The White House is ignoring e-mails from journalists who list their preferred gender pronouns in the signature line.
The Trump administration says the policy will filter out reporters who put ideology above truth and accuracy.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been pushing back on the transgender movement, which has grown increasingly unpopular. Trump has focused especially on the impact of transgender policies on women and girls.
As a matter of policy, the White House recognizes two biological sexes. Consistent with that stance, the administration is snubbing journalists who fail to acknowledge biological reality.
The New York Times reported the new approach, saying some of its reporters have been dismissed by White House officials.
“As a matter of policy, I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts,” DOGE adviser Katie Miller wrote in one e-mail. “This applies to all reporters who have pronouns in their signature.”
“Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story," press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the New York Times.
The New York Times issued a statement condemning the administration's policy as a petty and "baffling" choice.
This is not the first time the administration has clashed with its media critics over language.
The White House has sought to block the Associated Press over its continued use of "Gulf of Mexico", which the AP has maintained for convenience and tradition, despite Trump renaming it the Gulf of America.
Of course, it is not the usual practice in today's media to be so tenaciously conservative about words. Associated Press style uses newfangled terms like "gender-affirming care" and urges writers to always refer to individuals by their preferred pronouns. The results, for readers, are not seldom confusing: stories about women's sports, for example, refer to males as transgender "women."
The Trump administration's efforts to corral the "Fake News" have not been successful all of the time. A federal judge this week ordered the White House to restore access to the AP on First Amendment grounds.
“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists -- be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere -- it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote.
The Biden administration covered up a report on the origins of COVID-19 that suggests American soldiers were infected while traveling in China.
Seven U.S. service members who attended the World Military Games in Wuhan experienced COVID-like symptoms, according to the Washington Free Beacon, which was first to report the new information.
The Biden administration was required by law to release the Defense Department report, but it was not publicly available until the Trump administration quietly uploaded it in March.
The American athletes traveled to and from Wuhan through Seattle, Washington, the Prospect reported in 2020. As some may recall, Washington state was one of the first COVID hotspots in the U.S.
Thousands of athletes attended the military games in Wuhan, which ran for two weeks in October 2019 at a stadium close to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, considered one of the prime culprits for the origin of the outbreak.
Athletes from different countries later reported feeling COVID-like symptoms, and they described the city of Wuhan as oddly desolate.
The U.S. performed bat coronavirus research in Wuhan that was funded by Anthony Fauci, who played a leading role in the initial effort to discredit the lab leak theory that has since gained mainstream acceptance. The CIA now considers a lab leak to be more probable than the wet market scenario that was backed by many scientists at the outset of the pandemic.
The Pentagon has long dismissed questions about the military games and their possible role in the pandemic. Biden's Defense spokesperson John Kirby told the Washington Post that the military was not aware of any service members being infected, even though none of the troops were tested.
The Biden administration's newly public three-page report offers the explanation that testing "was not available at this early stage of the pandemic," so it is impossible to say if the infected service members had COVID or other respiratory illnesses.
The soldiers had COVID-like symptoms from October 18, 2019, through January 21, 2020, and their symptoms cleared within six days, the report says.
"Data surveillance reports from military treatment facilities indicate no statistically significant difference in COVID-19-like symptoms cases at installations with participating athletes when compared to installations without them," the report notes.
The Trump administration only briefly looked at the World Military Games in March 2020, the Washington Post previously reported, because of Chinese propaganda in the early stage of the pandemic blaming U.S. athletes for bringing COVID to Wuhan.
But this new information corroborates the theory that China - and later, Biden - covered up clues about the origin, Republicans say.
"Taxpayers deserve to know the truth about COVID-19 origins, but the Biden administration concealed this information from the American people for years," Senator Joni Ernst told the Free Beacon.
"This report should have been made public immediately and not restricted to Washington insiders. If Americans visiting Wuhan were potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus in October 2019, those claiming the pandemic began in a wet market just two months later would be completely off base."
Michelle Obama's new podcast isn't performing very well, in a sign that her star power could be fading.
Weeks after she launched the new project, the podcast ranks 34th on Spotify and 19th on Apple, according to reports. It's a shocking reversal that suggests the Obama brand is not what it used to be.
At the apex of her cultural influence, Michelle Obama sold a best-selling memoir and was even seen as a potential presidential candidate, although she has sworn off such ambitions.
