that responsibility.

I’m not boasting or bragging. I merely did my duty.

I visited communities where my department’s inspectors were attempting to keep people safe, to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

I did what federal judges told me to do.

I invited criticism of me and my department. That was an important way to get feedback on what we were doing, to learn if we were making mistakes, to improve the way we served the public. Feedback is very useful in a democracy. You might even say it’s essential to democracy.

What the h--- are you doing, Madam Secretary?

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/

‘Most Vile Scumbags on Earth’: Critics Appalled by Explosive Report on Kristi Noem’s Corruption

“Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met given full rein of a government agency.”

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference in Nogales, Arizona, on February 4, 2026.
(Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)


Brad Reed
Feb 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


An explosive report published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday shed fresh light on what critics have described as “outrageous corruption” by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Among other things, the Journal report highlighted Noem’s relationship with top adviser Corey Lewandowski, whom sources said is romantically involved with the Trump Cabinet official despite both of them being married.

‘Easy Way or the Hard Way’: Democratic Leaders Escalate Noem Impeachment Push

Of particular note, the Journal wrote, is the way Lewandowski has taken over the contracting process at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) despite being classified as a special government employee whose service is supposed to be capped at a maximum of 130 days per year.

“Given Lewandowski’s continuing business interests in the private sector, his role in awarding contracts has raised alarm bells inside the White House and DHS,” reported the Journal. “Several officials inside the department said contracts and grants are being awarded in an opaque and arbitrary manner, and some are being held up without explanation.”

The report also claimed that Noem and Lewandowski have been flying around the country together on a luxury 737 MAX jet, complete with a private cabin.

DHS has been leasing the plane, although the Journal’s sources said it is in the process of buying it for $70 million, which “would be double the cost of each of seven other commercial planes the department is also buying at the pair’s direction to carry out deportations.”

Additionally, the report outlined allegedly abusive behavior by Noem and Lewandowski toward DHS staff members, as sources said they “frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust, and have fired employees,” including one incident where “Lewandowski fired a US Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane.”

The report generated fierce reaction from critics on social media.

“Noem and Lewandowski are like the most toxic couple you have ever met,” wrote New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, “given full rein of a government agency.”

Veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen described Noem and Lewandowski as “the most vile scumbags on Earth” after reading the report, highlighting the details about the pair flying on the luxury jet as particularly egregious.

Investigative journalist Sarah Posner found herself floored by the conduct outlined in the Journal’s report.

“There is so much crazy shit, outrageous corruption, and naked, ham-fisted ambition in this WSJ piece about Noem, Lewandowski, and DHS,” she wrote. “Read and take note of the of eye-popping number of sources who have knives out for Kristi and Corey.”

Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) argued the report showed Noem and Lewandowski “are wholly unqualified and a disaster at DHS,” and have been “been very effective in driving [President Donald] Trump’s ratings into the ditch.”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, expressed disbelief at how much power Lewandowski had accumulated despite only being a special government employee.

“How the fuck is Corey Lewandowski in any position to fire a Coast Guard pilot?” he asked. “What is his title? What is his job? What is his official position in the US government? If you are Kristi Noem’s boyfriend you get to fire Coast Guard officers?”

Congressional Report Warns TrumpRx May Lead ‘Families to Pay More to Big Pharma’

“The president should work with Democrats and Republicans to actually lower prescription drug costs for families,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, “rather than helping Big Pharma line its pockets.”


US President Donald Trump speaks about TrumpRx at the White House in Washington, DC on February 5, 2026.
(Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Feb 13, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Democratic members of the congressional Joint Economic Committee on Friday released a report warning that US families could end up spending thousands of dollars more on prescription drugs because of a website recently unveiled by President Donald Trump.

Launched last week with pharmaceutical companies, TrumpRx.gov is marketed as an aggregator to help patients save on prescription drugs by using manufacturer coupons or buying directly from manufacturers.

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However, as the new report highlights, “many of the brand-name drugs listed on TrumpRx have significantly cheaper generic alternatives, which are excluded from TrumpRx. This means that TrumpRx steers families to pay more to Big Pharma when they could be getting the same medication at a much lower price.”

“No matter what the president says, the bottom line is that TrumpRx directs families to buy expensive brand-name drugs when generic versions are available elsewhere at a fraction of the cost.”

The report provides a chart comparing TrumpRx and generic prices, both for one prescription fill and the full annual cost. It also notes the difference. In some cases, the president’s option is $10-50 more a year. However, there are also examples in which families could save hundreds or thousands of dollars with generic drugs.

For example, Colestid, a medication that lowers cholesterol, would cost $2,771.21 a year through TrumpRx, compared with $856.70 for the generic option, a difference of $1,914.51. The antidepressant Pristiq is $2,401.20 on the president’s website, versus just $320.88 for the generic, a potential yearly savings of $2,080.32.

The biggest difference featured in the document is for Tikosyn, which helps patients maintain a normal heart rhythm. The TrumpRx annual cost is $4,032, whereas the generic is only $192.68, a difference of $3,839.32.

The report also stresses how extra costs from the president’s site could stack up for households in which multiple people need medication:For example, if in one family a parent gets treatment for high cholesterol and their child gets treated for seizures, over the course of 2026 this family would pay $2,142 more if they use TrumpRx versus generic drug alternatives.
For another family where one adult gets treatment for depression while the other receives treatment for menopause symptoms, over the course of 2026 this family would pay $2,493 more if they use TrumpRx versus generic drug alternatives.

“No matter what the president says, the bottom line is that TrumpRx directs families to buy expensive brand-name drugs when generic versions are available elsewhere at a fraction of the cost,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care.

“The president should work with Democrats and Republicans to actually lower prescription drug costs for families,” Hassan argued, “rather than helping Big Pharma line its pockets.”

While the Trump White House responded defensively to the Democratic report, with spokesperson Kush Desai claiming to MS NOW that “product listings on TrumpRx.gov are in no way an endorsement for use of any prescription drug over another” and accusing Democrats of “resorting to idiotic or simply ignorant lines of attack instead of simply giving the president credit where it’s due,” the panel members aren’t alone is highlighting such cost differences.




The added cost for US families also isn’t lawmakers’ only concern about TrumpRx. Last month, shortly before the site’s launch, Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Peter Welch (Vt.) sent a letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General raising concerns about the new direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform.

“There appear to be possible conflicts of interest involved in the potential relationship between TrumpRx and an online dispensing company, BlinkRx, on whose board the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has sat since February 2025,” they wrote. “Moreover, legitimate concerns about inappropriate prescribing, conflicts of interest, and inadequate care have been raised about the exact types of DTC platforms to which TrumpRx would route patients.”

The trio also expressed alarm about high prices, noting that “pharmaceutical manufacturers who will reportedly be participating in TrumpRx have spent billions of dollars in combined advertising expenses for drugs sold on existing DTC platforms.”

“The pharmaceutical industry’s outrageous DTC advertisements fuel demand for specific medications, which balloon healthcare expenses,” the senators wrote. “We are concerned that DTC advertising, including in relation to TrumpRx, will steer customers to prescriptions that may be reimbursed by federal health programs, creating the potential for unnecessary or wasteful spending.”