The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, ignoring the actions of three lower courts, granted the Trump administration’s motion to allow it to proceed with the Commander-in-Chief’s decision to ban and purge all service members from the U.S. Armed Forces who are transgender.

The nation’s highest court, with dissents from the three liberal justices, ruled that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may begin to discharge transgender individuals regardless of performance, while cases work their way through the courts. Two federal district courts had ruled that a ban, in whole or part, on service members simply because they are transgender likely violates their 14th Amendment rights.

The two district courts placed injunctions on the Trump administration’s plan to ban transgender individuals, and an appeals court upheld one of those injunctions.

“Lower courts had blocked the policy, saying it was not supported by evidence and violated equal protection principles,” The New York Times reported. Tuesday’s ruling “will remain in place while challenges to the ban move forward.”

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But the court made clear, in what effectively was an unsigned 6-3 ruling, that the Trump administration, at least temporarily, may begin the discharge process.

The New York Times in February reported that the Pentagon believes the number of transgender service members is far lower than previously estimated, about 4200 in total. Previous estimates had come in at about 15,000.

The Trump administration has argued that transgender troops are disruptive to unit cohesion and lethality, and  President Trump “has characterized the cost of providing care as ‘tremendous.’” The actual cost, however, is around $9000 per trans service member, and totaled around $52 million over the past ten years.

The administration also “asserted that being transgender ‘conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle.'”

Critics are blasting the Supreme Court, with several stating the trans military ban will make America less safe.

“Banning transgender people who want to serve our country from joining the military isn’t just cruel—it’s stupid,” declared U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). “Shame on Trump. And shame on SCOTUS for letting such a hateful policy take effect.”

“It’s discrimination,” wrote MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks.

“Backward, bigoted and bad for our national security,” wrote veteran and veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff, president of Righteous Media. “Trump’s radical and destructive culture war on our military continues. And is unsurprisingly supported by this Supreme Court. Trump’s trans purge will remove valuable servicemembers, disrupt units and make America less safe.”

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“Absolutely shameful,” declared U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, and Iraq War combat veteran. “Trump’s trans military service ban hurts our military readiness, makes our military’s recruitment challenges even worse and disrespects Americans who are brave enough to serve in uniform. This will make our military less lethal and Americans less safe.”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote: “I’m so sorry for all the decorated members of the military who are going to be kicked out and treated like garbage by this administration just because of their gender identity. We’re losing talented, dedicated soldiers and staff because of this.”

“Thousands of openly-trans members of the military were just given a huge middle finger by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, who are allowing a cruel and unnecessary ban to go into effect, despite the overwhelming evidence that the ban itself is ridiculous,” wrote author Charlotte Clymer, a former spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.

“Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military, showing remarkable honor & bravery,” observed DePaul University Associate Professor of Political Science. “Less than 1% of those are openly trans, & show the same honor & even more bravery. Open discrimination by the president & the Supreme Court must be called out. Shameful.”

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Image via Reuters

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is facing criticism for a hyper-partisan letter she sent to Harvard University, riddled with grammatical errors and dubious claims.

In the 979-word statement, the Trump administration—through Secretary McMahon—condemned Harvard’s admissions policies, staffing decisions, and institutional leadership, and informed the nation’s oldest university, a 388-year-old private Ivy League institution, that it will not receive new federal research grants.

“Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE?” Secretary McMahon asked in the opening paragraph of her three-page letter.

“Harvard University has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus,” McMahon claimed.

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“This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing ‘remedial math’ program for undergraduates,” the Education Secretary declared. “Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this ‘acclaimed university’? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?”

The Harvard Crimson last September reported that “the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.”

“Much of Harvard’s hateful discrimination was revealed, last year,” McMahon charged, “by the great work of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and her Committee. As if it were trying to embarrass itself even further, Harvard hired failed Mayors Bill De Blasio and Lori Lightfoot, perhaps the worst mayors ever to preside over major cities in our country’s history, to supposedly teach ‘leadership’ at their School of Public Health. This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea.”

