Riley Gaines, who has turned a fifth place finish against non-trans swimmers into career with MAGA media.
Now let me see if I have this right. Riley Gaines finished 5th in a race with a trans athlete. And, if that trans athlete had NOT been in the race, Riley Gaines would still have finished in 5th place because the two swimmers were TIED for 5th. So, a trans athlete being in the race did not have any effect on Riley Gaines at all
First of all, I would like proof of this man’s “big balls.”
Second, he is a national security disaster. From his Wikipedia page:
His maternal grandfather Valery Martynov was a KGB Lieutenant Colonel executed by the Soviet Union as a double agent. After his execution his widow moved with her children, including Coristine’s mother, to the United States.
Also from Wikipedia:
Bloomberg News reported that Coristine had been fired from his internship at cybersecurity firm Path Network in 2022 for allegedly leaking internal company information to a competitor. Following his dismissal, a large collection of internal Path documents and conversations was leaked online.
The apple may not fall too far from the tree in this instance.
Reuters published a story alleging that Coristine’s online content delivery network DiamondCDN had facilitated the work of the cybercriminal group EGodly. In 2023 Egodly thanked Coristine saying “We extend our gratitude to our valued partners DiamondCDN for generously providing us with their amazing DDoS protection and caching systems, which allow us to securely host and safeguard our website,” Egodly has claimed involvement in a number of crimes including email hacking, theft of cryptocurrency, and the harassment of a former FBI agent.
This guy would never have passed any sort of normal security clearance. That this story isn’t a massive front page scandal is an indictment of the times we live in.
A Ukrainian lawmaker nominated Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, and has now withdrawn it, saying he had ‘lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump and his ability to secure a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv. The mystery here is why ever had “faith” or “beliefe” in Donald Trump in the first place?
To believe in Donald Trump, you either have to be a cultist who does not live in reality, or have previously taken a tack hammer to the head.
The Ukrainian official, Oleksandr Merezhko, said Trump is “evading—he is dodging—the need to impose sanctions on Russia.” That’s because he’s Putin’s beyotch. Has Merezhko not been paying attention all these years?
Pakistan submitted a formal recommendation for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after saying his “decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership” stopped its recent military spat with India over Kashmir. Although India stated there was no need for external mediation on the Kashmir issue, playing down Trump’s role. Factor in that India’s leader is a Trump fan.
But now, just a day after recommending TACO for the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s condemning him for attacking Iran, saying the strikes “constituted a serious violation of international law” and the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a phone call Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, expressed his concern that the bombings had targeted facilities that were under the safeguards of the IAEA.
Today, Georgia GOP Rep. Buddy Carter has formally nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, writing to the committee that it’s “in recognition of his extraordinary and historic role in brokering an end to the armed conflict between Israel and Iran.”
But, Buddy…you don’t negotiate peace by bombing somebody. Also, the peace deal isn’t working. Israel accused Iran of violating the deal, and Trump got upset, probably because further escalation would ruin his pretend chances of winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Also, you don’t win a Nobel Peace Prize by bombing a nation that’s never attacked you.
Trump said, “We basically — we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Oh, and you do, TACO?
Buddy didn’t nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize because he believes it would be deserved. Like Pakistan and the Ukrainian guy, Buddy is using the prize to kiss Trump’s ass. Pakistan and Ukraine both turned around and said Trump doesn’t deserve it, which they already knew. Maybe they should buy him planes. Buddy, I don’t know what you want from Trump, but can you buy him a plane?
Of course, Republicans are praising Trump for a peace deal with Israel and Iran, but why? There are no conditions or terms. Neither nation has given any concessions to the other. Has Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear program? No. Even if they did, why would it be more trustworthy than the deal Obama already made with Iran that Trump destroyed, which was working? Did Israel give Iran any concessions, like maybe abandoning its nuclear program that nobody wants to talk about?
Trump’s peace treaty is like the TEMU of peace treaties. It’s going to break just as soon as you start playing with it. (snip-MORE)
=============================
NATO Making Careful Preparations To Keep Baby Trump Entertained During Tomorrow’s Big Summit by Rebecca Schoenkopf
Wouldn’t want him to get bored or stomp out and demand to go home or anything! Read on Substack
This morning, Donald Trump was angry. One would imagine that after ending all wars forever with his flawless execution of the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, he just wanted to have a nice celebratory night, while SecDef Pete Hegseth drunked and belched around the White House residence in a sexy teddy singing “Nobel Peaaaaaaace Biiiiiiiiirthday, Missssteerrrrr [HIC!] Prezzzzdinint!”
Alas.
Instead it appears Israel and Iran stopped shooting long enough to let President Dumbass get on Truth Social and declare flawless victory, before they got right back to shooting at each other. It’s gotta be tough pretending to be the leader of the free world when none of the world, free or otherwise, has any respect for your leadership. (snip-MORE, and it is good!)
With Trump’s strikes on Iran and all the other shitstorms his administration has caused, the anniversary of American women losing their reproductive rights isn’t going to get a great deal of press. Here’s just one link to what abortion bans mean for women after the Supreme Court decision. There are plenty more.
