02 U.S. Politics
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Missouri voters may soon revisit the state’s abortion laws, following a new proposal from Republican lawmakers aiming to reverse a 2024 amendment that established a right to abortion in the state constitution.
Pro-abortion Amendment 3, narrowly approved by Missouri voters in the 2024 election, followed the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion regulation to the states.
On May 14, Missouri lawmakers approved a new ballot measure that seeks to offer a different legal framework, Politico reported. It would only allow abortion in limited cases — such as rape, incest, and medical emergencies — while also requiring parental consent for minors. It would also prohibit “gender transition” procedures for children. Although these surgeries are already banned in Missouri, the measure would enshrine those protections in state law.
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The economy contracted at a 0.2% annual rate in the first quarter of 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday in a revision to its estimate of GDP.
A preliminary report from the agency found that the economy contracted at a 0.3% rate in the quarter, so Thursday’s report represented an upward revision in the growth rate of a tenth of a percentage point.
While it is a slight improvement, the new report highlights the challenges the economy and President Donald Trump face in the coming months. They also raise concerns about the potential for a recession.
This is the second of three GDP estimates the BEA has published for the first quarter as more data are analyzed. The final report will come in late June.
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President Trump on Thursday pardoned a former Army officer who was court-martialed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
President Trump pardoned former Lt. Mark Bashaw after being convicted by a military court for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine in 2022.
The military also discharged Bashaw after his conviction.
Watch Bashaw here:
🇺🇸 I just received a Presidential Pardon from President Donald J. Trump. I am humbled, grateful, and ready to continue fighting for truth and justice in this great nation.
Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump and to your incredible team, WRWY🙏
Special shout out to… pic.twitter.com/wxiM3u1YF6
— Mark Charles Bashaw (@MCBashaw) May 29, 2025
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shuttered its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office.
According to Fox News, MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced the closing of the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) last week.
“As I’ve said many times, MIT is in the talent business,” Kornbluth’s announcement read.
“Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported, so they can do their best work and thrive,” it added.
MIT has acknowledged the failure of its DEI programs, is sunsetting the Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO), and is winding down its Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, and Composition. https://t.co/d4pY8p8N9H pic.twitter.com/t7W51Y5s4U
— BabblingBeaver (@Babbling_Beaver) May 22, 2025
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True to his word, FBI Director Kash Patel has released a treasure trove of secrets about the Crossfire Hurricane probe and the intentionally false narratives devised to justify it.
Ten days ago Kash Patel and Dan Bongino promised “give us a few weeks” in their infamous appearance on Fox News, promising that multiple investigations in to government corruption would soon become fruitful.
Here’s a short clip from that interview, which may turn out to age very well after all:
Kash Patel: More Crossfire Hurricane to be released pic.twitter.com/nTVnqbAY6m
— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) May 18, 2025
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued several more pardons, including those for his political allies: former U.S. House member Michael Grimm of New York and ex-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland. Trump has largely circumvented the process run through the Department of Justice. Trump’s new pardon attorney Ed Martin last week reviewed commutation applications for the president to consider, a source told CNN.
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A US federal court has blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, in a major blow to a key component of his economic policies.
The Court of International Trade ruled that an emergency law invoked by the White House did not give the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country.
The Manhattan-based court said the US Constitution gave Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other nations and this was not superseded by the president’s remit to safeguard the economy.
The Trump administration lodged an appeal within minutes of the ruling.
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We here at the Louder with Crowder Dot Com website have been viewing the Jake Tapper media tour with a degree of amusement. He’s promoting his “now it can be told” book, which claims that everything we said about Joe Biden was true (with that other quiet guy who sits next to him looking weird). Now, Tapper is admitting how everything we said about Democrats and the media is true.
But this new clip of him, a CNN employee, blasting the media for letting Democrats get away with the lawfare they declared on Donald Trump… what do you even say to this?
To set the stage, since Tapper was a guest on Stephen A. Smith’s podcast, here is Stephen A. pointing out the true crime committed by the People Who Controlled Joe Biden Administration as exposed in the book: it makes Donald Trump look right about everything.
Well, if you were willing to do that, then doesn’t it strengthen his argument that lawfare is being used against him?
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The court found the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump has cited as his basis for ordering massive increases in import duties, does not authorize the use of tariffs.A three-judge panel ruled on several lawsuits arguing Trump exceeded his authority, casting doubt on trade policies that have jolted global financial markets, frustrated trade partners and raised uncertainty over the outlook for inflation and the global economy. The Trump administration filed an appeal, and it was unclear if the White House will respond to the ruling by pausing all of its emergency power tariffs in the interim.
Many of Trump’s double-digit tariff hikes are paused for up to 90 days to allow time for trade negotiations, but the uncertainty over their eventual outcome has stymied businesses and left consumers wary about what lies ahead.
“Just when traders thought they’d seen every twist in the tariff saga, the gavel dropped like a lightning bolt over the Pacific,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
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The federal government will begin revoking the visas of some Chinese international students, including those studying in “critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday — the latest restriction on foreign students.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Rubio wrote in a statement.
Rubio also said the government will “revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
China is the second-largest country of origin for international students, behind only India. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States.
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Texas governor Greg Abbott called for the death penalty for two illegal immigrants accused in the hit-and-run death of 18-year-old Ava Moore, a newly enlisted US Air Force recruit, who was killed while kayaking on Grapevine Lake during Memorial Day weekend.“Welcome to Texas. Here’s your death penalty,” the Republican governor posted on X, alongside a video news report covering the arrests of Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez Gonzalez and Maikel Perozo, both originally from Venezuela.Moore had just graduated from the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School and was preparing to begin basic training. She had been spending the holiday weekend with her family in North Texas when the tragic crash occurred on Sunday evening, the New York Post reported.
