Professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Virginia, Amanda Frost joins the show to discuss her book You Are Not American: Citizen Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers. Live-streamed on September 22, 2025.
FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday fired an agent in training for displaying a gay pride flag on his desk while appointed to a field office in California last year, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The trainee, who previously worked as an FBI support specialist in Los Angeles, received a letter — dated Oct. 1 and signed by Patel — claiming he had displayed an improper “political” message in the workplace during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden, according to a copy of the letter shared with MSNBC.
The letter cited President Donald Trump’s Article II powers under the Constitution to dismiss federal agency career personnel, a justification used in several recent firings at the Department of Justice and FBI. The terminations are currently being challenged in several lawsuits.
“After reviewing the facts and circumstances and considering your probationary status, I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment in the Los Angeles Field Office.”
FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL
“You are being summarily dismissed from your position as a New Agent Trainee at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and removed from the federal service,” read the letter, which was sent on the first day of a nationwide government shutdown that created job uncertainty throughout the federal workforce.
“After reviewing the facts and circumstances and considering your probationary status, I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment in the Los Angeles Field Office,” Patel wrote, without referencing a flag.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment about this story. MSNBC was unable to reach the fired trainee for comment and, therefore, is not identifying him. The termination over the pride flag was first reported by CNN.
Wednesday’s dismissal comes after Trump and Russell Vought, the White House director of the Office of Management and Budget, threatened widespread firings of federal employees in the event of a government shutdown.
The agent trainee, who had most recently been assigned to the FBI Academy in Quantico, won an Attorney General’s Award in 2022 in recognition of his work, according to a Justice Department news release.
News of the trainee’s firing spurred some agents in the FBI’s Washington field office to scour their work stations and social media accounts for signs or comments — anything that could be viewed as offensive to Trump, his top appointees and MAGA supporters, according to one person familiar with the reaction within the government.
FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors warned one another, ahead of Trump’s inauguration, to be careful about displaying information revealing their sexual orientation or support for LGBTQ rights.
When Trump was weeks away from inauguration in January, FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors were warning one another to be careful about displaying information revealing their own sexual orientation or support for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender rights. After the inauguration, one person said, FBI agents warned colleagues that they heard new pro-Trump appointees installed at the FBI were combing through internal employee files to find lists that identified employees as LGBTQ.
DOJ Pride, an LGBTQ employee resource group at the Department of Justice, shut down in late January, less than 10 days after Trump signed an executive order seeking to root out all diversity, equity and inclusion measures from the federal government.
The group “ceased to operate effective immediately,” DOJ Pride’s board wrote in an email sent to members at the time.
“In this time of uncertainty and concern, we have taken the extraordinary measure of ceasing operations of DOJ Pride,” the message said. “We have made this decision in the interest and for the protection of all members.”
The email, which was shared then with NBC News by two DOJ staffers, thanked members for their “understanding during this time” and expressed hope that the group could “rebuild in the future.”
The FBI’s firing of a trainee for displaying a gay pride flag on his desk last year came as more than a dozen federal agency websites trumpeted that the “radical left” had caused the government shutdown.
Broadview village officials sent a strong message to the feds this week. They do not want U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operating its detention center in their town. On Thursday, Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills said ICE agents are draining the resources of his department and the community by making false 911 calls.
“Dozens of federal agents raiding an entire apartment building with kids in it just to see what they can find. It’s the most egregious abuse of our basic rights as Americans I’ve seen in a long time, maybe in my lifetime,” says Chris Hayes
A senior White House official accidentally disclosed that the Trump administration was considering deploying an elite army strike force into Portland by using Signal in a public place.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported Friday that Anthony Salisbury, one of Stephen Miller’s top deputies, was observed discussing the plans via Signal in view of members of the public while traveling in Minnesota. The newspaper was then contacted by one member of the public who was troubled to see sensitive military plans discussed so openly.
In the messages, senior White House officials discussed the potential deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, an elite unit that specializes in parachuting into hostile territory. The division has been deployed in both world wars, including the Battle of the Bulge, as well as Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Anthony Salisbury, one of Stephen Miller’s top deputies, discussed plans for military intervention in Portland in full view of members of the public.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Across several conversations, the Star Tribune reports, Salisbury spoke about a range of matters with Pete Hegseth adviser Patrick Weaver as well as other officials.
In one of the messages, Weaver revealed that Hegseth wanted Trump to explicitly instruct him to send soldiers to Portland.
“Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver reportedly said.
Noting the potentially disastrous optics around sending an elite division into an American city, Weaver told Salisbury, “82nd is like our top tier [quick reaction force] for abroad. So it will cause a lot of headlines. Probably why he wants potus to tell him to do it.”
