Trump EPA Drops Human Life Valuation in Pollution Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency, under the leadership of Lee Zeldin—a Trump appointee—discontinued the practice of assigning monetary value to human lives when establishing air pollution limits. Previously, the EPA calculated rule benefits by estimating lives saved and assigning each a dollar value through the “value of a statistical life” metric. This shift eliminates a critical method for justifying public health protections against deadly air pollutants.

The policy change, implemented last week, prioritizes only the financial costs borne by corporations in the regulatory calculus. By removing human life valuation from the equation, the EPA effectively abandons a standard tool for weighing public health gains against industry expenses. This decision reflects the Trump administration’s broader strategy to prioritize corporate interests over environmental protections.

Zeldin’s EPA has accelerated workforce reductions that undermined environmental protections while simultaneously rolling back emissions regulations. The agency now grants exemptions to industrial polluters from emissions requirements for toxic chemicals like mercury and arsenic.

Eliminating life valuation from air quality policy removes a quantifiable justification for protecting Americans from pollution-related illness and death. The change allows the Trump administration to justify weaker pollution standards by treating human mortality as economically irrelevant when it conflicts with corporate profit margins.

(Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/former-congressman-lee-zeldin-confronted-210720414.html)

Trump Claims God Approves of His Second Term at White House Briefing

During a 105-minute White House press briefing on Tuesday marking his first-year anniversary in his second term, President Donald Trump claimed “God is very proud” of his job performance and stated that his administration protects Christians, Jewish people, and others who would not be protected under a different president. When a reporter referenced Trump’s previous assertion that God placed him in office to save the world, Trump confirmed he believed God approved of his efforts, chuckling as he made the claim.

Trump opened the briefing by showcasing mugshots of immigrants apprehended by ICE, describing them as “criminal illegal aliens” and “rough characters” that former President Joe Biden allegedly allowed into the country. He displayed photographs with printed details of their alleged crimes and asked the room rhetorically whether Americans wanted to live alongside such individuals, framing immigration enforcement as a key administration accomplishment.

When asked to list his top three achievements, Trump cited military buildup, what he described as “incredible” business deals involving “thousands of plants” and “$18 trillion” in U.S. investment, and his drug pricing policy tied to tariff negotiations with other nations. Trump stated that tariffs were instrumental in securing cooperation from other countries on pharmaceutical pricing, claiming they would not have agreed to his terms otherwise.

Trump characterized his tenure as an “amazing year” and stated his administration needed to improve its public communication about accomplishments. He emphasized that even detractors would acknowledge the successes of his second term, though he provided limited specifics beyond the three areas mentioned.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-proclaims-god-is-very-proud-of-his-first-year-back-in-the-white-house/)

Trump Falsely Claims Protest Witness Was Paid Agitator

At a White House press conference on Tuesday, President Trump made an unsubstantiated claim that a woman captured on video shouting “Shame! Shame!” after ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Minneapolis resident Renee Good on January 7 was a “paid agitator” or “professional agitator.” Trump offered no evidence for the accusation, instead characterizing the woman’s vocal protest as unnaturally loud and professional in manner, concluding she must be a paid operative rather than a genuine bystander expressing outrage at the killing.

During the same briefing, Trump defended the ICE immigration crackdown in Minnesota by displaying printouts labeled “MINNESOTA WORST OF WORST,” claiming they documented immigrants with criminal records that agents had detained. He repeatedly asserted that ICE agents are “patriots” seeking only to remove dangerous individuals from the country, framing opposition to the operation as the work of “paid agitators and insurrectionists” rather than concerned residents reacting to enforcement actions in their community.

Trump’s accusation contradicts documented evidence and patterns of protest. Multiple recorded incidents over the past year show genuine community members expressing opposition to immigration raids without compensation, according to reporting that examined his earlier repetition of the same baseless claim. The president provided no documentation, financial records, or identifying information linking the protesting woman to any organization or payment scheme.

The video of Good’s shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders, including by Ross himself, and shows the fatal incident occurred in public view on a Minneapolis street. The woman shouting “Shame!” is visible in at least one cell phone recording, though it remains unclear from available footage whether she is the person recording or a separate bystander. Trump acknowledged feeling “terribly” about Good’s death while simultaneously dismissing vocal responses to it as inauthentic and orchestrated.

