Tag: donald trump

Soon after massive honeybee deaths, Trump moves to close the nation’s premier bee lab

Mark Welsch is no stranger to the difficulties of beekeeping.

The Omaha beekeeper has been caring for hives for the last nine years — and he understands that not every colony makes it through the cold winter months. But the winter of 2024-2025 was particularly brutal for him.

“I had 12 hives going into the winter,” Welsch said. “I lost nine of them.”

He wasn’t the only one. About 1.6 million colonies died across the U.S. between June 2024 and March 2025, according to surveys from bee research nonprofit Project Apis m.

The losses hit commercial beekeepers as well as backyard honey producers, with many losing 60% to 80% of their colonies.

“Last year there was a really swift and sudden cry for help from beekeepers,” said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m.

For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the one to answer such cries for help — a place where beekeepers turn when major disasters happen. Six months after the massive die-off, scientists from the USDA facility identified a likely cause: viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites. But now, the Trump administration plans to close the research lab, leaving beekeepers to question the future of federal research.

‘A really deep history’

The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the site of major developments in food and farm research in its 100-plus-year history. The Thanksgiving turkey was developed at Beltsville, as well as the first methods used to keep butter cold and fresh. Researchers there linked trans fat consumption to increased cholesterol and uncovered the smallest known plant disease agent.

The facility opened in 1910 as the “Government Farm,” but the history of its bee research laboratory begins earlier. Federal honeybee research in the Washington, D.C. area started in 1891, and the lab was relocated multiple times before permanently landing at Beltsville in 1939.

“There’s a really deep history of that station for supporting U.S. agriculture that’s unique,” Downey said.

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Trump’s Monstrous Threats Against the Iranian People

The president marked Easter with more deranged threats against the country and people of Iran:

The US president gave Iran until 8pm eastern time on Tuesday to reopen the crucial shipping lane after earlier threatening to unleash “hell” in an expletive-laden social media post.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

The president is making explicit threats to commit massive war crimes against the civilian population. He means to inflict collective punishment on tens of millions of people because their government will not yield to his unhinged demands. He is treating the Iranian people as hostages, and he is threatening to shoot the hostages if he doesn’t get what he wants. The message the president has sent amounts to telling the Iranian people, “Trump, or I burn the country.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that the president is threatening genocidal violence against the people of Iran. Trump has referred to Iranians as “animals” in a chilling echo of Israeli officials’ statements at the start of the genocidal war in Gaza. He said this morning that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back” if Iran does not capitulate. This is eliminationist language directed at a country of more than ninety million people. These are the words of a madman, and coming from the head of a nuclear weapons state they are terrifying.

It should be clear by now that this is a war on the Iranian people, and it was never going to be anything else. The aggressors want to wreck Iran and leave it in ruins. That should have been obvious from the start after what the Israeli government did to Gaza and is currently doing to Lebanon with Washington’s full support, but now it is undeniable.

Trump’s Iran policy has always been defined by collective punishment. His “maximum pressure” sanctions have impoverished the Iranian people and strangled their economy for the last eight years. Attacks on civilian infrastructure in his criminal war threaten the entire population with even greater deprivation and hardship. As ever, the destruction is the point. The president is not really trying to achieve anything. He simply wishes to punish and harm those that will not submit to him.

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Israel bombs Tehran as Iranians taunt Trump

Israel has conducted yet another wave of strikes against infrastructure targets including an airport in Tehran, after striking at least two petrochemical facilities in Iran the day before.

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense claimed the debris from a successful “interception and destruction” of at least seven ballistic missiles fell in the vicinity of its energy facilities, with the damage still being “assessed.”

Israeli forces attacked Iran’s largest petrochemical facility in the South Pars natural gas field and a petrochemical complex in the city of Marvdasht earlier on Monday – as US President Donald Trump has stepped up threats to strike Iran’s infrastructure if American and Israel-linked shipping is not allowed through the Strait of Hormuz by Wednesday.

