Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

A retired US Navy admiral recently revealed that the US has 500 troops in Taiwan, a major challenge to Beijing’s red lines related to the island.

Ret. Adm. Mark Montgomery made the disclosure at a House hearing earlier this month, where he was arguing that the US should send more military personnel to Taiwan.

“We absolutely have to grow the joint training team in Taiwan. That’s a US team there that’s about 500 people now, it needs to be 1,000,” said Montgomery, who now works for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), an extremely hawkish think tank.

“If we’re going to give them billions of dollars in assistance, sell them tens of billions of dollars worth of US gear, it makes sense that we’d be over there training and working,” he added.

So far, the Pentagon has not confirmed the number, but due to the sensitivity of the matter, the US military typically offers few details about its operations in Taiwan.

After Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979, the US would still deploy a handful of military trainers to Taiwan.

The small US presence was always an open secret but wasn’t officially confirmed until 2021, when then-President Tsai Ing-wen became the first Taiwanese leader to acknowledge US troops were on the island since 1979.

At the time of Tsai’s acknowledgment, only a few dozen US troops were believed to be on the island for training purposes. In 2023, media reports said the US was increasing its military presence to about 200 soldiers.

Last year, Taiwan confirmed that some of the US military trainers were deployed to Kinmen, a group of islands that are controlled by Taiwan but located just off the coast of mainland China.

The US has significantly increased military support for Taiwan in recent years despite constant warnings from China that the island is the “first red line” in US-China relations that must not be crossed.

TV host and mikeroweWORKS Foundation CEO Mike Rowe says the current labor shortage and shifting work ethic are rooted in deeper cultural changes.

“We’re the clouds from which the snowflakes fell,” he said, suggesting older generations helped create today’s workforce mindset, according to Fox News.

Rowe believes there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the job market, with a tight labor market enabling more workplace accommodations because people aren’t “lining up” for essential jobs.

“We’ve got a huge labor shortage and the push to get to the AI thing over the finish line. That means data centers. We’ve got to train people to build these data centers,” he said.

Fox News wrote that through his foundation, Rowe promotes skilled trades as valuable, noting that 2,200 participants are now earning six-figure incomes as welders, plumbers, and more.

Still, he said his Work Ethic Scholarship Program often sees applicants fail to complete basic requirements: “They’re started, but they don’t finish them for the exact reasons we’re talking about. So, yeah, it’s a problem.”

Lamenting the broader cultural shift, Rowe added, “The world is either going to change to accommodate the current generation, or the current generation is going to change to accommodate the world they’re living in.”

Despite the challenges, he remains hopeful: “There’s enthusiasm for the work. It’s just not in the places you’re looking.”

Update (1937ET): 

Launch! 

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/aXAwLkRbuK

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2025

*   *   * 

Update (1930ET): 

T-minus hold at 40 seconds. 

T-40 seconds and holding. Teams are using this time for final checks

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2025

*   *   * 

Update (1916ET): 

The launch window at Starbase, Texas, for Starship’s 9th Test Flight is open… 

Watch Live

Today’s mission:

Starship’s flight trajectory for today’s test pic.twitter.com/JXQXRFg4hY

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2025

*   *   * 

Update (1325ET): 

Well… 

This talk is postponed until after the Starship Flight 9 launch tonight https://t.co/gCBQi8M4nA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 27, 2025

*   *   * 

Elon Musk will host a livestream on X about “Making Life Multiplanetary” at 1:00 p.m. ET, just hours ahead of Starship’s highly anticipated ninth test flight. The test flight will focus on efforts to advance the rocket’s reusability and reliability, key milestones as Musk’s rocket company pushes toward future missions to Mars and the Moon.

Presenting “Making Life Multiplanetary”.

