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In early 2025, in a move that was “likely unconstitutional,” the Trump administration, via Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development. As a result, over 80 percent of USAID programs—around $60 billion overall—were eliminated. According to the United Nations, the United States was the single largest aid donor in the world and supplied more than 40 percent of the global aid that the agency tracked in 2024. Almost overnight, the bulk of it went away—and now, as news of worsening Ebola outbreaks continues to come out of central Africa, we are beginning to see the consequences.

Mere hours after his inauguration, Donald Trump granted clemency to nearly 1,600 individuals who faced criminal charges for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in support of his claims that the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen.” Dozens of those pardon recipients have since been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of other crimes, according to a new analysis by Lawfare. At least 97 January 6ers—or roughly one in 16—have been tied to a crime since the president gave them unilateral forgiveness.*The crimes they stand accused of range from petty crimes such as property damage, trespassing, and possession of drug paraphernalia, to serious felonies such as stalking, theft, defrauding government agencies, plots to assassinate law enforcement and government officials, and homicide.At least 14 pardon recipients have since been charged with sex crimes or crimes related to child porn, according to Lawfare. Another six have faced domestic violence charges. Others have been accused of different violent crimes, such as physical assault or illegal firearms possession. At least 20 have been charged for driving while drunk or public intoxication.Notably, five individuals that Trump granted clemency have been charged with or accused of crimes that they conducted after the pardon, suggesting that the president actually facilitated more crime by prematurely kneecapping their judicial consequences.They include Andrew Paul Johnson, who went on to commit multiple sex crimes against children months after Trump freed him from the clink. He was sentenced in March to life in prison for the crimes related to transmitting child porn and molesting a child under the age of 12.Ryan Nichols is another pardon recipient who went on to commit more crime. Nichols was charged on May 10 after he allegedly threatened a person with a gun in a church parking lot.Trump praised his pardon recipients as recently as Wednesday while defending his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” referring to the honeypot’s potential awardees as “great people.”“These are people who have lost their lives over nonsense,” Trump told the New York Post. “These were many great people, and I gave them pardons and I’m very proud to have given them pardons. And I think they should be reimbursed for a crooked government.”It’s unclear if the slush fund will proceed, but a slew of January 6ers have already lined up for their slice of the pie. They include former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, a sex offender who bear-sprayed cops, and a convicted child molester who told his victims he would give them money from a Trump payout in exchange for their silence.* This article originally misidentified the number of pardoned January 6ers who have reoffended.

The 24-year-old Trump loyalist was hired for a Defense Department role on “irregular warfare and counterterrorism.”

Arizona’s attorney general is still going to pursue charges against President Trump’s allies for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.Kris Mayes plans to seek a new indictment against those allies, her office announced Thursday, following the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday not to reverse a lower court ruling throwing out earlier indictments against the group of 18 people, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office will return this case to the grand jury,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, Richie Taylor, said to Politico. “We decline to comment further at this time.”Two years ago, a grand jury indicted Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, conservative attorney John Eastman, and 15 others over a fake elector scheme to reverse Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state. Trump was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. Last year, though, the case was thrown out by Judge Sam Myers, who said prosecutors didn’t show jurors the text of the Electoral Count Act, which governs presidential elections.Mayes’s office appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court, which decided not to reopen the case on Tuesday. If Mayes secures new indictments, Arizona would join Wisconsin and Nevada as states with active criminal cases against 2020 fake elector schemes. Even if Trump won’t face prosecution for interfering in the 2020 election, the possibility remains open that his close allies could still face criminal consequences.

Critics say the new rule will also harm people with serious illnesses such as cancer and HIV/AIDS.

Maybe I’m leaning too much into The Discourse, but here’s this mind-boggling thing happening on the internet with the internet’s latest supervillian. Mackenzie Shirilla is the—star? protagonist?—of a new documentary on Netflix about a deadly 2022 car wreck that claimed the lives of her boyfriend Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan. Shirilla, the driver, […]