McMahon also took issue with “strongly left-leaning Obama political appointee Penny Pritzker, a Democrat operative,” being elected to lead the Harvard Corporation. She described the former Obama Cabinet secretary as “catastrophic and running the institution in a totally chaotic way.”

The Education Secretary also blasted Harvard for allegedly failing “to abide by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing [sic],” and for allegedly continuing “to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans.”

McMahon also demanded Harvard’s “cooperation with Law Enforcement, and reporting compliance with the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal Agencies.”

She ended the angry missive in a very Trumpian fashion: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Critics blasted McMahon.

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“Did you use A1 to write this,” asked investigative reporter Roger Sollenberger, mocking the Education Secretary’s embarrassing remarks confusing artificial intelligence (AI) with the popular steak sauce (A1).

“Whoever wrote this is barely literate,” declared The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg.

“Did a high school kid write this?” asked veterans’ activist and podcaster Fred Wellman. “You’re the Secretary of ‘Education’ and this is a chaotic mess of bad grammar and illiterate rambling. You poked the bear and you’re too stupid to even know it.”

Maya Sen, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, wrote:

“Informing a private entity it will no longer be eligible for government contracts in part because a Democrat sits on its board.”

She added, “what’s terrible is that the administration had many natural allies in academia – professors who wanted more diversity in thought, fewer regulations governing research funding, higher & consistent academic standards, and better protections of academic speech,” and noted: “But not like this!”

“It may be wise for a private institution to have wide ideological diversity in its membership and leadership,” She also noted. “But the government may not mandate it, nor make it a requirement for applying for unrelated funding.”

Journalist John Harwood wrote simply, “this letter is deranged.”

In addition to criticism of the content, some offered red-inked corrections that appear to be major:

Dear @usedgov I found more mistakes after first read-thru. Will add more corrections later. https://t.co/AGlUZzVydf pic.twitter.com/9rx0Km5MFs

— B. J. Bethel (@BJBethelTweets) May 6, 2025

our secretary of “education” https://t.co/ds5cwk0uHl pic.twitter.com/4MR4DEydUZ

— daniel (michelle steel hate account) (@danielluo_pi) May 6, 2025

See the social media posts above or at this link.

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Image via Reuters 

“Where Is Secretary Duffy?” That’s the question circulating on social media as the nation’s air transportation system unravels—plagued by mounting failures under the Trump administration and its Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy.

“There have been 37 deadly aviation crashes in the United States in 2025,” a report from a Fox affiliate in Texas, KDFW, found last month. “Before 2025, the most recent deadly plane crash involving a U.S. airliner was in 2009. At least 143 people have died in the 2025 aviation crashes.”

An NCRM review of the National Transportation Safety Board database found that from January 20, 2025—the start of the Trump administration—through May 6, there were at least 146 aviation fatalities in the U.S., nearly double the 74 fatalities recorded by the NTSB during the same period under the first months of the Biden administration.

Add to that the current disaster at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the U.S., serving New York City and New Jersey. Travelers have been experiencing massive delays for well over a week, while the Transportation Secretary has appeared on Fox News, posted a photo celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and attacks his predecessor for—he claims—doing nothing to improve the nation’s aging air traffic computer systems.

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Author and activist Shannon Watts was one of many who responded to Secretary Duffy’s Cinco de Mayo celebration:

Newark air traffic controller, “It is not safe. It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public. Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs.”

The Secretary of Transportation: I ❤️ tacos. https://t.co/Ttbq1xJnVF

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 4, 2025

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Monday evening decried “America’s Air Traffic Fiasco.”

“President Trump wants to reorder the global trading system, but how about fixing America’s air traffic mess?” the WSJ asked.

All this comes as the Trump administration has cut Federal Administration Agency employees.