Live on 𝕏 on Tuesday at 1pm ET.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2025

Watch an update from @elonmusk on SpaceX’s plan to make life multiplanetary https://t.co/E68TunhFYb

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 26, 2025

The stakes are high for SpaceX, as the last two test flights ended in midair explosions. But that’s the nature of experimental flight testing—each failure provides critical data, allowing engineers to identify design flaws, refine systems, and improve performance ahead of future launches. 

The launch window at Starbase, Texas, for Starship’s 9th Test Flight, is expected to open up around 7:00 p.m. ET. A live webcast will begin 30 minutes prior on X and the X TV app. 

Here’s a summary of the test fight:

Purpose: This test follows updates made after the 8th flight mishap. It’s focused on advancing Starship’s reusability and reliability.

Milestone: First reflight of a flight-proven Super Heavy booster, reused from the 7th flight.

Key Booster Tests:

• Experiments for flight profile data and off-nominal scenarios.

• Controlled “booster flip” using thrust vectoring instead of random direction.

• High-angle reentry to test drag control and reduce landing propellant needs.

• Engine redundancy test: Only two engines will complete final landing, expecting a hard splashdown in the Gulf

Starship Upper Stage Goals:

• Deploy eight next-gen-sized Starlink simulators (expected to burn up).

• Relight a Raptor engine in space.

• Reentry tests with new heat shield materials (some with active cooling). Stress-test upper-stage flap structures and thermal protection at max reentry pressure.

Watch Launch: 

SpaceX’s big day comes as Musk steps back from his hands-on role with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. He’s now refocusing on advancing SpaceX’s Mars and Moon ambitions while repairing Tesla’s brand, which has taken hits from left-leaning media outlets and far-left NGOs critical of Musk’s DOGE involvement. 

Authored by Paul Mueller via TheDailyEconomy.org,

The retreat of DEI may be one of the biggest political and cultural reversals in recent history. Corporate America is running from its DEI trainings and programs in droves. Wall Street has soured on it. Many states, and now the federal government, have declared war on it. And many ordinary Americans are tired of it.

Yet the rot of DEI goes deeper than most people know, and it still has a veneer of respectability in academia. Of course, university administrators are running for the hills when it comes to publicly talking about DEI in the face of mounting legal and political challenges. But they haven’t changed their minds on the issue. They are busily at work rebranding DEI offices and positions as quickly as they can.

DEI Exposed: How the Biggest Con of the Century Almost Toppled Higher Education does just what the title promises: it exposes DEI for the con game it is. Dr. Stanley Ridgley has written a scathing criticism of DEI in higher education. This book is not for the faint of heart and will persuade no DEI enthusiasts or sympathizers. Ridgley’s contempt for DEI offices, publications, platitudes, and practitioners is palpable.

The initial chapters explain how professional scammers exploit the psychology that makes “marks” susceptible to being conned out of huge sums of money. He quotes Road Hustler on the formula for cons and scams:

1. finding a suitable victim

2. gaining the victim’s trust

3. persuading the victim to commit to a scheme that will benefit him or her

4. getting money from the victim

5. finally, placating the victim in order to quell any uneasy feelings about the situation

He argues that paid DEI advocates use this exact formula. These grifters have found easy “marks” in the bleeding hearts of insecure university administrators and faculty who were more than happy to use other people’s money (mostly students’ and taxpayers’) to assuage their consciences and to polish their virtue-signaling bona fides.

Ridgley brings plenty of examples to bear. The most prominent DEI advocates sign million-dollar book deals and charge tens of thousands of dollars per speaking engagement. The run-of-the-mill DEI university official — nearly always with a six-figure salary — can sometimes have close to a half million-dollar compensation scheme going. Undoubtedly, significant amounts of money have been transferred from universities to DEI grifters.

Ridgley points out the egregious case of the University of Michigan. 