Trump’s dismissal of protester motivation follows a pattern of administration officials defending the shooting, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance both characterizing the fatal shooting as justified. By labeling all opposition as paid and inauthentic, the administration avoids addressing the substantive objections residents have raised to the ICE enforcement campaign in Minnesota.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump/trump-wildly-claims-bystander-who-yelled-shame-after-renee-good-shooting-was-a-paid-agitator/)

Trump Says Elections Unnecessary After Accomplishments

President Donald Trump stated in a Reuters interview published Thursday that “we shouldn’t even have an election,” expressing frustration over the possibility that Republicans could lose control of the House or Senate in the 2026 midterm elections. Trump acknowledged that a president’s party typically experiences midterm losses following a presidential victory, framing this as a “deep psychological thing,” but argued his administration had accomplished enough that elections should not occur.

Trump dismissed a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing only 4% of Americans support his plan to absorb Greenland as “fake,” insisting he follows his own instincts rather than public opinion on major policy decisions. He stated, “A lot of times, you can’t convince a voter. You have to just do what’s right,” claiming that controversial actions he has taken, including a criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ultimately proved correct when results materialized.

During the same interview, Trump addressed Iran, where authorities have killed thousands of demonstrators. He previously pledged “help” to anti-government protesters but became noncommittal when discussing future administration plans, telling Reuters: “We have to play it day by day.” Trump’s equivocation drew backlash from members of his own party after he suggested the killing was “stopping.”

The president’s assertion that elections should not occur reflects a pattern of rejecting democratic constraints, consistent with administration positions claiming presidential authority above legal and constitutional limits. His dismissal of public opinion on major foreign policy decisions and rejection of electoral processes demonstrates a disregard for democratic principles and popular consent governing authority.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-tells-reuters-we-shouldnt-even-have-an-election-ahead-of-midterms/)

The US government seems to have a clear message for white nationalists | CNN Politics

The Department of Homeland Security is recruiting immigration enforcement agents using language and imagery tied to white nationalist ideology. A DHS recruiting poster declares "America has been invaded by criminals and predators" and urges applicants to "get them out," while another features a cowboy and bomber jet with the phrase "We'll have our home again"—language documented by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism as having ties to white nationalist and supremacist groups in the US and Canada, including the Proud Boys.

The phrase "We'll have our home again" echoes replacement theory, the white supremacist belief that white Americans are being displaced, which has been promoted by figures including Elon Musk. Cynthia Mills-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University, explained that coded language creates "plausible deniability" while signaling to those familiar with extremist terminology that they are welcome to apply for government positions. Right-wing accounts on social media are now amplifying these official DHS posts.

William Galey Simpson’s “Which Way, Western Man?” (especially Chapters 16–17) argues that “civilizational decline” is fundamentally biological and demographic: nations rise or fall based on “breeding stock,” differential birthrates, and the need to preserve a “thoroughbred” in-group against dilution—an explicitly eugenic worldview he even pairs with proposed state machinery like special “Eugenics Courts.”  The Trump-era ecosystem echoes that structure through dog-whistle signaling and rhetoric: official DHS/White House memes using “Which way, ___ man?” are widely analyzed as a deliberate nod to Simpson’s title and its white-nationalist subculture, while Trump’s repeated “blood/genes” language (“racehorse theory,” “bad genes,” “poisoning the blood”) and the Fox/Tucker “replacement” frame translate the same demographic panic into mainstream politics—then operators like Stephen Miller, documented circulating white-nationalist/anti-immigrant material, help turn it into enforcement posture and recruitment culture.

The Trump administration has also officially adopted the term "remigration," which echoes far-right ideologies with roots in Nazi ethnic cleansing. The term describes the administration's mass deportation policy and encourages self-deportation, but borrows directly from white nationalist movements in Europe. The State Department is creating an "Office of Remigration" to implement this framework, according to Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of GPAHE, who characterized it as "a plan for ethnic cleansing" that has become "normalized" and "commonplace."

The Washington Post reported that DHS plans a $100 million "wartime recruitment" effort including geotargeting attendees at NASCAR, UFC, and rodeo events—venues associated with conservative demographics—and hiring online influencers to spread recruitment messaging. DHS declined to comment on whether the coded language was intentional or whether recruitment content was designed to appeal to white nationalists.

Similar messaging extends beyond DHS: the Department of Labor posted a video featuring a statue of George Washington with the tagline "One Homeland. One People. One Heritage" and the message "Remember who you are." According to critics cited in the article, this "one heritage" being promoted by the Trump administration does not reflect immigrants from the past century or those from non-European backgrounds. Via stated that these are not isolated incidents but "a concerted effort to create these type of recruitment ads" designed to signal to white nationalists that the federal government shares their agenda.