============
Inside the queer pop-up parties you’ll never want to leave
Glitter sparkles across people and surfaces, rainbow-colored acrylic nails snap in time to the Afrobeat, and boisterous cheers egg on the occasional dance floor death drop. These are moments that make up spaces created for and by queer and trans people of color (QTPOC). From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, New York City to Atlanta, queer community organizers, DJs, musicians and artists are producing monthly pop-up events that attendees and organizers say are reimagining queer liberation through collective joy.
Events range from underground warehouse raves like Hood Rave in Los Angeles to sunlit day parties and potlucks featuring patio yoga. Regardless of format, the trappings of queer life and culture are evident everywhere you look — necklaces made of popper bottles; chest harnesses as fashion; flags; fans; cheeky political statements across nails, hats and tees. The recognition of Black and Brown queer experiences is often apparent in event titles, like New York City’s notorious Papi Juice dance party and Los Angeles’ weekly Toxica event for sapphic Latine queers.
These parties also frequently double as advocacy work, where they highlight mutual aid campaigns, promote queer causes and spread political awareness. In recent years, DJ shouts of “Free Palestine” are frequently met with affirmative cheers from dance floors dotted with keffiyehs and watermelon imagery. QTPOC parties are also changing the tunes of gay nightlife from the pop/EDM/disco variety to a musical mix of hip-hop, trap, house, reggaeton, soca and Afrobeats.
“Everybody is able to see themselves in the music and feel safe here,” said Terri Flamer, who attended the Soulovely prom in Oakland, California, in May. “That’s probably the best thing about it, is you’re safe to be yourself, you can party, you meet people that don’t look like you and it’s all love.”
Queer dance parties also enable the ecstatic experience of group dance, which can be understood as its own form of activism. Maya Bhardwaj, a scholar studying the global influx of such parties in the last decade, called them queer utopias that center: “healing, mental health, ancestral faith practices, queer Black and Brown music and dance traditions, and spaces for activists and cultural workers to gather beyond mainstream bars and nightlife.” Mission statements from QTPOC dance party organizations often invoke terms like “affirmation,” “celebration” and “sustaining.“
While queer nightlife as a space of resistance isn’t new — it has its roots in AIDS activism of the ’80s — the intersectional community building and intention brought to crafting these spaces makes the current slate of QTPOC parties feel fresh. Often exclusionary White male gay spaces are frequently the only options for LGTBQ+ nightlife, and the pop-up event has become a go-to to address a lack of gatherings that feel welcoming to QTPOC folks.
There’s this sense of pain shared among QTBIPOC […] and therefore the joy that is experienced at these parties feels more necessary, more dire and more of a relief.”Nicole Prucha
Pop-up spaces provide “a feeling of safety in being able to trust that the people who are there have experienced or understand what it is like to be othered, in a sense apart from our sexuality,” said performance studies scholar Nicole Prucha about her experience attending Los Angeles QTPOC parties. As a queer Arab person who has often struggled to find places where she feels truly seen, Prucha said parties like Casual, Hot Pot and its sister event HabibiPot fill a vital need for queer people of color: “A place of refuge and queer world-building” at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under attack.
Terri Flamer attends Soulovely’s prom, held in the 14th season of Oakland’s QTPOC-centered monthly party. (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
Event organizers are often working with limited resources amid challenging financial situations. Five queer BIPOC coordinators — Kike Ayorinde, Camryn Casey, Madi Dalton, dRi Guillén and Leslie Tellería — produce community-funded Lavender Evolutions (LE) events in D.C., and the ticket sales for each event contribute to the next event. In a collective statement, the organizers shared that they are largely unpaid but, “We do give core organizers small payments to cover things like gas, food during events, and the many hours of labor leading up to an event.” The LE organizers acknowledge that “money is a huge barrier and we could always use more of it, but for us, it’s more important that we have events that are financially accessible.”
They keep ticket prices below $25 to achieve that aim but struggle with the financial load of creating these pop-up spaces. The organizers say they are often unable to meet the market rates of DJs and other collaborators due to tight budgets, while logistical support frequently comes from community members willing to volunteer their time to assist with check-in and ticketing. Another challenge they face is making their work in building queer community attractive to funders. “Grant makers don’t always understand the scope of the work that we do and why it’s so important, especially in this moment,” organizers said.
Despite the challenges, organizers said the work is worthwhile. “We do experience burnout but we rely heavily on the collective,” the organizers said. “More than anything, we prioritize people. For our core organizers, it’s a delicate balance because our time and energy is limited. We’re all balancing our full-time jobs, life and Lavender, but the love of community keeps us going.”
They need us, we need them. It’s not always about the bottom dollar, sometimes it’s about building community and the dollars come after.Sgt. Die Wies
The 19th sent photographers to queer pop-up parties and events in Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta to show these spaces of radical queer joy in action and highlight the work that queer organizers are doing to build QTPOC community across the country.