From the launch of its DEI programs in 2016, UM has spent a mind-numbing two hundred and fifty million dollars on its diversity programs, according to an expose by the New York Times Magazine. Although UM may be the most prominent example of DEI grift, there are plenty of other shocking examples. “UVA pays more than $1 million in salary and benefits to its top two DEI sinecures….By comparison, Virginia’s governor Glenn Youngkin is paid $175,000.” (emphasis original). At Ohio State, over thirty DEI positions were paid between $100,000 and $300,000. To add insult to injury, Ridgley goes into what these universities get from their highly paid DEI bureaucrats: zilch and a headache to go with it.

Despite abusing the phrase “do the work” and claiming to be “exhausted” from their crusade to root out racism, sexism, ableism, and any other -ism du jour, DEI officials are quite cagey about what they do or how their work should be assessed. In fact, many are critical of work itself. Ridgley quotes a volume about Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education about how they see work. 

Here are a few gems:

We choose not to subscribe to the societal and academic pressure that says your value is in your production. Rather we remind each other that we are valuable just as we are, and we can redefine productivity in a holistic way that acknowledges contribution beyond publication and material output.

“We’ve done so by acknowledging our ‘whole” self and redefining productivity.”

Hence, our renewed sense of urgency in changing what contribution to the work and productivity looks like for practitioners. We are continuously constructing and fostering spaces that empower others to embrace their authentic selves. However, it is rare to encounter individuals intentionally creating similar spaces for us as professionals. Organizations such as the Nap Ministry, is an example of how many Black professionals are creating spaces for respite and self-care amidst being overworked and overextended. The Nap Ministry creates ‘sacred spaces where the liberatory, restorative, and disruptive power of rest can take hold.’ 

I had my doubts about the whole “Nap Ministry” and its leader, the “Nap Bishop.” Surely this must be made-up hyperbole. But these are, in fact, real. Author and consultant Tricia Hersey does, in fact, have a website that markets her Nap Ministry and she does, in fact, refer to herself as the Nap Bishop. 

Nor does this appear to be only a fringe isolated internet crank. Apparently, she finds plenty of interest in her work. She writes about taking a two month “Sabbatical” in 2024 to rest from her apparently busy schedule:

(in 2023 I had 30 bookings, flew close to 100,000 airline miles, boarded 26 round trip flights. I lectured in Amsterdam and participated in a theater festival in Melbourne, Australia, was in residency as a scholar-artist at NYU for the Fall 2023 semester) (Italics original)

Sounds a bit like my and a few of my colleagues’ travel schedules — but with a lot more money and, apparently, sabbaticals, as well as quite a bit of napping. Her mantra “rest is resistance” and the successful grift of Tricia Hersey highlights yet another danger of the prevalence of DEI ideology and its practitioners: deep anti-intellectualism. 

The reactionary nature of DEI and critical race theory against western civilization includes rejecting logic and reason. Instead of these, DEI advocates highlight psychological, emotional, and mystical experiences. They even created their own “academic” genres of “Testimonios” and “autoethnography.” These genres elevate one’s personal experiences, impressions, and musings to the level of “scholarship,” of truth even. Yet besides being deeply subjective (and thereby highly susceptible to confirmation bias), these methods also facilitate pure fabrication.

Part of DEI’s self-defense mechanism when they are called out for race-baiting and hate crime hoaxes, is that such things could have been true. Therefore, their reaction as if these things were true and did in fact happen, are justified. Such an approach, besides being deeply anti-intellectual, turns out to also be quite costly.

Duke University ended up paying out $20 million dollars apiece to three of its lacrosse players who were accused of raping a dancer. At the time of the allegations, Duke didn’t even attempt an investigation but immediately condemned the students and sided with the accuser based upon racial and social characteristics. Besides being exonerated by DNA evidence, the accuser admitted just last year that she had made up the accusation.

In another prominent case, an employee at a local bakery ran after a minority student from Oberlin College who shoplifted something from the bakery. Two of the shoplifter’s friends helped the shoplifter “pummel the clerk protecting his business” and were all arrested. Oberlin, however, instead of apologizing to the Bakery, immediately took the side of the minority students and accused the Bakery and its employees of rank racism and hate. These accusations led to years of protests, boycotts, threats, and other unpleasantness. Oberlin College eventually had to pay $36.6 million to that local bakery.