(Source: https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/15/politics/dhs-recruitment-ice-minnesota-noem-images-analysis)

Trump Admin Posts Echo White Supremacist Rhetoric

The Trump administration is deploying recruitment campaigns and official posts across federal departments that incorporate imagery, slogans, and rhetoric linked to white supremacist and extremist movements, according to PBS reporting and analysis by Cynthia Miller-Idriss of American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab. An ICE recruitment advertisement features the phrase “We will have our home again,” a direct reference to a white supremacist anthem favored by the Proud Boys, while the Department of Labor distributed messaging stating “One homeland, one people, one heritage” alongside heroic depictions of white men. Administration posts also invoke “Trust the plan,” the QAnon conspiracy theory slogan tied to the January 6 Capitol attack, which posits a global cabal of pedophiles and deep state actors that Trump is fighting.

Extremist symbols have surfaced across multiple federal agencies, including the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was carried by January 6 rioters and adopted by evangelical Christian nationalist groups and neo-Nazi organizations. Miller-Idriss identified this pattern as part of a propaganda campaign to reposition ICE operations as serving the public interest while employing dog whistles and explicit racist and conspiratorial messaging. The administration is simultaneously rewriting January 6 history on a newly published website, blaming Democrats for security failures and justifying pardons for over 1,500 defendants involved in the insurrection.

President Trump stated in a New York Times interview that the civil rights movement “hurt a lot of people” and constituted “reverse discrimination” against whites denied college admission or jobs. Billionaire Elon Musk endorsed this framing by endorsing a post claiming “If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered. White solidarity is the only way to survive”—the Great Replacement Theory, a white nationalist conspiracy falsely asserting intentional replacement of the white population. Miller-Idriss connected this conspiracy theory to terrorist attacks in Pittsburgh, El Paso, Buffalo, Christchurch, and Oslo, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

Miller-Idriss characterized the shift as a “turning point in the propaganda campaign,” driven by ICE’s 57 percent disapproval rating and public awareness of agency abuses circulated through cell phone video. She identified Trump’s statements as an “unedited version” of a longstanding belief system that white men are losing ground, now openly expressed without prior hedging. The administration simultaneously withdrew U.S. support from extremism prevention organizations, cementing its alignment with extremist ideological frameworks.

Miller-Idriss noted that undemocratic leaders employ confusion and propaganda simultaneously to undermine journalism, expertise, and shared truth, citing Hannah Arendt’s analysis of Nazi propaganda: once people stop knowing what is true and false, “it’s very easy for them to stop knowing what’s right and wrong.” The administration’s strategy combines coordinated messaging across departments with high-profile policy actions including ICE deployments, foreign intervention, and territorial threats, designed to normalize extremist rhetoric while obscuring its authoritarian implications through saturation messaging.

(Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-administration-posts-echo-rhetoric-linked-to-extremist-groups?fbclid=IwdGRleAPSxIFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEegXa-oSnnonxrbxD0HIm8ZOScqBnslIjqqgO-WisqCCJBydQdzzodouEcCt0_aem_45dHLtlY5pgg0gPw_BA6LA)

Trump Regrets Not Ordering Guard Seize Voting Machines

President Donald Trump told the New York Times he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 presidential election to overturn the result, which he continues to claim without evidence was rigged. Trump stated directly, “Well, I should have,” when asked about the proposal during a recent interview with the Times. During his first term, Trump pressed then-Attorney General Bill Barr and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani about the legality of seizing machines, but Barr rejected involvement and Giuliani was rebuffed by the Department of Homeland Security.

When questioned whether using the military to impound voting machines would have been viable, Trump expressed doubt about the National Guard’s capability, saying, “I don’t know that they are sophisticated enough.” He added that while “they’re good warriors,” he was uncertain whether they possessed the sophistication to counter what he described as Democratic cheating methods. These comments reveal Trump’s intent to deploy federal military forces against civilian election infrastructure based on unsubstantiated fraud allegations.

Trump’s admission that he considered but abandoned plans to seize voting machines demonstrates a documented pattern of weaponizing federal power for political objectives. The statement confirms he actively sought methods to overturn an election he lost and viewed the failure to execute such a seizure as a strategic error rather than an unconstitutional act he should have rejected outright. His regret signals willingness to pursue similar extra-legal measures in future elections.

Trump’s remarks triggered immediate political concern over whether his administration will attempt to disrupt the 2026 midterm elections, particularly given ongoing unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering efforts already underway. The explicit acknowledgment that he contemplated military seizure of voting machines contradicts any pretense that election interference concerns are speculative or exaggerated. His public regret normalizes the concept of using federal forces to nullify democratic processes when outcomes displease him.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/politics/i-should-have-trump-says-he-regrets-not-seizing-voting-machines-in-2020-to-overturn-election/)

Federal prosecutors open criminal investigation into the Fed and Jerome Powell | CNN Business

Federal prosecutors have initiated a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation in Washington, DC, according to CNN Business reporting on January 11, 2026. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated in a Sunday evening video that the investigation constitutes “pretext” stemming from the administration’s ongoing pressure regarding interest rate policy, characterizing it as part of broader “threats and ongoing pressure” directed at the Fed’s independence.