“It is Trump who has about 20 hours to either surrender to Iran or see his allies return to the Stone Age. We will not back down!” Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, claimed.

Tehran has reportedly rejected a US ceasefire proposal, circulated by Egyptian, Pakistani, and Turkish mediators, instead offering a ten‑clause plan that calls for a permanent end to the war. The demands reportedly include an end to conflicts across the region, protocols to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of sanctions, and provisions for reconstruction.

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War-Torn Congo Agrees to Take U.S. Deportees Under Latest Trump Crackdown

The Trump administration has secured a new agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take in deported illegal aliens.

Deportees will begin arriving in the troubled African nation this month under the new arrangement, according to the country’s Ministry of Communications.

The arrangement is described as temporary, with the U.S. covering all logistical costs.

The DRC said the agreement reflects its “commitment to human dignity and international solidarity” and confirmed each case would be reviewed individually.

Their statement read:

This initiative is established in accordance with the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding the management of access to and residence of foreigners on its territory, and is part of its international and regional commitments regarding the protection of migrants’ rights.

It also reflects the Congolese State’s unwavering commitment to human dignity and international solidarity. A country deeply affected by humanitarian realities and already hosting populations of diverse nationalities, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains committed to the values of hospitality and shared responsibility among nations.

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Eric Trump Tells TGP Trump’s Library Costs “a Lot” and will “Put Obama’s Library TO SHAME” – “I’m Incredibly Excited About That”

Eric Trump, the second son of President Trump, told reporters on Monday that the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is going to “put Obama’s library to shame.”

During the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Trump told The Gateway Pundit that the library is “gonna be the best” and will cost “a lot,” though he did not give a number.

“Here’s what I’ll tell you. There’s no one that builds buildings as well as we do, and it’s going to put Obama’s Library to shame. I’m incredibly excited about that,” Trump said when asked about other details of the building.

He declined to comment on whether the library would be a mixed-use development with a hotel on top. Instead, he said, “You guys just wait and see. It’s gonna be incredible.”

He added, “We’ll announce more.”

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Trump Flips Script on Reporter Asking if He’ll Allow Iran to Charge Tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, Says He Already Has a “Concept” to Charge Tolls – “What About Us Charging Tolls? We Won!”

President Trump on Monday said that he is actually considering controlling the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz with tolls for shipping once Iran is defeated. 

President Trump plans to launch a massive attack on Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and energy if they do not make a deal by tomorrow. During the press conference, Trump threatened that “every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

During a press conference on Monday, Trump was asked if he would end the conflict while allowing Iran to continue charging tolls to oil tankers for safe passage through the Strait. But Trump thought the reporter was asking if he would be charging tolls for oil shipping.

“What about us charging tolls?” Trump asked after the reporter clarified he was referring to Iran.

“I’d rather do that than let them have them, right? Why shouldn’t we?” he continued, before declaring, “We’re the winner. We won!” Trump then revealed that the US already has a “concept where we’ll charge tolls.”

“Your question would have been more accurate if you said us,” Trump said.

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White House Proposes 12.5 Percent Cut in Budget for Health and Human Services

The White House on April 3 floated a reduction in spending for health agencies, including nearly $7 billion less for an agency that runs a program for young children.

The White House in its budget proposal to Congress asked for $111.1 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its divisions for fiscal year 2027.

If accepted, that funding would be a 12.5 percent decrease from the $126.9 billion lawmakers approved for HHS in fiscal year 2026.

Fiscal year 2027 begins on Oct. 1 and will run through Sept. 30, 2027.

President Donald Trump has asked for $441 billion more for defense and is proposing $73 billion in cuts across non-defense areas.

“The 2027 Budget builds on the President’s vision by continuing to constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote to Congress.

HHS cuts would primarily be made to the Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, which runs the Head Start child care program for young children from poorer families. The $6.9 billion in savings would be realized by ending grant programs, including some for preschools and some that help certain households pay for utilities.