The Obama family's future has been clouded by the Democratic party's clobbering at the hands of President Trump, who won a historic non-consecutive second term in November. Trump's decision to go on various podcasts popular with young people, particularly Joe Rogan's top-rated show, has been credited as a factor in his success.
Meanwhile, the Obamas' cultural legacy appears more uncertain than ever, as Democrats wander the political wilderness, and the Obamas continue to chronicle their post-presidential lives in vapid social media posts.
While the podcast market is saturated with content creators, someone as famous as Michelle Obama should have no problem getting listeners. Still, the Spotify charts rank Obama's podcast, IMO, well below the top podcasters like Joe Rogan, Amy Poehler, Theo Von, and Tucker Carlson.
Michelle Obama's Spotify podcast debuted with 335,000 views, but public interest subsequently dipped, Mediaite reported. Her most recent YouTube upload of the show has less than 100,000 views.
Meanwhile, the Obamas have been dogged by divorce rumors after Michelle missed Jimmy Carter's funeral and Trump's second inauguration.
After weeks of dodging the issue, Obama addressed the speculation in a podcast interview Wednesday with actress Sophia Bush. Obama, an outspoken feminist, blasted the rampant speculation of divorce as sexist.
"When I say no, for the most part people are like, I get it. And that's the thing we as women struggle with, is disappointing people. So much so that this year, people couldn't fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume my husband and I were divorcing," she said.
The comments came just days after her husband, hitting the college speaking circuit, admitted that his marriage needed some work after his eight years in the White House.
"So I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things," the former president added.
Hunter Biden lobbied the Obama administration for help with his infamous Burisma deal, according to a bombshell letter.
Biden's letter to the Italian embassy, reported by the New York Times, is tangible evidence of how the son of former vice president Joe Biden - who pardoned Hunter late last year - leveraged his political influence to promote his and his partners' business interests.
Hunter Biden infamously received an $80,000 per month salary for dubious "work" on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
In his 2016 letter, addressed to U.S. ambassador to Italy John Phillips, Biden asked for a meeting with a regional honcho in Tuscany to smooth out regulatory hurdles for a Burisma subsidiary. Biden added in the letter, "It was great seeing you in Rome recently.”
Hunter received a warm response from Phillips promising to assist and "see where our interests may overlap."
"Dear Hunter, It seems like yesterday that you were in Rome. I hope this finds you well. Thank you for your letter. I know Enrico Rossi well and have a good working relationship with him,” the ambassador wrote in a response printed by the New York Times.
Former vice president Joe Biden stayed at the ambassador's residence in Rome for three days in 2015, Phillips told the Times. Hunter accompanied his father on the trip.
Of course, the Times has faced criticism over its belated interest in covering the Biden family's business dealings. To many, it appears the curiosity of the liberal media has been awakened only because Joe Biden is no longer in power.
For years, any intimation of wrongdoing by Hunter or his father was dismissed by the media as a Republican smear - even as evidence piled up showing that Biden was in contact with his son's business associates.
Democrats and their media allies dismissed House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into former President Biden by pointing to the absence of specific policy favors - an objection that appears weaker than ever in light of the Times' reporting on Hunter's cozy contacts with the State Department.
The Bidens' shield of media protection started to unravel last year when Joe Biden showed his own party that he was not up to the task of winning re-election against Donald Trump.
One of Joe Biden's last ignominious acts before leaving office was to pardon Hunter for any crimes he may have committed in a 10-year period, extending to the year he began working at Burisma.
With Joe Biden out of office, new details are surfacing about the cover-up of the ex-president's cognitive decline.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper is the co-author of a new book about the conspiracy to hide Biden's decline, called Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
As a debate moderator for CNN, Tapper had a front-row seat to Biden's televised implosion in June, which proved to be a pivotal moment in U.S. history - and the end of an elaborate charade.
"What the world saw at Joe Biden’s one and only debate was not an anomaly — it was not a cold, it was not someone who was under or overprepared, it was not someone who was just a little tired. It was the natural result of an eighty-one-year-old man whose faculties had been diminishing for years," Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in the forthcoming book.
Some have criticized the authors of Original Sin, particularly Tapper, citing the media's failure to hold the Biden administration accountable as the public grew concerned about Biden's age.