In March 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaked confidential battle plans on Signal.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, told the Daily Beast, “Tony recently traveled to Minnesota to serve as a pallbearer in his uncle’s funeral who passed away from cancer. Despite dealing with grief from the loss of a family member, Tony continued his important work on behalf of the American people.“
“Nothing in these private conversations, that are shamefully being reported on by morally bankrupt reporters, is new or classified information,” Jackson continued. “Frankly, this story just shows the entire Trump Administration is working around the clock—and even through funerals—to make America safe again.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday told top generals that dangerous U.S. cities should be used as military training grounds.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The incident marks the second time in six months that the Trump administration has experienced issues as a result of insecure lines of communication.
Earlier this year, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal chat where several high-ranking government officials discussed the logistics of a strike on Yemen’s Houthis.
The fiasco was quickly dubbed “Signalgate” and ultimately led to national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was responsible for adding Goldberg to the chat, leaving his role at the National Security Council. President Trump later appointed him Ambassador to the United Nations.
National security adviser Mike Waltz left his role at the National Security Council after accidentally adding a journalist to a Signal chat.Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Trump has consistently asserted that sending soldiers into cities is the only way to address rampant crime. Meanwhile, the White House has admitted to “reconfiguring” crime statistics to suit Trump’s agenda after claiming that other official statistics are “phony.”
The president’s crime crackdown, which has been concentrated entirely on blue cities, is proving more and more unpopular with the American public. After looking at recent polling on Monday, CNN data guru Harry Enten told viewers, “If Donald Trump thinks that potentially sending in the National Guard into cities like Portland is a winning political issue, the polling says you’re wrong, Mr. President!”
Trump also faced a significant blow after a federal judge ruled that his deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles was illegal, with Judge Charles Breyer finding that the president had violated the Posse Comitatus Act by requiring armed soldiers to carry out domestic law enforcement activities.
I know that the Christian religion has been on a push for forcing the US to be a theocracy run by their personal church doctrines. Why I don’t understand? Do they think that will earn them favor with their god? Is it simply a way for the leaders of the movement to gain more power / wealth? Is it simply they are terrified of after they die and are convinced that their forcing others to follow their church doctrines will get their god to give them more benefits in heaven. The religious strictures on sex and sexual stuff is rooted in an ancient not correct misunderstand of life and sexuality. I still do not understand why others watching porn upsets Christian republicans. I really don’t get it. Is it because they are afraid the people watching will masturbate? Is it because sexual arousal is fearful to them? I really wish someone could explain it to me. Even in the church boarding school I went to my senior year of high school they did not push that no sex stuff very hard, instead they occasionally reminded us not to touch ourselves. They need not have worried, in the boy’s dorm we were touching each other which in our kid brains got around the entire sin of jerking off thing. Hugs.
Michigan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to distribute pornography via the internet in the state.
HB 4938, introduced last week by six Republican members of the state House of Representatives, would “prohibit the distribution of certain material on the internet that corrupts the public morals.”
Pornography is the principal target, though the bill also seeks to criminalize depictions of transgender people.
The bill defines “pornographic material” broadly, to include “any content, digital, streamed, or otherwise distributed on the internet, the primary purpose of which is to sexually arouse or gratify, including videos, erotica, magazines, stories, manga, material generated by artificial intelligence, live feeds, or sound clips.”
The bill appears to exempt from the ban material protected by the First Amendment. Since pornography is constitutionally protected speech, this makes it unclear how the legislation could actually work.
According to the law, “prohibited material” means “material that at common law was not protected by adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting laws abridging freedom of speech or of the press.”
XBIZ spoke with adult industry attorney and First Amendment expert Corey D. Silverstein to attempt to explain what this meant.
“I think they are trying to say that it would not be applicable to content not deemed as obscene under the Miller test,” he said. “But it is written so poorly that there is some uncertainty as to their angle, which also makes the proposal both vague and ambiguous.
“At the same time, it could be another attempt to undercut and soften the Miller test, which we have been seeing in various other states throughout the country,” he added.
The proposed penalties in the bill are severe, including up to 20 years in prison or a fine of up to $100,000, or both. It also allows for civil fines of up to $500,000 per violation.
The bill would require internet service providers to implement “mandatory filtering technology” to prevent Michigan residents from accessing “prohibited material” as defined in the bill, to “actively monitor and block known circumvention tools,” and to block access to specific websites on receipt of a court order.
The bill calls for the state attorney general to establish “a special internet content enforcement division” staffed with “digital forensics analysts, legal experts, cybersecurity specialists, and investigators” to enforce the proposed law.
Silverstein added that he doesn’t believe the bill has much of a chance at being adopted.
“This bill has virtually no chance of going anywhere, given the current makeup of the Michigan legislature and its far-left Democrat governor,” he said. “The bill is unconstitutional at every turn. Regardless, it is alarming that this type of thinking and government waste continues to occur.”
The bill was referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Talk of porn bans has increased in recent months. Earlier this year, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced federal legislation that would redefine almost all visual depictions of sex as obscene and therefore illegal, a goal that was also laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy blueprint, which has heavily guided the Trump administration’s agenda.
Update, Sept. 19: The bill’s reference to “known circumvention tools” includes VPNs, proxy servers and encrypted tunneling methods, which would make it nearly impossible to access adult content online within the state.
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