DEI programs consist primarily of grifters who do little. They encourage a “virtuous victimhood” mentality in students, they attempt to re-educate those who are not part of the program, and they fail to address real abuse – especially antisemitism. The failure of the DEI establishment to protect Jewish students from threats and abuse over the past year and a half led directly to the removal of three ivy league presidents. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Universities have begun a winnowing process that will likely continue for the next few years. Let’s hope the wheat of academic inquiry and excellence make it through while the chaff of DEI grifters and sinecures blow away with the winds of social and political common sense. Ridley applies an apt quote from GK Chesterton to explain what is wrong with the DEI mindset and to counsel a better way forward:

Are there no other stories in the world except yours; and are all men busy with your business? … How much happier you would be if you only knew that these people cared nothing about you! How much larger your life would be if yourself could become smaller in it; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and their virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theatre in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers.

Amid doom-and-gloom inflation forecasts from Democrat-leaning UMich respondents and port shortage panic fueled by left-leaning corporate media, Goldman analysts have uncovered something very unexpected: early signs of life among lower-income consumers.

Goldman analysts Kate McShane, Mark Jordan, and others published a note to clients on Tuesday, analyzing lower-income consumers through the lens of online trends—such as app downloads, web traffic, and store traffic—for select discretionary retailers, including AAP, BJ, TGT, and WSM.

What McShane and her team found was that “the health of the lower-income consumer (defined as households that earn <$30K annually) is indeed mixed but skew more positive than expected, with possible tailwind coming from lower gasoline prices, improved employment trends, and credit metrics.” 

While consumer confidence remains mixed and discretionary spending cautious, President Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda—centered around policies like “drill, baby, drill”—has contributed to a drop in gas prices (Memorial Day Weekend gas prices were the lowest in years).

In key regions such as the Heartland and Deep South, where much of Trump’s political base resides, the average price of regular gasoline at the pump has fallen below $3 a gallon, offering much-needed relief.

Gasoline is a non-discretionary expense for most consumers. When prices fall, this boosts spending in other categories, such as retail, dining, or travel, benefiting sectors like discount retailers, restaurants, and entertainment. In other words, the savings from the pump is often referred to as a “gas dividend,” and this might explain Goldman’s findings about some possible revival for the working poor.

Via VigilantFox.com,

When Joe Rogan sat down with Aaron Rodgers, the conversation quickly turned to one of the most polarizing topics in modern medicine: vaccines.

But instead of retreading old ground, they zeroed in on one of the most overlooked—and deeply disturbing—double standards of the pandemic.

Rogan opened the door with a brutally simple observation.

“You’re not even supposed to eat sushi while you’re breastfeeding,” he said.

“Because you could get some sort of a parasite. And yet, you’re going to take pregnant women and dose them up with this experimental vaccine.”

He didn’t stop there.

“There was no studies on whether or not women were getting damaged by this.”

Rodgers chimed in to confirm what many already suspected:

“No studies got released.”

That silence, wasn’t due to a lack of data—but a refusal to release it. And now, as Rogan pointed out, the consequences are finally starting to come into view.

“Now there’s some study that it’s destroying their eggs.”

Rodgers added, “That, the cancers, turbo cancers, people dropping, kids dropping.”

Rogan let it sit for a beat before saying what many are thinking:

“Yeah, it’s all very dark, dude.”

When Joe Rogan sat down with Aaron Rodgers, the conversation quickly turned to one of the most polarizing topics in modern medicine: vaccines.

But instead of retreading old ground, they zeroed in on one of the most overlooked—and deeply disturbing—double standards of the… pic.twitter.com/jDKqRwGidk

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 22, 2025

They quickly shifted to the broader vaccine schedule for children—and what they see as a runaway system with no brakes and no accountability.

