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President Donald Trump required Department of Education employees to attend "diversity training" during his first term. Now, he's suspending them as he seeks to root out Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the federal government.

A new piece in Monday's Washington Post reports that Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was fully onboard with the training in 2017 when she wrote, "In building strong teams, embracing diversity and inclusion are key elements for success.”

"Now, in the opening days of Trump’s second term, dozens of employees who attended that diversity program — many during Trump’s first term — have been placed on leave because of it, according to union officials, affected employees and a person with knowledge of how the decisions were made," wrote WaPo reporters Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson.

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Education officials have been "scrubbing" the agency’s website for words like "diversity, transgender, LGBTQIA and equity," WaPo reported. "On Friday, a directive sent to department employees said the agency would terminate programs, contracts, policies or media that mention transgender or 'fail to affirm the reality of biological sex.'”

Michael Petrilli, with conservative think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, called Trump's move, "Kafkaesque" and "Orwellian.”

“It is ridiculous to threaten professionals’ livelihoods because they attended a training. Most of America attended a DEI training in 2020. This policy by keyword search will lead to all kinds of dumb outcomes and, I hope, a real backlash," Petrilli said.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department "defended the decisions to place the employees on leave" as a part of the Trump administration’s review of federal agencies, adding that the administration has "the commitment to prioritize meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in schools."

Trump's war on DEI is expected to receive extensive legal pushback, especially after a memo from the Justice Department "indicated that the department would be involved in enforcing" Trump's executive order declaring DEI "illegal."

Read The Washington Post article here.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have kicked off an investigation to root out "anti-Christian" bias within the federal government — but they should look no further than a mirror if they want to find state attacks on Christians for their faith, Rev. Paul Brandeis Rausenbush of the Interfaith Coalition told CNN's John Berman on Monday.

The fact of the matter is that the Trump administration and its allies only supports a narrow range of Christians who agree with their own beliefs — and are escalating public attacks on more liberal faith leaders, from desecrating churches that give sanctuary to migrants, to public condemnation of an Episcopalian bishop who prayed for Trump to be "merciful" and "compassionate."

"How big of a problem is anti-Christian discrimination in the federal government?" said Berman.

"Well, what's interesting is it's almost nonexistent," said Rausenbush. "I mean, there have been Christians in federal government, there have been great programs that have been run with Christian assistance in USAID. This is not a problem, but the president is actually — what he's trying to do is create a problem, which is part of a play for power. And so this is, what we've actually seen is an anti-Christian bias coming out of the White House. So we actually need protection from the White House at this point."

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"No one knows that better than people like [Bishop] Mariann Budde, who have been attacked, bullied by the president, receiving death threats, just for preaching from her pulpit that he might give mercy," he added. "We've seen the Catholic bishops being attacked by J.D. Vance for doing their work, being accused of going for the bottom line. This is gross, grotesque."

One of the biggest attacks, he continued, is tech billionaire Elon Musk's attacks on Lutheran organizations that work on refugee resettlement.

"They help the elderly, they help people across this country, doing great work. And Elon Musk comes out and says, oh, these people are money laundering," said Rausenbush. "These are all attacks directly on Christian communities. The Quakers have experienced it, with ICE being now allowed to invade congregations one after another. Christian communities under attack from this Trump-Vance-Musk administration. And it's very ironic that they're worried about anti-Christian bias, given that we need to be protected from this White House."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) first order of business in a Monday interview was to warn that future Democrats would "wipe out" President Donald Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America if Congress did not act quickly.

During an interview on the right-wing Real America's Voice network, Greene was asked about her agenda as chair of the House DOGE subcommittee and Trump's decision to revoke dozens of security clearances.

"We want to get to DOGE and the big deal that you've got going on on Wednesday here in DC. But before we get to that, what did you make of President Trump removing Biden's security clearance?" host David Brody wondered.

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"I actually don't understand why former presidents and people that are no longer working for the federal government even need security clearances," Greene opined. "But just for a minute there, you know, I want to talk about Gulf of America, David, because I introduced the bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and in complete alignment with President Trump, because future administrations, especially the Democrats, if they get control, they're going to wipe out his executive orders."

"So Congress needs to do these things and make them official," she added. "And I'm looking forward to getting that passed through the House."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Donald Trump predicted a big win for the Kansas City Chiefs, which has a quarterback who has voiced positive sentiments about him, but after the team lost a game which the President attended but wasn't a main feature, he immediately made a totally unrelated surprise announcement.

Trump after the Superbowl made a proclamation about pennies.

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!" Trump wrote on his own social media site, Truth Social. "I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time."

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The announcement caused Republicans against Trump to laugh out loud.

"Lol. Trump left the Super Bowl after watching the team he picked, the Chiefs, get slaughtered by the Eagles…he must be really upset because he immediately announced he’s getting rid of the pennies," the group wrote on X. "Well, at least he’s not imposing tariffs on the Eagles!"

Tommy Smokes of Barstool Sports chimed in, "This Super Bowl is so boring that Trump is just sitting in his suite at the game and decided 'You know what? Let’s ban the penny.'"