OAKLAND
Soulovely has brought QTPOC-centered “cultural affairs” to the Bay Area for 14 years
Many attendees of Soulovely’s prom said it was a first for them, providing queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) an opportunity to attend a prom in a safe and community-based setting. (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
Soulovely is a beloved and long-lasting pillar of queer life in the Bay Area. Since 2011, its monthly events have served as a safe haven for a predominantly BIPOC queer community to celebrate their identities and bodies through music and dance. “I actually just found out that a loved one passed. So coming here was kind of like in honor of them as well, because they love to dance, I love to dance, we met out dancing — it brings people together,” said Mello-Jahlil Travis, who attended Soulovely in May.
Burlesque producer and performer Sgt. Die Wies attended the Soulovely queer prom on May 11 and says she thinks the space provides an opportunity to be “solution-based versus just focusing on the negativity. “ (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
Attendees and organizers both are often quick to point out these spaces are not about excluding White, straight or otherwise non-QTPOC people. Rather they are about radical inclusion and belonging. Sgt. Die Wies, a burlesque producer and performer who attended the Soulovely queer prom in May, said that the party is all ages with a variety of ethnicities coming out to be together:“It’s beautiful to see because there’s so much division in the world right now.”
Mello-Jahlil Travis (they/them) said the Soulovely Prom gave them an opportunity to have a different prom experience. “I’m stoked to be here amongst other beautiful queer people. It’s important to be able to see people who look like you be themselves and feel free. There’s not everywhere that I feel like I can have my nails painted and dress like this. It’s dope to be around people who can receive that.” (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
While all are welcome, Jaycee Chang especially appreciates the way Soulovely centers queer and trans people of color. “It is both a space of joy and being a community but also, it’s a relatively politicized space where they’re very intentional about the artists that they bring in, the DJs, the themes,” Chang said.
And that can even extend to their families.
“One of the DJs who helped host HabibiPot [in Los Angeles], her mom was there to watch her first DJ set and she played Arab classics that my own mom had introduced me to,” Prucha said. “They’re both Palestinian, and her mom was there, standing on the tables with the rest of us, and she was crying because she was so happy that her daughter was there and had found community.”
Tiara Reed (left) met her now-fiancée Chenelle Reed (right) at a Soulovely event and said “it’s so significant to have spaces where unapologetic joy and levity and freedom are welcome and everyone can just bask in it.” (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
These spaces also provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ people to meet each other beyond dating apps. A 2020 Pew Research Center study reported that lesbian, gay and bisexual people were both more likely to use online dating and more likely to experience harassment through dating apps than their straight counterparts.
Soulovely is always part of our story.”Chenelle Reed
Ahn Lee feels safe at Soulovely parties because harassment is far less likely. “I feel like no one’s gonna try to come at me in a way that doesn’t feel comfortable,” Lee said.
Since 2011, Soulovely events have provided a safe haven for the queer BIPOC community in the Bay Area. (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
And for others, like Tiara Reed and Chenelle Reed, Soulovely has become a character in their love story. Reflecting on the experience of meeting her now-fiancée, Tiara, at Soulovely and their future together, Chenelle said, “It’s going to be absolutely beautiful, because we have places like this … where you can connect and learn that anything is possible, family in all the ways is possible.”
Jaycee Chang (they/them, right) with their partner Ahn Lee (she/they, left), has been coming to Soulovely for over a decade. Chang said: “Even when the world is chaotic and there’s a lot of harm happening, we can come together as a community and create spaces that feel like refuge, like safety.” (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
ATLANTA
Southern Fried Queer Pride builds QTPOC community through education and embodied healing
Grassroots collective Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP) — now in its 11th year — focuses its events toward “artivism” with a stated mission to fight narratives that confine Southern LGTBQ+ people to “stigma, statistics and struggle” instead aiming to uplift an “honest narrative of resilience, rich history and vibrance.” SFQP offers year-round programming, typically providing between 40 to 60 events that feature community education — like the upcoming trans health care workshop — as well as gallery shows, marches and dance parties, such as its June trans cabaret and open mic.
Maya Wiseman (left) and Magdalena (right) have both volunteered for SFQP for years and say organization offers a space of respite and community connection for them. (Piera Moore for The 19th)
Community organizer Maya Wiseman said the May 18 SFQP Community Potluck was an alcohol-free and masks-required event to further expand on their inclusiveness, which has become a hallmark of SFQP events. “Queer folks have been marginalized throughout time, but often queer folks, whether they know it or not, naturally end up creating safe spaces for everyone,” said Wiseman, who has worked with SFQP as a community organizer for six years. “We try to create spaces that say ‘come as you are,’ because we’re not having this at a club. If you want to come here in pajamas, in a tank top and shorts, it’s fine with us.”
Southern Fried Queer Pride offered yoga at its May 18 community potluck in Atlanta. (Piera Moore for The 19th)
Atlanta’s queer community is very easy to navigate, and SFQP is a big reason why.”Magdalena
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Lavender Evolutions and Alphabet Soup make space for QTPOC joy at summer day parties
Alphabet Soup Events uses a tiered ticket pricing system that recognizes the systemic financial issues queer and trans people of color face to increase racial diversity across its attendees. (Mariah Miranda for The 19th)
While not explicitly centering QTPOC, Alphabet Soup events, like the recent Daisy Dykes pool party, are “sapphic-focused” and find other ways to make their events inclusive and accessible for queer people of color. Tickets are available at different price tiers, with some lower-cost tickets allotted for BIPOC attendees.