Powell directly attributed the investigation to the Federal Reserve’s decision to set interest rates based on economic conditions rather than presidential preferences. “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said, emphasizing that the investigation threatens the Fed’s ability to conduct monetary policy free from political intimidation.

Trump has previously threatened to sue Powell over the renovation project, claiming mismanagement and cost overruns. Trump allies including Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought have publicly attacked the project’s management, though the Federal Reserve maintains the upgrades were necessary for critical infrastructure improvements, including asbestos removal and electrical system replacements.

The investigation arrives as Trump escalates his campaign to reshape Federal Reserve leadership, having already targeted Fed Governor Lisa Cook with removal efforts while preparing to announce Powell’s successor ahead of his May term expiration. The Justice Department declined substantive comment but stated through spokesperson Chad Gilmartin that the attorney general prioritizes investigating “any abuse of tax payer dollars.”

(Source: https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/11/business/federal-prosecutors-criminal-investigation-federal-reserve-chair-jerome-powell)

Trump Bizarrely Claims Credit For Ending 1/4 of a War on Fox

During a Fox News interview Thursday night, President Trump claimed credit for ending “eight and a quarter” wars, adding a fractional war to his repeated assertions of peace-brokering accomplishments. Trump attributed the quarter-war credit to Thailand and Cambodia “going at it again,” contradicting his claim of having stopped conflicts entirely. His statements came in response to discussion of María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient who recently offered to give her award to Trump for “liberating” Venezuela.

Trump has routinely inflated his war-ending record on social media and in public appearances, variously claiming to have ended 8, 9, or 10 wars without factual support. Fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked these assertions, yet Trump continues to invoke the falsehood as evidence of his diplomatic achievements and as grounds for his own Nobel Prize candidacy. His willingness to revise the number mid-interview—from “eight” to “eight and a quarter”—demonstrates the malleable nature of his claims.

Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime and dedicated the honor to Trump during her acceptance. Trump publicly justified the U.S. invasion of Venezuela by stating the operation would secure control over Venezuelan oil reserves. When asked by Hannity whether he would meet with Machado and accept her prize, Trump expressed willingness but pivoted to amplifying his unsubstantiated war-ending claims instead of addressing her political situation or offering concrete support.

The interview highlights Trump’s pattern of manufacturing achievements through rhetorical inflation and repetition rather than documented accomplishment. By presenting fractional credit for unresolved conflicts as proof of peace-brokering success, Trump conflates aspiration with outcome while avoiding accountability for conflicts that persist. His eagerness to accept recognition he has not earned reflects his consistent approach to self-aggrandizement across foreign policy matters.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/trump-bizarrely-claims-credit-for-ending-1-4-of-a-war-in-falsehood-riddled-rant-on-fox-news/)

Trump Rages For 2 Solid Minutes On Nobel Peace Prize

President Trump spent two minutes ranting about not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize during a Friday photo opportunity with oil executives, then claimed he does not care about the award. Unprompted, Trump mentioned an upcoming meeting with Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado and suggested she might be “involved in some aspect” of Venezuelan governance, contradicting his recent public criticism of her.

Trump alleged that Norway is “embarrassed” by the Nobel committee’s decision and claimed he has settled eight major wars, some spanning decades, without nuclear weapons. He stated that he settled wars including India-Pakistan tensions, asserting that “nobody else settled wars” and that he deserved the prize more than any person in history.

Trump contrasted his record with former President Barack Obama’s 1-prize, claiming Obama “had no idea why” he received it, “didn’t do anything,” and was “a bad president.” Trump stated Obama received the award “almost immediately upon attaining office,” implying the selection was unwarranted. He insisted that war prevention should automatically qualify recipients for Nobel recognition.

Trump concluded his tirade by stating “I don’t care about that,” pivoting to claims that he has “saved tens of millions of lives” and citing Pakistan’s Prime Minister for publicly crediting him with preventing 10 million deaths in a potential India-Pakistan conflict. His statements contradicted his evident preoccupation with the award, which he has repeatedly lobbied for through unsubstantiated claims about ending wars.

Trump’s assertions about settling multiple major wars have been repeatedly debunked. His pattern of publicly expressing indifference to the Nobel Prize while simultaneously delivering extended grievances about being denied it demonstrates a disconnect between stated and actual priorities.

(Source: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-rages-for-two-solid-minutes-on-nobel-prize-then-says-but-i-dont-care-about-that/)

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