Today, American kids receive 72 doses of 17 vaccines between birth and age 18.

Just to enroll in kindergarten, they’re hit with 29 doses of 9 different vaccines. Daycare kids face multiple rounds of 13.

And few parents even realize this.

Rogan questioned the logic behind that kind of medical regimen, especially when it comes to the very first days of life.

“Why would you give a baby a Hep B shot on DAY ONE for a sexually transmitted disease? Totally unnecessary and crazy.”

He also took aim at the fear-driven messaging around diseases like tetanus.

“Tetanus is not dangerous. If you have an open wound with tetanus, you just wash it out and you won’t get tetanus. The number of cases? ZERO.”

Rodgers, echoing a frustration felt by many parents, said the entire system has moved far from informed consent—and deep into financial conflicts of interest.

Doctors aren’t just recommending vaccines, he argued—they’re being paid to.

Behind it all, they pointed to a turning point in 1986, when the federal government passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

That legislation gave vaccine manufacturers blanket immunity from lawsuits, effectively removing the last guardrail.

Since then, chronic illness among children has skyrocketed.

Coincidence? They don’t think so.

They quickly shifted to the broader vaccine schedule for children—and what they see as a runaway system with no brakes and no accountability.

Today, American kids receive 72 doses of 17 vaccines between birth and age 18.

Just to enroll in kindergarten, they’re hit with 29… pic.twitter.com/WSLA5CalHX

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 22, 2025

But it was what came next that was truly disturbing.

This was a bombshell and there is no denying it anymore.

Rogan brought up a recent study he had just sent to his producer, Jamie.

The analysis drew from adjusted VAERS data, MIT research, and findings from the Florida Department of Health—and the numbers were staggering.

“I just sent Jamie this study. VAERS adjusted data, and other derived from the MIT, Florida Department of Health study findings that yield a conservative range of 470,000 to 600,000 American deaths from the Covid-19 mRNA shots.”

Rodgers, almost in disbelief, responded, “That’s it?”

Rogan nodded. “Well, just that alone. That’s a lot of people, man.”

And then he dropped a jaw-dropping comparison:

“More than World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined.”

He clarified that the estimate referred to Pfizer alone—not even counting Moderna.

“Pfizer alone likely killed over 470,000 Americans.”

“They found a 36% increase in all cause mortality among Pfizer recipients versus Moderna.”

Rodgers, deadpan and sarcastic, delivered the line that said it all:

“Yeah, but they saved MILLIONS!”

But it was what came next that was truly disturbing.

This was a bombshell and there is no denying it anymore.

Rogan brought up a recent study he had just sent to his producer, Jamie.

The analysis drew from adjusted VAERS data, MIT research, and findings from the Florida… pic.twitter.com/edkoSZHs2f

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 22, 2025

They wrapped the conversation taking aim at the narrative itself—the one that turned vaccine skeptics into public enemies.

Not because they were wrong.

Because they were inconvenient.

Rogan called it out.

“You start talking to them about the possibilities that these things caused all these problems, and their eyes glaze over.”

“They’re like, Oh! Where are you hearing this?”

His response flipped the script:

“Where are you hearing that it’s not the case?”

“And why are you so confident to say that this is what happened?”

Then he questioned the sacred cow of COVID rhetoric:

“‘The Covid vaccine saved millions of lives.’ How do you know that?”

But when it comes to the damage?

“How many do you think got fucked up by it? I know a lot of people that got fucked up by it—and most people do too. They just don’t want to admit it.”

Rodgers hit back at the fear machine:

“Why were they trying so hard to scare the shit out of everybody? Tell me that.”

“Why did they have fucking death tolls on the news stations?”

Then he followed the money.

“There’s a ton of money.”

“Doctors get huge bonuses for fully vaccinated kids. That’s the truth.”

And finally, he hit the core issue:

“Instead of attacking the person that says that, isn’t it something you should look into?”

