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‘Shell Game’: Ken Ham Loses $18 Million Tax Break After ‘Selling’ Christian Ark Museum’s Land to His Company for $10

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Young earth creationist Ken Ham has spent years spinning tales. He tells people all the answers to all the world’s questions can be found in the Christian bible, the earth is just six thousand years old, and Noah saved mankind after building an ark and collecting two of every animal, placing them in the boat, and withstanding the great 40 days and 40 nights flood God sent.

Along the way, Ham apparently also found the answers to his tax law questions in the good book. 

He recently “sold” the land his “life-sized” Noah’s Ark replica and museum sits on to himself, or more specifically, to a non-profit he created, for $10. By doing so, he is trying to turn his for-profit Ark Encounter museum into a non-profit ministry, so he can avoid paying 50 cents in taxes on every ticket sold.

Apparently, the Bible’s tax law information is out of date.

“Not satisfied enough with winning a court battle worth $18 million in tax rebates after convincing a judge that his for-profit business, which is actively using religion as a form of employment discrimination, he has now sold the land the theme park sits on, worth $48 million, to his own non-profit entity, Crosswater Canyon, for $10. You read that right, ten dollars,” the Huffington Post’s Dan Arel reports. 

That “religion as a form of employment discrimination” is very accurate. Ham requires all employees to sign a pledge stating they agree with all of his religious beliefs. It specifies that marriage os only between one man and one woman. Somehow he managed to convince Kentucky officials that by not granting his tax break they were discriminating against his for-profit business that discriminates against others on the basis of religious beliefs.

Ham “once again found a new way to swindle the good people of Kentucky out of their money,” Arel says.

“This allows Ham to claim his land is a non-profit and not subject to the new safety tax passed by city officials which would have collected 50 cents of every entry ticket sold. This move also worries local politicians and residents because it sets up the park to claim exemption from all other taxes as well that includes the funding of public schools,” Arel adds.

So much for “do unto others…”

“In order to apply for the tourism tax rebate, the park had to list itself as a for-profit business but continued to operate as a religious ministry. This move led state officials to decline their application for the rebate,” Arel continues. “Ham then filed a discrimination lawsuit against the state and won, just as the new Republican Governor, Matt Bevin, took office. Bevin was supportive of the park during his campaign and immediately declined to appeal the ruling, paving the way for his newly assigned tourism board to approve the park’s request.”

But Kentucky seems to have caught on to Ham’s religious shenanigans.

“The Kentucky Tourism Arts and Heritage Cabinet has suspended an incentive agreement worth up to $18 million with a Noah’s Ark-themed attraction in Grant County because the park transferred its main property to a non-profit affiliate,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reports Friday.

A “letter to Ark Encounter attorney James Parsons said the ark park’s recent actions put it in breach of the agreement with the state to refund a portion of sales tax collected at the site, which opened last July with a large-scale replica of Noah’s Ark.”

In addition, the letter “said the ark had several violations of the state agreement, including a failure to tell the agency of any change in ownership or get prior written consent to transfer assets. In addition, the agreement stipulated that the tax incentive, approved by the Tourism Development Finance Authority, was made for Ark Encounter. Non-profits can qualify for the tax incentive, but in this case, the agreement was with Ark Encounter, not its non-profit affiliate, Crosswater Canyon.”

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has been tracking and detailing Ham’s moves for years. 

“Ark Encounter and Crosswater Canyon must stop their dishonest shell game,” Ed Hensley, a FFRF coordinator in Kentucky told  the Lexington Herald-Leader. “They cannot claim to be for-profit in order to get tax incentives and then claim to be non-profit in order to avoid taxes.”

Through his non-profit ministry, Answers in Genesis, Ham also owns and operates his Creation museum, through which he spreads his pseudoscientific beliefs.

Earlier this week NCRM reported on Ham’s surprising claim, that he’s not “against” gay people. We disproved it by posting 10 of his tweets from over the past few years. 