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On Wednesday, the funeral for Tamara, 8, Stanislav, 12, and Roman Martyniuk, 17 — all from the same family — was held in Korostyshiv in northern Ukraine.
The siblings were killed over the weekend when debris from a Russian cruise missile struck their home. The children were killed as they slept in their beds at 3am.
The children’s father, also injured, was released from the hospital to attend the funeral alongside his two surviving children.
“The three kids were incredibly bright, incredibly polite, the smartest, best students, always ready to help, always ready to support others,” said 22-year-old Yuliia Skok, Roman Martyniuk’s teacher.
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The death of Texas teem Ava Moore, who was set to attend the Air Force Academy, was but the latest in a long trail of death and destruction at the hands of criminal illegal aliens allowed to enter into the country unabated. And in an awful but predictable omission, most of the major newscasts neglected to report this story.
ABC World News Tonight was the only newscast to air the story. Here is that report in its entirety, as aired on Wednesday, May 28th, 2025:
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An illegal immigrant has been detained after another threat was made against President Donald Trump.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the arrest in a statement, saying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested Ramon Morales Reyes.
“Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” she said.
On May 21, ICE office received a threatening letter they said came from Reyes.
“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans — we have done more for this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him,” the letter said, according to Noem’s statement.
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Excerpt:The FBI has been overwhelmed investigating James Comey “copycats” in the wake of his controversial “86 47” Instagram post, Director Kash Patel revealed Wednesday.“Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from the former director?” Patel told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier, during an interview from the bureau’s academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Patel indicated that the uptick in potential threats against President Trump since Comey’s May 15 post has been so substantial that the FBI has had to redirect significant resources – including agents focused on child sex crimes and drug trafficking – to investigate them.
“Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists .. because everywhere across this country people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke … and they can do it because [Comey] did it?” the FBI chief said.
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Elon Musk announced that his time working in the Trump administration as a “Special Government Employee” is drawing to a close, and he thanked President Donald Trump.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Musk’s post comes as the New York Times reported that Musk is “operating with some distance from” Trump, with alleged “White House officials,” claiming that Musk is on “good terms” with the president, though he is “disillusioned with Washington and frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he upended the federal bureaucracy”:
Mr. Musk, who once called himself the president’s “first buddy,” is now operating with some distance from Mr. Trump as he says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies. Mr. Musk remains on good terms with Mr. Trump, according to White House officials. But he has also made it clear that he is disillusioned with Washington and frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he upended the federal bureaucracy, raising questions about the strength of the alliance between the president and the world’s richest man.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he is now set to deny visa requests for any foreign official who worked to censor American free speech.
Rubio announced the new policy in a post on X, reading, “For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.”
“Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.”
For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.
Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans.…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 28, 2025
The State Dept. also put out a statement describing the restrictions.
Free speech is among the most cherished rights we enjoy as Americans. This right, legally enshrined in our constitution, has set us apart as a beacon of freedom around the world. Even as we take action to reject censorship at home, we see troubling instances of foreign governments and foreign officials picking up the slack. In some instances, foreign officials have taken flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so.
Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil. It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States. We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.
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America and Argentina will create a new alternative to the pro-abortion WHO after both countries leave the controversial UN agency.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Argentine counterpart on Tuesday announced the United States and Argentina are creating an “alternative international health system” to the World Health Organization (WHO). President Donald Trump on his first day in office signed an executive order that began the year-long process of withdrawing from the WHO for multiple reasons, including its abortion advocacy and botched handling of COVID.
Kennedy and Argentine Minister of Health Mario Lugones criticized the WHO in a joint statement saying its poor performance left “devastating global consequences.”
“The absence of meaningful reforms, disproportionate financial demands, and the increasing politicization of the organization have ultimately led the United States and Argentina to withdraw from the WHO,” they said. “Withdrawal marks the beginning of a new path—toward building a modern global health cooperation model grounded in scientific integrity, transparency, sovereignty, and accountability.
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A new poll released Wednesday shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a commanding lead over incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in either a two-person race or a three-person race in next year’s Republican primary. But Paxton’s lead in the poll shrinks dramatically against potential Democratic rivals in the 2026 general election.
The poll from Texan Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center shows Paxton leading Cornyn by 9 percentage points in a two-person race and by 7 points if U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston enters the primary.
“Right now, if it’s a head-to-head race between Paxton and Cornyn, Paxton is a very strong favorite, and it’s tough to see how, absent, say, a Trump endorsement of Cornyn, Cornyn could effectively flip the table on Paxton,” said Mark Jones, political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute and co-author of the survey with TSU’s Michael O. Adams.
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The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced that the US will introduce new visa restrictions on “foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans”.
In a post on X, Rubio said that “Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights” and foreigners who “undermine” those rights “should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to our country”.
Here’s the full post:
For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights. Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.
Foreigners who work to undermine the rights of Americans should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to our country. Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed legislation on Tuesday to start the process of allowing Floridians to pay for goods and services with precious metals such as gold and silver.
A report will be given to the state legislature, which has until November 1, 2025, to ratify the rules. The law would take effect on July 1, 2026.
If ratified, the law would establish precious metals as a legal form of tender, but it specifies that accepting them would be optional, except for check cashers and money service businesses. Any business seeking to accept precious metals as payment must obtain a license.
“That means these precious metals can start functioning like real currency again, not just investment vehicles for the wealthy,” DeSantis said.
Purchases of precious metals will be exempt from sales tax.