The White House said in its proposal that the energy assistance program is not necessary “because States have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households, effectively making [the program] a passthrough benefiting utility companies, particularly in the Northeast.”

The administration also wants less money for caring for illegal immigrant minors who arrive at the border without a responsible adult. The reduction in funding “reflects the Administration’s successful efforts to secure the border and minimize the number of” those minors entering the country, HHS said in its budget proposal justification.

Another major cut would apply to the National Institutes of Health, which the administration said should receive $41.2 billion, a decrease of nearly $5 billion from the current fiscal year.

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Middle East is ‘on fire’ – Kremlin

The US-Israeli war against Iran has set the Middle East “on fire,” reflecting Russia’s warning about the dangerous consequences of the move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump escalated the tensions by issuing an expletive-laden demand to Tehran to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, which has remained effectively shut since the conflict began on February 28.
“Open the f**king strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in hell,” he wrote on social media, threatening to demolish the Iranian power plants and bridges if it doesn’t happen by Tuesday. Tehran maintains that the key waterway is only closed for oil shipments by the US and its allies.

When asked by journalists about Trump’s rant on Monday, Peskov said that “we have seen those statements, but we prefer not to comment on them.”

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Trump Threatens to Jail Journalists Who Received Leak About US Pilot Downed in Iran

President Donald Trump vowed Monday to find the “leaker” who disclosed that US forces could not locate the second pilot stranded in Iran after their F-15 fighter jet was shot down, threatening to jail unnamed journalists who received the information if they do not reveal its source.

Trump claimed that Iranian authorities did not know that a second pilot of the downed two-seat warplane was missing until after the news report, which made the US rescue mission “much more difficult.”

“We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” Trump said. “We think we’ll be able to find it out because we’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say: ‘National security – give it up or go to jail.’”

“The country, Iran, put out a major notice… offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot,” Trump continued. “We have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person. Probably didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was.”

“We’re going to find out,” he added. “It’s national security, and the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say.”

While the president did not say which “media company” he was talking about, the first widely cited reporting about the missing second pilot was broadcast Friday by CNN, CBS News, and The New York Times.

Israel journalist Amit Segal – who has close high-level links to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – claimed Monday on his Telegram channel that he was the first to publish information on the second pilot.

“We are about to see Trump’s promise to find and imprison whoever leaked the info about the second pilot vanish into the ether,” US investigative journalist Ryan Grim said on social media Monday in response to Segal’s post.

Both pilots were successfully rescued. Some critics mocked Trump for presuming that Iranians would not know that the two-seat F-15 is crewed by multiple pilots.

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Deepfake Video of Trump Showing Off ‘Jesus Portrait’ Goes Viral as He Threatens to ‘Reign Hell’ on Iran in the Name of ‘God’

Donald Trump has said and done a number of notable things over the past week.

Here’s one thing he didn’t do: hang up a picture of Jesus Christ in the Oval Office.

A lot of people think he did, however, thanks to a fake/AI-manipulated video that went viral on social media over the holiday weekend. It shows Trump opening up a set of curtains off to the side of his desk at the White House to reveal a copy of Warner Sallman’s famous “Head of Christ” painting.

This type of widespread confusion is pretty much becoming a daily occurrence due to the proliferation of low cost, increasingly-powerful AI tools, so it’s impossible to keep up with more than a small fraction of it, but we feel it’s worth periodically looking at examples, studying how they spread, and learning how to better spot them.

The timing of this particular video’s appearance and virality is also notable, as Trump massacres civilians in Iran and bombs their infrastructure with his partners in Israel and incorporates religious rhetoric into his threats of further escalation.

‘Thank you, POTUS!’

The clip was posted on X by an account called “Gizmo Memes” on Friday afternoon with the caption: “Trump puts up a portrait of Christ for Good Friday. Christ is King!”

Within four hours, the post already had over 45,000 likes. As of this writing, it has over 106,000.

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