A couple dances together at a pool party by Alphabet Soup Events. (Mariah Miranda for The 19th)
Adu Ogbagiorgis has witnessed a big shift in the racial makeup of Alphabet Soup parties after the organizer started this pricing practice, which they see as a welcome recognition that “Black queers have a different experience than White queers.” For Ogbagiorgis, this approach to ticketing shows they want people of color to come to the events. “So it’s really awesome to see that a lot of more predominantly White spaces are making space for Black queers,” they said.
Mackenzie Bolden said they can be themselves at Alphabet Soup events. “I feel like I can just embrace my skin, embrace my personality, embrace my queerness, embrace everything that is me. And that’s something I treasure and will never take for granted because of how often I don’t feel that way.”
Lavender Evolution’s SWEAT party featured a wet t-shirt contest at on June 8 in D.C. (Mariah Miranda for The 19th)
Lavender Evolutions hosted a daytime beer garden pop-up called SWEAT on June 8 that featured a wet T-shirt contest, a water balloon toss and little cabanas filled with the sounds of multiple kikis.
Ciara Bridges whips out their fan while attending Lavender Evolution’s SWEAT party in D.C. on June 8. (Mariah Miranda for The 19th)
Jojo Morinvil, who attended the SWEAT party, deeply values the way Lavender Evolutions has been intentional in their creation of space for queer BIPOC people to enjoy themselves. “They started out doing nature walks and book [clubs], then, as they grew, they really created safer spaces for folks to socialize, to get to know people and learn queer history, [along with] events where you can dance and party with your friends,” Morinvil said.
Couples and friends slow dance at Soulovely’s queer prom in Oakland on May 11. (Manuel Orbegozo for The 19th)
I truly believe that being whimsical will crush the patriarchy.”Sgt. Die Wies
Sgt. Die Wies points to the unabashed vibrance, love and joy experienced at parties like Soulovely as “things (that) are going to just crush the darkness. We’ve survived harder times than this. We’ve been bullied before. They ain’t got shit on us. There’s too many of us. There’s too much light and too much love and too much joy. We’ll be okay.”
Mariah Miranda, Piera Moore and Manuel Orbegozo contributed reporting.
These were not impressionable young teens. The youngest was 16, one was 17, the rest were adults. This kind of hate has to be taught. This is what all the hate preaching, the hateful right wing news media, and the republicans in congress are creating. But these people want this. They want these young people to act out, to cause harm and fear to the LGBTQ+ community. They glory in this, they delight if they can scare people into being afraid to be themselves. I won’t do that. I won’t hide.
Yesterday morning I got dressed up in my pride attire, a pride shirt, pride suspenders, pride belt, and a pride hat. I headed out to the local Publix by my house. Publix is a good store / company but the founders were are very Christian. Their policies are to hire a lot of disabled, they hire a lot of people from churches. They hire teens from church to be baggers and cart runners. Ron and I are known at the store with many hellos from the workers we see most often. There were not many people in the store. I got my items and went to the only manned register. There was a young man in his 20s who was dressed in the gray of manager, and a middle aged woman. Both greeted me super warmly, the young man had sparkles in his eyes as he saw all my pride stuff. He hung on my every word, offering to even help me unload my cart seeing my cane and struggles. I did it myself. He kept offering to walk out to my car with me and to load the stuff in the van, something Publix is great for, but normally it is not the managers that do it. I have had to use that help a few times. They refuse any attempt to tip, are supper friendly. I write all this to show that not all Christians people are bigots or teach hate.
This acceptance and tolerance of the LGBTQ+ is what was being taught in schools and social media. It was what led to so much progress. The hateful bigoted right is desperate to change that progress forward to equality, so they write don’t say gay bills, ban books and media, insist that only straight cis Christian things be seen in schools, libraries, and social media. The right haters are loud, vocal, and willing to spend their money as a group to get what they want. We in the LGBTQ+ community had better step up to the plate and play their game as seriously as they do. The haters have already caused some stores to avoid selling pride merch or supporting pride events. Or we will lose all the gains we have made. Hugs
People cross the rainbow crosswalks at the intersection of 10th and Piedmont in Midtown Atlanta in 2019. (Evey Wilson/WABE)
This story was updated on Tuesday, June 24 at 8:34 p.m.
Four teenagers were arrested early Tuesday morning and could face hate crime charges after police say they stole and cut up Pride flags outside one of Atlanta’s most well-known gay bars.
Atlanta police say they responded to a vandalism call at 1:40 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue. Witnesses told police that six males stole Pride flags and were cutting them up with a knife and riding around on scooters in the middle of the intersection, the site of the rainbow crosswalks. It’s unclear where the flags came from.