“Is that a conflict of interest? Should be.”

They wrapped the conversation taking aim at the narrative itself—the one that turned vaccine skeptics into public enemies.

Not because they were wrong.

Because they were inconvenient.

Rogan called it out.

“You start talking to them about the possibilities that these things… pic.twitter.com/mwiVeIrcvy

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 22, 2025

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Milwaukee County has released security footage of a state judge allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade an ICE arrest on April 18. 

The video, obtained through an open records request according to WISN12, shows Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz being guided through a back door of a courtroom just as federal agents waited to arrest him. 

The judge, identified as Wisconsin’s Hannah Dugan, is seen confronting the ICE agents after a court official alerted her of their presence.  

The video shows Dugan speaking with the agents seated outside her courtroom, directing them to the chief judge’s office after reportedly disagreeing over the type of warrant needed for the arrest. 

OBSTRUCTION: Judge Dugan needs jail time for her crimes. pic.twitter.com/NofAUjZDfC

— @amuse (@amuse) May 23, 2025

Shortly thereafter, Flores-Ruiz appears walking with his attorney down the same hallway. 

They walked past a plainclothes agent, who then proceeded to follow them at a distance. 

Another camera angle shows Flores-Ruiz exiting the building through a basement doorway typically used by jurors.  

The agents Dugan sent to the chief judge’s office were later seen leaving and heading toward the exits. 

As Flores-Ruiz exited the building, agents rushed to intercept him but had to run to catch up as he fled on foot. 

Seconds later, agents tackled and arrested him in a scene that looked straight out of a movie. 

Flores-Ruiz had been deported in 2013 but reentered the United States at an undisclosed date. He was subject to an administrative arrest warrant from ICE following his state-level domestic battery charges. 

Dugan is now charged with obstruction of proceedings before a department or agency of the United States and with concealing a person to prevent arrest. 

“The Department of Justice will continue to follow the facts – no one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press statement announcing Dugan’s charges. 

Industry insiders—particularly those on the financing side of AI data centers—describe to Zero Hedge the current buildout as a “sprint” expected to continue through President Trump’s second term.

Last week, we covered the major development in Abilene, Texas—a massive data center project widely considered the first “Stargate” project under President Trump’s broader AI infrastructure initiative. 

Backed by Crusoe and Blue Owl Capital, the Abilene facility will be operated by OpenAI—the creator of ChatGPT—positioning it as a flagship project in President Trump’s effort to rapidly scale U.S.-based AI infrastructure amid an intensifying AI race with China. 

Adding to the wave of data center investment news, Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital, wrote on X in response to CAPITAL.news, “We’re going to build a 1 GW AI data center in Arizona,” signaling another major deal to expand US AI infrastructure. 

Announced this today! We’re going to build a 1 GW AI data center in Arizona.

I’ve never done a RE deal so working with a great RE investor, @anitavlallian, with a vision for the project was key. Anita is a star.

Ultimately this will require us investing $25B to get the entire… https://t.co/GqSVPSJeO3 pic.twitter.com/XWYFPldg5J

— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) May 27, 2025

Palihapitiya said this is his first real estate deal, noting that he partnered with Anita Verma-Lallian, CEO of Arizona Land Consulting (ALC), and other investors to purchase 2,100 acres of land west of Phoenix, known as Hassayampa Ranch.

Key points of the deal:

• Anita Verma-Lallian’s ALC is spearheading the data center land deal. 

• Palihapitiya is backing the project as a sign of growing investor interest in AI infrastructure. 

• The deal involves land that can support over 1GW of power—ideal for a cluster of data centers. 

• This is ALC’s second major transaction involving large-scale, ready-to-build real estate aimed at tech infrastructure.

• Verma-Lallian frames the investment as a historic milestone in the race to secure America’s AI future, drawing parallels to Bill Gates’ previous land deals in the region.