“Abortion, pedophilia, polygamy, Euthanasia, gay marriage–symptoms of what happens when a culture abandons God’s Word as absolute authority,” reads one tweet. “Christians need to take back the rainbow,” reads another.

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Rollins Slams Medicaid, Touts Healthy Food to Cut Health Care Costs—GOP Cut Both Programs

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July 14, 2025

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed Medicaid is “bankrupting” the states, while suggesting that “healthy” foods could serve to help reduce health care costs. Yet both Medicaid and nutrition programs like SNAP were slashed under President Donald Trump and Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law just ten days ago.

“Medicaid is bankrupting almost every state,” Secretary Rollins claimed in remarks on Monday (video below).

With the Republicans gutting over $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funds, and approximately $200 billion in SNAP funds, states face either picking up that massive shortfall or cutting some programs, benefits, or users.

Medicaid is “taking between 30, 40, 45, 50 percent of the state budgets, and has for a really long time, for those of us who come from state policy, we know this very, very well,” Rollins continued. State funds for Medicaid (not including federal matching funds) account for less than 20 percent of state budgets, overall, according to the Pew Research Center.

READ MORE: At Faith-Based Event Trump Courts Religious CEOs, Uses Expletive, Calls Dems ‘Evil’

Secretary Rollins previously served as a policy director for Texas Governor Rick Perry and led the right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation. More recently, she headed the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank dedicated to advancing President Trump’s first post-presidency agenda.

Rollins decried what she says is the number one purchase using SNAP funds: “sugary drinks and junk food.”

“Frankly, we have to make a change,” she insisted.

“So there is a lot of wholesale across the government that we can do, but there’s also a recognition that a lot of these communities that are part of the Medicaid program, they don’t always have access to healthy food,” Rollins continued, not mentioning the billions the BBB Act gutted from both.

Rollins insisted the federal government has to do “a better job through our nutrition programs, through our partnerships, et cetera, of ensuring that those communities have access to healthy foods.”

“So on the back end, we have programs that are not bankrupting our government.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

Image via Reuters

 

 

 

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At Faith-Based Event Trump Courts Religious CEOs, Uses Expletive, Calls Dems ‘Evil’

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July 14, 2025

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During a White House Faith Office event focused on renewing America “spiritually and financially,” President Donald Trump lashed out at “evil” Democrats and used an expletive while venting about his indictments and impeachments.

The meeting was attended by about 60 CEOs and business leaders who have donated to faith-based causes, in an attempt to persuade them to invest in the White House Faith Office, according to Fox News.

“White House Faith Office senior advisor Pastor Paula White, Faith Director Jenny Korn, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler will attend the event and also deliver remarks,” Fox News also reported.

READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

Trump was “expected to explain why the White House Faith Office is so important to his agenda,” and “encourage business leaders to help the Trump administration, specifically on programs concerning foster care and adoption, fatherhood initiatives, poverty alleviation, substance abuse and prisoner reentry.”

But the President also explained (video below) “one thing” about Democrats: “they have bad policy, they’re evil people in many ways, but they stick together,” he claimed.

Trump warned that if Republicans don’t stand together “and make the economy strong…you’re gonna literally have perhaps a depression, where you people so rich, so beautiful, so nice to look at, will be totally busted. And let’s see how long your wife stays with you, your beautiful — she’ll stay with you for about three weeks and she’ll say, ‘Darling, I can’t take you anymore. I can’t take it anymore, darling, I’m leaving you’.”

The President also denounced his indictments and impeachments.

“Indicted five times, impeached two times, all b——-, right?” he told the group. “Oh, terrible stuff, and I got impeached for making a perfect phone call.”

READ MORE: ‘Like Taking a Knife to a Gunfight’: Trump’s Russia Tariffs of ‘About 100%’ Mocked

Trump also claimed that he is “getting rid of” the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision in the tax code that bans  certain non-profits, including groups like churches, from endorsing political candidates. It has never been fully enforced, and no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status solely for violations of that law.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation denounced the meeting’s agenda.