“Upon spotting officers, the six males fled the scene on motorized scooters,” Atlanta police said in a statement. “Thanks to the rapid response of our officers, four of the six males were apprehended.”
4 suspects in Pride flag vandalism could face hate crime charges
A preliminary police investigation reveals that the group coordinated and drove from the Dallas and Cartersville areas to Atlanta. The arrestees are one 16-year-old juvenile from Taylorsville and three others from Dallas, Georgia: 17-year-old Geami McCarroll, 18-year-old Logan Matthison and 18-year-old Ahmed Mechkouri.
They were charged with obstruction, criminal damage to property, conspiracy and prowling. Atlanta police say that hate crime charges are pending, but a prosecutor would have to decide whether to file such charges. Georgia passed a hate crime law in 2020 that allows enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by the victim’s race, religion, sexual orientation or other factors.
Police also issued a citation to Aaron Petrus, the 41-year-old father of the juvenile, for failing to supervise his son.
The investigation into the incident is active and ongoing. Police are asking anyone with information about the two male suspects who got away to contact Crime Stoppers.
“We’ve got some pretty good leads,” Sgt. Brandon Hayes said at a Tuesday press conference. Hayes is the department’s LGBTQ liaison. “As far as video surveillance, there is video of the incident. We’re still looking into more to see what video we can gather from the local community. That’s still in progress.”
A message left for Blake’s on the Park was not returned. The incident comes during Pride Month and just two days before the 10th anniversary of same-sex marriage being legalized nationwide.
City of Atlanta chief equity officer Candace Stanciel said the incident was “the antithesis of who we are as a community.”
“Our Rainbow Crosswalk is a symbol for inclusion and freedom, giving the LGBTQ+ community a tangible place for fellowship, celebration and a sense of belonging,” she said in a statement on Tuesday. “Anyone who tries to disrupt these ideals or spread hate of any kind will be held accountable.”
A Fulton County grand jury indicted a Pennsylvania man for allegedly vandalizing booths and defecating on a Pride flag at a Global Black Pride event in Atlanta in August 2024. Prosecutors were seeking hate crime enhancements in that case as well.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated where the Pride flags were stolen from. It has been updated to reflect that police say it’s unclear where they came from.
“Zohran Mamdani would do to New York City what Khomeini and Khamenei did to Tehran,” Fine said. “We cannot let radical Muslims turn America into a Shiite caliphate.”
The proposal is unlikely to generate much revenue for the government; there is almost no private-sector interest in the mail trucks, and used EV charging equipment — built specifically for the Postal Service and already installed in postal facilities — generally cannot be resold.
“The funds realized by auctioning the vehicles and infrastructure would be negligible. Much of infrastructure is literally buried under parking lots, and there is no market for used charging equipment,” Peter Pastre, the Postal Service’s vice president for government relations and public policy, wrote to senators this month.
Read the full article. $10 billion into the sewer to please their Glorious Leader. Something something DOGE.
Stephen Miller spoke at an April event in Warren, Mich., marking President Trump’s first 100 days in office.Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images
Stephen Miller wanted to keep the planes in the air—and that is where they stayed.
When a federal judge in March told the Trump administration to turn around flights of deported migrants headed to El Salvador, senior officials hastily convened a Saturday evening conference call to figure out what to do.
If they didn’t return the passengers, they would be defying a court order, some administration officials worried. Miller, who is President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, pushed for the planes to keep flying, which they ultimately did. The judge would later say that allowing officials to defy court judgments would make a “solemn mockery” of the Constitution.
The 39-year-old immigration hawk, who has been by Trump’s side since the 2016 campaign, has emerged as a singular figure in the second Trump administration, wielding more power than almost any other White House staffer in recent memory—and eager to circumvent legal limitations on his agenda.
He has his own staff of about 30 and a Secret Service detail, which White House officials said was because he had received death threats and serves as homeland security adviser. He has been responsible for the administration’s broadsides against universities, law firms and even museums. He has written or edited every executive order that Trump has signed.
Miller had considerable sway in Trump’s first term. But when aides at the time suggested promoting Miller to a leadership role at the Department of Homeland Security, Trump declined, according to a former administration official, telling aides he thought Miller wasn’t leader material.
His influence has expanded sharply since, thanks largely to his steadfast loyalty to Trump. This account of Miller’s tenure is based on interviews with current and former White House officials, Trump advisers and other prominent Republicans.
Some of Miller’s colleagues said they were alarmed by some of the legal maneuvers that Miller has proposed for executing the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, and Trump has gently ribbed him for being too “happy” about deportations.
Miller, who has written or edited every executive order signed by Trump in his second term, attended a May event of the Make America Healthy Again Commission.Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
Miller, who isn’t a lawyer, is the official who first suggested using the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, which the Justice Department pursued. He also privately, then publicly, floated suspending habeas corpus, or the right for prisoners to challenge their detention in court, which the administration hasn’t tried. That prompted pushback from other senior White House and Justice Department officials.