“We own 2000 acres right beside Bill Gates’ smart city and down the road from a nuclear reactor,” Palihapitiya emphasized. 

He continued, “Now we continue the process of entitlements and regulatory permitting so we can start construction.”

According to publicly available records, Verma-Lallian is listed as the founder of ALC, which manages a number of real estate deals. 

As one industry insider put it, data center development is now in “sprint” mode—and we expect the pace of deal announcements to only accelerate from here. That’s why two of our core investment themes remain firmly in focus:

• “Powering Up America” through our Next AI Trade,

• and our long-standing bullish stance on nuclear energy, first highlighted over 4.5 years ago, with Cameco positioned as a clear long-term winner heading into the 2030s.

.  .  . 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump’s order cutting funding for media outlets violates the U.S. Constitution, National Public Radio (NPR) said in a lawsuit filed on May 27.

The order violates the First Amendment’s protection of expression, the suit states.

“The Order also violates due process, the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution,” it says.

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington.

The White House, the Department of the Treasury, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s May 1 order directed the corporation, a nonprofit established by Congress in 1967 to oversee taxpayer-funded broadcasters, to end direct funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS.

The order says that no outlets have a constitutional right to public money and that neither outlet “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” That’s despite the law establishing the corporation saying the entity cannot “contribute to or otherwise support any political party,” Trump wrote.

The White House has pointed to NPR articles such as one about “genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts,” its initial refusal to report on the laptop computer owned by former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and how its CEO, Katherine Maher, has called Trump a racist.

NPR and several local member stations, including Colorado Public Radio, said in the suit that the order improperly targets them because of the president’s view on their news.

“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” they said.

“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion.”

Maher said in a statement that “we stand for constitutional rights, a free press, and an informed public, and we file today on their behalf.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the order and all actions taken to implement it illegal and unconstitutional, along with an order that permanently bars defendants from implementing the order.

Maher and PBC CEO Paula Kerger defended their outlets during a March congressional hearing, telling lawmakers that they serve audiences across the political spectrum.

“Our stations pool resources to invest in programming that will benefit all Americans, ranging from history and science to art and music,” Kerger said at the time.

Just days after former FBI Director James Comey drew criticism and an apparent investigation for a post widely seen as a violent threat against Donald Trump, Evergreen State College professor Zoltán Grossman shared a similar message.

The far-left Geography & Native Studies professor posted “LXXXVI XLVII” — Roman numerals for “86 47” — twice on Facebook: once over a background of red hearts, and again on a red hat, Jason Rantz from 770 KTTH wrote in a new editorial.

Grossman’s first post, on May 17, came a day after Comey was criticized for sharing — then deleting — a photo of seashells spelling out “86 47,” a phrase interpreted as a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it a “threat” and promised action, the KTTH piece says.

Comey later claimed he didn’t realize it could be seen as violent, though he admitted it was political. Grossman, by contrast, offered no explanation or apology. Neither he nor Evergreen State College responded to requests for comment.

Rantz wrote: “If you’re wondering, yes, this is the kind of edgy ‘resistance’ humor you get from a taxpayer-funded professor at Evergreen, a college famous for lowering the bar so much it’s basically a tripping hazard.”

Rantz pointed out a clear double standard: “When a Republican so much as tweets a mean meme about Biden, it’s national news,” but when the target is Trump, “suddenly, we’re all supposed to loosen up and laugh along.”

He criticized Evergreen State College for tolerating the behavior, noting, “If a student or staff member… posted a joke like ‘86 63’… the college would freak out.” But because the target is “the ‘wrong’ president,” Rantz said, Grossman faces no consequences and “gets to keep his self-satisfied grin.”

Calling Grossman a “propagandist,” not an educator, Rantz mocked his curriculum and accused the academic left of hypocrisy: “Evergreen and the academic left want you to believe they stand against violence and hate, but the mask slips pretty quickly when it’s their political enemies in the crosshairs.”