by Ja'han Jones | Jun 5, 2026 | Opinion
Donald Trump’s administration has been a boon to gun traffickers, and a new lawsuit seeks to shed more light on the illegal guns being used in crimes.
To those who followed along as the GOP attempted to kneecap the Obama administration with its “Fast and Furious” inquiries back in 2012, the fact that Republicans firmly support Trump despite his being a major enabler of gun trafficking will reek of hypocrisy.
ProPublica recently reported that Trump has gutted many of the policies that the Biden administration implemented to combat illegal sales of guns — a crackdown that experts have said contributed to a decline in violent crime that occurred during Biden’s term and has continued into Trump’s.
One of the Trump administration’s regressive moves was to repeal a zero-tolerance policy of pulling licenses from gun sellers who engaged in illegal sales. Per ProPublica:
But the Trump administration, driven both by gun-lobby advocacy and its own political priorities, quickly set about undoing much of its predecessor’s moves to combat gun violence. It repealed the zero-tolerance policy, going so far as to invite revoked dealers to reapply for new licenses. It shifted hundreds of ATF agents to immigration work. And it scaled back on prosecutions for gun trafficking. The White House declined to comment, referring questions to the ATF and the Department of Justice.
ProPublica’s report noted that the impact of Trump’s moves could be felt in the years ahead:
The homicide rate fell further last year, but criminologists warn against complacency, because the illicit gun trade is a classic pipeline problem: The harm can take a while to make itself felt. Research has found that the typical “time
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 5, 2026 | Opinion
Despite Donald Trump’s campaign vows in 2024 that he would fix the housing crisis that’s affecting more than a million Americans across the country, the president’s administration has been doing seemingly all it can over the past year to cut off assistance to people without homes.
The New York Times reported on a policy announced this week by extremist-friendly Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, which will gut “Housing First” programs by diverting $1.2 billion dollars from programs that support long-term living arrangements for people without homes and route that money instead toward short-term housing programs that focus on addiction and mental health.
The Times explained the dire picture that could play out as a result:
The plan, which seeks to promote “law and order,” is a scaled-back version of one the administration issued last fall. Congress and a federal court blocked that proposal after critics warned it could send as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back to the streets. The administration’s revised plan is still a frontal assault on the longstanding model of homelessness aid known as Housing First. The move is likely to shift about $1.2 billion away from housing programs, with the risk of displacing current tenants. It constitutes the sharpest change in homelessness policy in a generation.
In a press release announcing the policy, Turner said “the ‘housing first’ experiment failed Americans by warehousing the vulnerable without results,” and that the change, which threatens housing options for many Americans, will help promote “self-sufficiency.” This is the same illogic the administration is using to justify cuts to food aid, which have put millions of Americans at risk of going
by Barbara McQuade | Jun 5, 2026 | Opinion
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” goes the old saying. In the case of the Trump administration, the standard is not so much “good” as “barely competent.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump appointed Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. Two days later he told reporters that Pulte’s appointment is “not going to be permanent” and he will “just take it over a little while.” That is cold comfort, given the position’s responsibilities.
The provision creating “a Director of National Intelligence” included the legal requirement that he or she “have extensive national security expertise.”
Pulte was – and remains – the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, hardly the background one would expect for the leader of America’s 18 intelligence agencies. That’s particularly true during a time when America is at war with Iran, a hostile foreign adversary whom the US government considers a state sponsor of terrorism.
I was serving as a federal national security prosecutor when Congress created the position of director of national intelligence following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The goal was to help members of the intelligence community “connect the dots.” Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in 2004 to break down intelligence community silos and more effectively facilitate information sharing. The provision creating “a Director of National Intelligence” included the legal requirement that he or she “have extensive national security expertise.”