His orders to increase arrests regardless of migrants’ criminal histories set off days of protests in Los Angeles. Miller coordinated the federal government’s response, giving orders to agencies including the Pentagon, when Trump sent in the Marines and the National Guard, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Miller’s portfolio covers almost every issue Trump is interested in. In recent months, he talked to CEOs about a coming tariff announcement; joined a meeting between Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Trump about the company’s antitrust case; and met with other tech companies on artificial intelligence.
Even some posts at cabinet agencies have been described by administration officials as reporting directly to Miller, effectively bypassing cabinet secretaries.
There are some limits to his influence. He was supportive of Meta’s push to settle its antitrust case, which fell flat. Trump last week signaled concerns that the administration’s deportation policies were too aggressive, calling for a pause in some deportations that he has since rolled back. Trump, asked how Miller’s directives on deportations squared with his own, declined to put distance between the two of them. “We have a great understanding,” Trump said.
The aggressive posture has started to spark some voter backlash, with polls showing Trump’s approval rating on immigration and deportations has turned negative.
Several White House staffers said Miller always takes the most “extreme” view of any issue, and his positions have cost the administration in court. In Trump’s first 100 days back in office, courts issued nationwide injunctions in 25 cases against the federal government, compared with six in his entire first term and four during the Biden administration, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Several cases have already reached the Supreme Court, which has ruled against Trump on some immigration cases.
“I think the administration has miscalculated and overstepped,” said Skye Perryman, who leads Democracy Forward, an organization that has repeatedly sued Trump.
Miller has responded to the courts’ intervention by denouncing it as “judicial tyranny.” His allies argue illegal border crossings are down to almost zero because his aggressive proposals are deterring migrants.
“Stephen Miller is one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest serving aides for a reason—he delivers,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
In the wilderness
Miller stuck by Trump when many staffers quit their jobs after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He had helped draft Trump’s speech that morning, and worked until 12 p.m. on Jan. 20—the day Trump’s first term ended—telling the officer taking his badge he would be back in four years.
“Sixteen Hundred Pennsylvania Avenue is the greatest address in the world, and though we now leave these gates, rest assured, this is not goodbye,” he wrote to colleagues.
Three months later, Miller launched a nonprofit, America First Legal, aimed at countering what Miller described as a “years-long, one-sided legal assault” by the left. “Now, we must turn the tables,” he said at the time.
Over the next four years, it filed dozens of lawsuits, many of which are ongoing, categorized on its website under topics including “DEI,” “Woke Corporations” and “Women’s Sports.” The group’s targets are now under fire from the Trump administration, too.
Miller speaking with reporters outside the White House in January.Photo: Francis Chung/Press Pool
In 2022, the group called on the Education Department to stop distributing federal funds to universities where it alleged antisemitism was festering. Three years later, the Trump administration would do just that at universities including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern.
In 2024, Miller’s group helped 16 Republican-led states sue the Biden administration over a policy that protected illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens from deportation. A judge ruled in the states’ favor, and the Trump administration overturned the policy this year.
By the time Trump returned to the White House, the group had about two dozen lawyers on staff and had raised more than $60 million from donors, whose identities it doesn’t disclose. The group paid Miller more than $500,000 last year, according to his financial disclosure.
Meanwhile, Miller continued to play an active role across the Republican Party, even if his outreach wasn’t always welcome.
Congressional aides fielded lengthy calls from Miller about illegal immigration, often without any specific requests. One likened him to a grandmother who wouldn’t stop talking and said his calls were akin to listening to a podcast. Others said he would call to scold aides about how they had framed a social-media post on a particular issue or criticizing the way they had worded a press release.
As a House committee prepared for then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify, Miller came to the Hill to play the role of Mayorkas, aides said. During the prep, he answered questions as the secretary—but also chimed in to give lawmakers advice on questions.
Miller was determined to kill a bipartisan bill pushed by Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma in 2024 on the border and regularly called House Speaker Mike Johnson.
He also called the Republican National Committee to offer his advice on how the party should communicate on immigration, sometimes offering his thoughts on what the RNC chairman could tweet, people familiar with the discussions said.
He was a regular visitor to Mar-a-Lago during the campaign, meeting with Trump above his ballroom. Campaign aides say Miller always wanted to talk more about immigration. Trump’s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, and his other aides wanted to keep the message on the economy. Trump staffers started displaying ominous photos of migrants at his events.
Some posts at cabinet agencies have been described by administration officials as reporting directly to Miller.Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Hundreds of orders
In the first term, Trump was largely unprepared to govern. Miller regularly complained then that others in the administration tried to block his immigration decisions, and outside lawyers would stymie their efforts. This time, Miller came in determined to correct that.
He brought hundreds of proposed orders to the White House as well as his own staff. Russell Vought, the onetime treasurer of America First Legal, is now the White House budget chief. Reed Rubinstein, the group’s senior vice president, was nominated as legal adviser of the State Department. Matt Whitaker, a board member, is the U.S. permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
He now tells other staffers how to behave around Trump, people who have heard his comments say, and upgraded his office from one on a different floor to one steps from the Oval Office.
During the first term, Miller would push for hard-line policies that others blanched at, including advocating for several dozen countries to be added to the travel ban list of seven, a former administration official said. People laughed, but he was serious, the official said. This time, Trump announced a ban that covered a dozen countries.