Freelance writer and editor Joshua J. Friedman also responded to the weekend announcement, saying, "Another power that properly belongs to Congress, of course."

Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski said, "While Musk runs the country, Trump had a productive weekend naming himself Chair of the Kennedy Center, picking the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, canceling pennies, demanding Google Maps rename Gulf of Mexico, invited only White immigrants from Africa, and saved plastic straws."

J.D. Vance raised the eyebrows of legal experts on Sunday by suggesting Donald Trump's administration might refuse to comply with a lawful court order. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court probably also noticed, according to a political analyst Sunday.

Anthony Coley, the former chief spokesperson for Attorney General Merrick Garland, appeared on MSNBC over the weekend. At one point, the analyst called a "pause" in the conversation to raise a red flag about Trump's conduct surrounding the Super Bowl.

In talking about Vance's tweet, Coley brought up John Roberts, who was recently put on notice about throwing a "lifeline" to Trump.

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"I think the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Chief Justice John Roberts, is also paying attention to this particular tweet from J.D. Vance," Coley said. "And I'm not saying that he is normally following the tweets of a Vice President of the United States, but he saw this coming, the chief justice did."

He continued, noting that, "Back in December, he issued his end of year report, where he warned people of all parties of the necessity of holding themselves to the rulings of courts, even when people disagree with them."

"And he outlined over decades how administrations of all parties have disagreed with Supreme Court rulings, but still abided by them," he added. "So I think he's probably paying attention to this important development tonight as well."

Watch below or click here.

Trump wants FBI agents who investigated his coup attempt, his facilitating espionage, or his other financial and criminal activities fired.

Let’s be very clear: this is how dictatorships start.

A guy who wants to be a dictator always begins by changing how the government works. Even though the majority of the nation had agreed previously that the government should do certain things in certain ways, he reassures everybody he’s got a better way and it’ll all work out.

In the process, he breaks a bunch of laws, but people mostly shrug because they don’t directly affect them. Pastor Niemöller wrote about this in 1930s Germany; to paraphrase: First they came for the government workers…

Then people start resisting, which is when he begins to use the police power of the state. The people who show up in the streets, the people who speak out in the media, the people who try to fight him in the legislatures and the courts: he figures out ways to get them fired, harassed, and ultimately imprisoned.

When she was being confirmed, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to say that she would not executed an illegal order on Donald Trump’s behalf. Like if he directed her to investigate somebody who irritated him. Or prosecute somebody who had investigated him. Or imprison — perhaps only temporarily, at first — somebody who has spoken out against him.

We’re there now. Bondi just announced that the political prosecutions are about to begin. At first they will be going after the police agencies themselves, as a way of bringing them to heel: Terrify the terrifiers.

Next will be the Press. First they will use financial terror to force compliance; we’re already seeing that with Trump’s lawsuits against all three major networks and multiple newspapers. That will expand. Eventually it will turn into shutdowns and arrests.

He will remake our schools so they become indoctrination factories for his white, male supremacist worldview and the new authoritarianism.

He will realign our democratic country away from democratic allies and toward countries run by dictators like he aspires to become.

He will purge the military of leadership that might resist him and of troops who might refuse his orders.

He will remake our criminal justice system so it becomes more violent and brutal, opening prisons for “the worst of the worst“ in places beyond the reach of law, like Auschwitz in Poland or Guantánamo in Cuba.

He will remake our media so it becomes a Greek chorus, singing his praises and carrying his every word.

By proclaiming, as every dictator does, that divine providence and the blessings of God put him where he is, he will bring the country‘s largest religious institutions to heel.

He will proclaim grand plans and spectacular efforts, like the Autobahn or remaking Gaza, Greenland, and Panama. They will distract the public from the relentless, grinding destruction of the guardrails of government itself.

He and his allies will empower civilian militias who will then become his terror shock troops against the people who oppose him. Hitler had his Brownshirts; Republicans in Nassau County are right now trying to field America’s first armed private militia.

He will remake commerce and business, so the most successful companies are those that throw money and resources at him. Fritz Tyson wrote a book about this, about his shame at facilitating it, titled I Paid Hitler. Someday, perhaps, Jeff Bezos or Tim Cook will write a similar book.

America today is early in this process, although it doesn’t typically take very long. It took Hitler 53 days. It took Putin about a year. It took Victor Orban about two years. It took Pinochet less than a week, although he had the help of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

Trump and his project 2025 friends, however, have been preparing for this for four years: They hit the ground running.

This moment proves that the preservation of democracy requires constant attention and a collective commitment to uphold the integrity of its institutions.

Right now, though, the only thing standing between democracy and dictatorship in America are public opinion, the media, and the Democratic Party; Republicans have completely caved and the courts move too slowly to stop him.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump seem to think they can pull this off in a matter of weeks, and so far — because of the cowardice of Republican legislators and the disorganization and lack of leadership among Democrats — they may be right.

Unless we all stand up and speak out now.

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