Pulte replaces Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from the post last month amid disagreements over the threat posed by Iran. Gabbard’s resume was thin, but at least she had experience in the military and in Congress. Pulte appears to lack any national
by Zeeshan Aleem | Jun 5, 2026 | Opinion
Republicans forced the Trump administration to at least temporarily drop its agenda to create an astonishingly corrupt $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund this week. The showdown served as a reminder of how the GOP has the ability to foil President Donald Trump’s plans when it wants to, but rarely chooses to exercise that power. And that’s why our current political crisis can’t solely be laid at the feet of Trump. The feckless party he leads rarely exerts its own agency, and that’s a choice.
Republican senators recently showed Trump that there are limits to their patience with his pet projects. A plan to pass a $72 billion immigration enforcement funding bill right before Memorial Day weekend was derailed after, as MS NOW reported, “several Senate Republicans spoke out” against the anti-weaponization fund and “appeared ready to support Democratic-led amendments to block the proposal.”
Things got heated. Reuters reported that “nearly half” of the GOP Senate majority “balked at the issue during a heated two-hour meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, afterward described it on his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
Why doesn’t the GOP act like this more often?
These objections forced Senate Republican leaders to pull the vote and send lawmakers home early for a recess. The message was clear: Rank-and-file senate Republicans can reject Trump’s demands by refusing to pass the legislation he wants to pass. And the Trump administration appeared to receive that message. On Tuesday, Blanche said, “We’re not moving forward with the fund. Period.” That came a day after the Justice Department announced
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 4, 2026 | Opinion
As members of Congress launch yet another effort to wield control over college athletics, advocates for student-athletes are making it known that they strongly oppose new legislation being considered.
Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., held a hearing Wednesday for the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act, which would give the NCAA an antitrust exemption so it could enforce several rules that have been legally challenged.
It’s just the latest proposal aimed at changing the rules that allow college athletes to make money off their names, images and likenesses, or NIL. The SCORE Act has stalled, having been roundly criticized for potentially harming student-athletes. And so has, it seems, the more player-friendly Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement Act.
The latest legislation comes as President Donald Trump pushes to return college sports to the pre-NIL era, in which many former players have said they were exploited. The president has hardly been able to contain his displeasure over the new system, which has led to some rather awkward moments.
CIGNETTI: We’ll let you keep the trophy for an NIL contributionTRUMP: I’ll do that for NIL. Boy oh boy did the courts screw us up, right? It seems to be working for you pic.twitter.com/e6LUPfdlge— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2026
The new bill would allow schools to establish caps on how much they can pay athletes, as ESPN explained, and also limit players’ eligibility to five years and the number of times they can transfer.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who has suggested current players are too entitled and now show “less resiliency,” spoke in favor of the Protect College Sports Act on Wednesday, calling it a
by Michael Steele | Jun 4, 2026 | Opinion
Later this month, President Donald Trump will celebrate his 80th birthday with an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on the White House lawn.
Not a state dinner. Not a charity event. Not even a private getaway with his family. But a cage fight in the shadow of the West Wing. Construction crews have erected a massive structure called “The Claw,” giving the South Lawn the unmistakable feel of a pay-per-view democracy gone wrong.
And somehow, the cage match isn’t even the height of absurdity.
According to The Washington Post, military troops hoping to attend must meet specific body composition and fitness standards. In a memo that reads more like a casting call than a military directive, the Pentagon says service members seeking tickets to Trump’s UFC event must satisfy specific height-to-waist standards and meet all fitness requirements. Also, they can come from anywhere in the world, but they have to pay their own travel costs.
Now, I wouldn’t normally pass judgement on other people’s fitness, but the president is the one who started this, and it’s not the first time he’s brought up the subject.
Play
‘Ridiculous’: Trump attends UFC fight as peace talks collapse with Iran
April 12, 2026 / 04:40
The president has spent years cultivating an image of himself as a peak specimen of physical vigor. Former White House physician Ronny Jackson famously described him as having “incredibly good genes.” Earlier this year, Trump’s latest White House physician reported that he stood 6-foot-3, weighed 224 pounds and enjoyed “excellent cognitive and physical health.” One of the supporting pieces of evidence? His golf victories.
Can we stop with this nonsense? At the reported “238” pounds and