He keeps in Trump’s good graces by giving Trump ideas—but more importantly, helping the president carry his own out.
Administration officials noted how Miller shut down discussion about whether the U.S. should bomb Houthi targets in a Signal chat that was accidentally shared with The Atlantic’s editor in chief. As the vice president and top national security officials discussed options, Miller weighed in.
“As I heard it, the president was clear,” Miller said. “Green light,” he added.
Earlier this month, Leavitt, the press secretary, interviewed Miller at a private event for Republican donors at the Four Seasons in Washington.
Miller, who grew up in Santa Monica, Calif., said large swaths of Los Angeles were engaged in a “rebellion,” according to people present.
Los Angeles had become like Cancún, he said—it was fine to visit, but not good for its own citizens. To conclude the event, Leavitt told the crowd that Miller needed to return to his work of deportations.
Miller smiled in response, and then left to return to the White House.
The transgender flags that usually adorn the Stonewall National Monument in New York City during Pride Month were missing this year, so some New Yorkers are taking matters into their own hands.
During June, Pride flags are placed around the park’s fence. They usually include a mixture of rainbow LGBTQ+ flags, transgender flags and progress flags, which have stripes to include communities of color.
Photographer and advocate Steven Love Menendez said he created and won federal approval for the installation nine years ago. Within a few years, the National Park Service was picking up the tab, buying and installing flags, including trans ones.
Pride flags fly in the wind at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan’s West Village on June 19, 2023 in New York City.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
This year, however, Menendez said the National Park Service told him to change the protocol.
“I was told … only the traditional rainbow flag would be displayed this year,” he said.
Now, no transgender or progress flags are among the 250 rainbow flags installed around the park.
“It’s a terrible action for them to take,” Menendez said.
“I used to be listed as an LGBTQ activist, and now it says ‘Steven Menendez, LGB activist,'” Menendez said. “They took out the Q and the T.”
“I’m not going to stand by and watch us be erased from our own history”
Many visiting the monument said they are opposed to the change.
“I think it’s absurd. I think it’s petty,” said Willa Kingsford, a tourist from Portland.
“It’s horrible. They’re changing all of our history,” Los Angeles resident Patty Carter said.
Jay Edinin, of Queens, brought his own transgender flag to the monument.
“I’m not going to stand by and watch us be erased from our own history, from our own communities, and from the visibility that we desperately need right now,” he said.
The transgender flags that usually adorn the Stonewall National Monument in New York City during Pride Month were missing this year, so some New Yorkers are taking matters into their own hands.CBS News New York
He is not the only one bringing unauthorized flags to the park. A number of trans flags were seen planted in the soil.
National Park Service workers at the park told CBS News New York they are not authorized to speak on this subject. CBS News New York reached out by phone and email to the National Park Service and has not yet heard back.
Dave Carlin has covered major national news stories and events in the past four decades including Superstorm Sandy and its tri-state impacts, Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina and Iniki on Kauai, Hawaii. He also covered the Space Shuttle Program, 1989 San Francisco Earthquake, numerous Southern California wildfires, the trial and execution of serial killer Ted Bundy in Florida, the 1994 police shooting death of Tyke the eacaped Cirus Elephant on the streets of Honolulu, 2009’s Miracle on the Hudson, the NYC Mayoral administrations of Bloomberg through Adams and more.
My wife and I recently returned from a Danube River cruise — no, it’s not blue, the waltz notwithstanding — and we had a wonderful time.
One of the many pleasures of these relatively small river cruises is all the interesting people you get to meet from around the world. This time around, we spent most of our time with Canadians and Australians, who seemed to enjoy our company once they determined we shared their low opinion of our president.
When one of the Canadians we dined with several times learned that we had signed on for a “Sound of Music” tour of Salzburg, Austria — featuring fountains, mountains, cityscapes, trees, a church and other locations from the movie — he told a nice story about an Austrian who emotionally described to him his love for their traditional folk song, “Edelweiss.”
I had read that the song actually was written just for the movie and had no significance for Austrians, which our guide confirmed the next day. So when our new friend repeated his story at dinner that evening, I politely corrected him, explaining that although some Austrians may have embraced the song — the Edelweiss is their national flower — it was a Rodgers and Hammerstein creation.
I won’t say our friend was crestfallen, but he did seem disappointed. I should add that I have a long tradition of spoiling people’s favorite stories, in part through the urban legend columns I used to write semiregularly.
So here’s the question. Is the truth really that important, if it spoils a good narrative?
After all, we’re in what some people have characterized as the Post-Truth Era, ushered in most recently by Donald Trump, his congressional lapdogs and Fox News but immortalized much earlier by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. Falsehoods abound, not just in the White House but all over social media.
Here’s how the European Center for Populism Studies explained the Big Lie technique.
The big lie is the name of a propaganda technique, originally coined by Adolf Hitler in “Mein Kampf,” who says “The great masses of the people … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one,” and denotes where a known falsehood is stated and repeated and treated as if it is self-evidently true, in hopes of swaying the course of an argument in a direction that takes the big lie for granted rather than critically questioning it or ignoring it.