“Trump is again blurring the line between church and state,” FFRF wrote. “A president shouldn’t be rewarding CEOs for promoting religion or using public office to advance a ‘faith-centered’ agenda. Government must serve all Americans — not just the religious.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Absolute Cringe’: DHS Ridiculed After Attacking CNN Report—by Confirming It

 

 

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‘Like Taking a Knife to a Gunfight’: Trump’s Russia Tariffs of ‘About 100%’ Mocked

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8 hours ago

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July 14, 2025

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For the past few days, President Donald Trump and his allies have been teasing what was billed as a major announcement about Russia. On Monday, the President issued a warning to President Vladimir Putin: sign a cease-fire agreement within 50 days with Ukraine or face tariffs of “about 100%” on Russian goods imported into the United States.

“I am very disappointed with President Putin,” Trump said on Sunday. “I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. And he’ll talk so beautifully and then he’ll bomb people at night. We don’t like that.”

“I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago,” Trump declared on Monday from the Oval Office, continuing what has been a rare distancing from the Russian dictator. But in announcing his secondary tariffs of about 100%, Trump added, “I hope we don’t have to do it.”

Trump called the tariffs “major” and “very severe,” while telling reporters that he speaks to Putin “a lot.”

READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

He also defended giving Russia 50 days notice by saying, “I think it’s a very short period of time,” and, “I’ve just really been involved in this not very long. It wasn’t an initial focus. This is a Biden war. This is a Democrat war.”

Critics disagree.

Some observers are noting that Trump ran for re-election last year on the promise he would end Russia’s war against Ukraine in one day. Some also note that 50 days gives Putin a lot of time to inflict further damage on Ukraine, although Trump also announced he is authorizing Patriot missiles to go to Ukraine.

Technologist, historian, and researcher Dave Troy, who has written extensively on Russia, noted: “Trump’s announcement on Russia/Ukraine is not significant. 1) we’re not paying for weapons, we are selling them to NATO, 2) secondary 100% tariffs isolate the US from Russia sphere of influence, a strategic goal for Putin, 3) 50 day window provides pretext for attack escalation.”

Former Obama National Security Council official Tommy Vietor wrote: “I’m glad that Trump finally figured out that Putin is a liar who can’t be trusted & has chosen to support Ukraine, but: 1) he ran on ending this war in 24 hours and failed, 2) he said sending weapons to Ukraine would lead to World War 3, but now is doing exactly what Biden did.”

Last year, the U.S. imported only $3 billion from Russia, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

READ MORE: GOP Senator Denounces Anti-ICE Democrats as ‘Pawns’ of an ‘Anarchist Agenda’

“Congress has been waiting on Trump’s green light for a bipartisan bill that would slap 500% tariffs on any country doing business with Russia,” reported Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. Later, she added that Trump appears supportive of the legislation, although he said, “I’m not sure we need it, but it’s certainly good that they’re doing it.”

“Trump’s big reveal on Russia,” observed journalist Marcy Wheeler, “is to give Putin more time than he is giving America’s nominal allies to do what he demands, 50 days instead of 20.”

Daily Beast columnist and creator of the Russian Media Monitor, Julia Davis, wrote: “Seems like this ‘major announcement’ was teased ad nauseam solely to distract from the Epstein fallout. We already knew about selling Patriots to Europe. Trump is giving Putin 50 more days to bomb Ukrainians before he considers doing anything about it.”

Rina Shah, a Senior Fellow at the Rainey Center for Public Policy, wrote: “Threatening tariffs on Russia to try to settle its 3+ year war on Ukraine? This is like taking a knife to a gunfight.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Absolute Cringe’: DHS Ridiculed After Attacking CNN Report—by Confirming It

 

This article was updated to include the quote from Julia Davis

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