The Guardian in February reported that the Trump administration had “begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.”

“The firings at the FAA do not include air traffic controllers, but did appear to include engineers and technicians.

And an Associated Press report headline at US News & World Report at the end of January read:

“Air Traffic Controllers Were Initially Offered Buyouts and Told to Consider Leaving Government”
“Just a day before a deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport”

The union for the air traffic controllers advised its members to not take the buyout, and it is unclear that air traffic controllers were eligible, even if they did receive the offer.

But Secretary Duffy is blaming the Biden administration.

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“It’s no secret our air traffic control system is antiquated,” Secretary Duffy claimed on Monday night. “The last administration didn’t lift a finger to fix it. We’re working day and night to overhaul it.”

Secretary Duffy “said Thursday the FAA is on track to hire 2,000 new air traffic controllers this year,” Business Insider reported. “His plan also includes monetary incentives of up to $10,000 for academy graduates who are assigned to ‘hard-to-staff’ air traffic facilities. The proposal would also provide financial incentives to staff, reward academy graduates, and expand the number of instructors.”

Tom Bonier, a veteran Democratic political strategist, on Monday asked: “Remember when Sean Duffy tried to convince us that DEI was the problem? Yet, here we are, >100 days in… explain to me how DEI resulted in air traffic in one of the country’s busiest airspaces going without monitoring for some undisclosed amount of time.”

Christina Henderson, a Member of the Council of the District of Columbia, wrote, “I’m trying to understand why Sean Duffy isn’t getting more smoke from Congress. If Buttigieg was still Secretary there would’ve been endless hearings and calls for his resignation. Yes, FAA has always had staffing shortages, but it feels like the wheels are falling off now.”

Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, responding to a CBS Evening News report, asked, “Where is @SecDuffy and how is this level of incompetence possible in such a short amount of time?”

CBS News on Monday reported that “For the eighth straight day, massive disruptions at Newark Liberty Airport, there have been thousands of delays, some hitting nearly five hours. More than 800 flights have been canceled in the last week at the nation’s 12th busiest airport.”

“Monday’s bad weather complicated an air traffic control staffing nightmare that started last Monday after a number of system outages controller screens essentially went dark for up to 90 seconds, losing the ability to track aircraft at a key facility handling traffic in and out of Newark. It was a breaking point for about a half dozen controllers who requested trauma leave due to the working conditions, allowing them to essentially be off the job for up to 45 days.”

Newark Liberty Airport continues to face massive disruptions, with over 800 flight cancellations and delays of up to five hours due to staffing issues and air traffic control system failures. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warns similar delays could spread nationwide… pic.twitter.com/rCkLVxu1iX

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) May 5, 2025

Secretary Duffy is under fire even at Fox News, where he appeared on Monday above a chyron that read: “Accidents and Close-Calls Unnerve Public.”

Telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “we are going to radically transform air traffic control,” Duffy focused on the aging computer technology.

The President and I are going to radically transform air traffic control. That means building a brand new system that is the envy of the world.

Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/wlhQDbMMMY

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 6, 2025

“We have really old infrastructure in America,” Duffy said. “It hasn’t been updated in the last 30, 40 years. This should have been dealt with in the last administration—they did nothing.”

But Duffy’s claim doesn’t hold up: Under President Joe Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg invested tens of millions of dollars annually to repair aging airport infrastructure nationwide. Additionally, Donald Trump was President for four of the years Duffy cited, making his attempt to shift blame even more questionable.

And in October 2024, Secretary Buttigieg wrote: “The FAA has worked to reverse decades of reduced air traffic control staffing levels—and set an aggressive goal to hire 1,800 controllers this year. I’m proud that they have exceeded their hiring goal, and we have opened another hiring window.”

Duffy also told Ingraham, “when you have an incident like this, you want to make sure that people are safe, and so you just have less departures out of the airport until we feel comfortable and safe that the system isn’t gonna go down again.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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