Pssst. If that doesn’t sound familiar, wake up.
Hitler used it to blame his country’s problems on his best available scapegoat, Jewish people. Trump and company have broadened this approach to encompass multiple scapegoats — immigrants, foreigners, transgender people, people who are “woke” because they encourage social justice and care about the future health of our planet — and to big lies involving the 2020 election and so many other subjects that we’re numb to it. He lies about everything, and his supporters don’t seem to know or care.
I remember when the idea of act checking first emerged in political coverage. Instead of just quoting politicians who were fudging the truth, the fact-checkers would point out when they were lying or exaggerating, in the case of The Washington Post by assigning up to four Pinocchios for the most egregious falsehoods.
Some politicians would correct themselves in future pronouncements. Others wouldn’t bother.
Trump, the ultimate Pinocchio, is oblivious to Fact Checking. He just plows ahead — “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!” — repeating the same misinformation over and over at rallies, news conferences, debates. Facts are irrelevant.
Perhaps most amazingly, his long-since-debunked fraud allegations regarding the 2020 election are being incorporated into Oklahoma’s public-school curriculum. Elsewhere, facts about racial injustice, climate change and our nation’s history have been altered or eliminated from public school curricula to suit the MAGA agenda. Kinglike, Trump even is punishing colleges, states and others who won’t go along with his determination to impose “1984”-style Newspeak.
I think at least some Trump followers — particularly Republican elected leaders — know he is lying. But because it suits their preferred narrative, they go along. That’s frightening enough. Even scarier, though, are the people who are too dim, lazy or Foxcentric to figure out that we’re not being overrun by bloodthirsty killer immigrants or that non-straight men and women aren’t a threat to our military, our children or anything else, not to mention that Trump really lost the 2020 election, that the rioters storming the Capitol weren’t the true victims of Jan. 6, that indiscriminate ICE goon squads aren’t the best solution to illegal immigration and that vaccinating our children continues to be a very good idea.
They don’t just accept the lies. They spread them. That’s why we must be advocates for the truth, correcting and even confronting falsehoods, at rallies, on social media, in conversations. Ignorance is not bliss. It’s fueling our country’s descent into unrecognizable autocratic chaos.
“Eidelweiss” may be trivial. But innocent people being demonized? Trust in our elections destroyed? Our constitutional guarantees shredded? Our planet’s climate threatened? Long-dead diseases given new life?History rewritten?
Speak up. The truth is worth defending.
This is a contributed opinion column. Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com. His Threads handle is whitebil2000. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com/opinions.
June 21, 1877 The Molly Maguires Four members of the Molly Maguires were hung for murder in what was then Mauch Chunk, and in Pottsville, towns in Pennsylvania’s Carbon County. The Molly Maguires was a secret and violent Irish-Catholic organization of coal miners formed to combat the oppressive working and living conditions in the anthracite coal region of the state. Readmore (2 links)
June 21, 1908 A Women’s Sunday Suffrage rally, supporting the right of women to vote, drew several hundred thousand to London’s Hyde Park from all over the country. Women were encouraged to wear “the colours” – white (for purity), green (hope) and purple (dignity) – and in “as fetching, charming and ladylike a manner as possible.” As the Yorkshire Daily Post put it: “At least one half of the crowd was composed of the sort of people you would expect to see at a suburban garden party.” The women’s suffrage movement
June 21, 1964 James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three young Freedom Summer workers, disappeared in Philadelphia, Mississippi, while registering negroes to vote. Their bodies were found six weeks later, having been shot and then buried in an earthen dam. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner Eight members of the Ku Klux Klan eventually went to prison on federal conspiracy charges related to the disappearance; none served more than six years. Schwerner and Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Chaney was a local African-American man who had joined CORE in 1963. Read more and hear versions of Pete Seeger’s song, “Those Three are On My Mind” More on Chaney Read about the movie
June 21, 1997 100,000 marched in solidarity with striking newspaper workers in Detroit after nearly two years on the picket line. support rally march 1, 1997 photo: Paul Felton The Detroit Newspaper Agency (DNA) had refused to bargain in good faith (later confirmed by a ruling of the National Labor Relations Board), even after the union members had worked for months without a contract, and the DNA, which ran both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, had begun to impose the changes they had been insisting on at the bargaining table.
I admit this is long at 44 minutes. I found it worth the watch even though at times Gagnon tries to get technical and uses a circular argument in favor of his predetermined view of homosexuality and the LGBTQ+ spectrum. He is not using the bible to inform him as Reverend Trevors says but instead using it as a weapon for his dislike / hate for anything not superior male inferior female relationships. I find McClellan easy to follow and understand and I like that he leaves his feelings at the door when he tries to understand the texts of that time. He points how Gagnon is using his biases to inform his religion and not his religion forming his biases. The other interesting thing to me is that McClellan seems to have researched the times and cultures of the different passages to see the context they were written in, whereas Gagnon seems to simply impose his modern standards on the words. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 