Tapper's critics have pointed to instances in the past when he downplayed Biden's decline, including after a major speech mid-way through his single term, when Tapper praised Biden's "solid" performance.
Of course, Biden was already showing evidence of decline when he ran for the White House in 2020. Tapper dismissed Biden's glaring gaffes at the time, attributing them to a stutter.
“How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?” Tapper asked Lara Trump at the time.
“I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline."
To some critics of the media, the recent interest in covering Biden's decline seems hypocritical.
Reacting to critics, Tapper said he has been "covering concerns about President Biden’s age and health for years" - and he says sources are more forthcoming with information now that the election is over.
“I literally asked him about it in October 2022, and we’ve challenged Democrats and White House officials on the issue,” the anchor said.
“But Alex Thompson of Axios and I have spent the last several months talking to more than 200 insiders, officials, and donors — many of whom were more willing to talk post-election — to explain the last couple of years in politics and how we, as a country, got here.”
President Donald Trump snagged a massive Supreme Court victory this week after taking several losses at the hands of federal judges in recent months.
According to Breitbart, the high court "allowed the Trump administration to freeze roughly $65 million in teacher training grants that reportedly promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies."
The move came as one of the major cost-cutting measures led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The Supreme Court's decision "lifts a lower order that ordered" the Department of Education to resume the grants across eight different states.
The cost-cutting measure carried out Trump's mission to essentially end every trace of DEI-related funding by the American taxpayer, but like many other cost-cutting measures, met immediate legal resistance.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court just ruled 5-4 that the Trump admin can block teacher development grants which may be promoting DEI.
This ruling lifts a lower judge’s order that forced the Education Department to resume these grants.
BIG WIN pic.twitter.com/zXBBz3MXpY
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 4, 2025
The high court explained its reasoning for the decision in a statement.
"Respondents have represented in this litigation that they have the financial wherewithal to keep their programs running,” the court wrote in its ruling. “So, if respondents ultimately prevail, they can recover any wrongfully withheld funds through suit in an appropriate forum."
The Hill noted that "the decision is not a final ruling in the case, and the dispute could ultimately return to the Supreme Court."
Breitbart added:
Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton reported in February that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, “slashed 29” DEI teacher training grants totalling $101 million.
Users across social media weighed in on the high court's backing of Trump's ability to slash the programs, and many questioned why it was only a 5--4 decision.
"5-4 is way too freaking close man. Huge win, but still. That needs to be like 7-2," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "1 down, 50 million more judges orders to remove to go."
Hopefully, Trump's luck with the Supreme Court will continue as he battles Democrat-appointed federal judges across the country who are putting political activism ahead of the law.
President Donald Trump recently fired National Security Agency/Cyber Command Commander Gen. Timothy Haugh, and the reasoning for his firing is just now coming to light.
According to Breitbart, investigative journalist Laura Loomer claimed credit for "referring" Haugh for firing after she pointed out that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley appointed him.
In a lengthy X post, Loomer described why she worked to convince the president's team that Haugh needed to go.
Loomer said Haugh had "no place" serving in the Trump administration given that he was hand-selected by Milley.
Loomer held nothing back in her explanation as to why she convinced the president that Haugh needed the boot.
"As a Biden appointee, General Haugh had no place serving in the Trump admin given the fact that he was HAND PICKED by General Milley, who was accused of committing treason by President Trump. Why would we want an NSA Director who was referred to Biden after being hand selected by Milley, who told China he would side with them over Trump!?!?" she wrote.
Loomer added, "he vetters should have been more critical, given the fact that the Pentagon revoked the security detail and clearance for retired general Mark Milley, who called President Trump a FASCIST. Why would we want Milley’s hand picked choice for NSA DIRECTOR?We do not! And thus, he was referred for firing."
She pointed out that the NSA is the most powerful intel agency in the world and insisted that a Biden-appointee should not hold that position.
"President Trump needs to have his own trusted NSA Director, appointed by him. We can’t allow for the NSA to be used to spy on President Trump and his Allies again," Loomer wrote.
She added that she believes anyone appointed by Obama or Biden "appear to lack integrity and lack the moral clarity to not weaponize their positions."
Haugh is now the second four-star general to be given his walking papers.
His firing followed that of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles “CQ” Brown, who was a Biden-appointed commander.
Breitbart noted:
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs serves as the president’s top military adviser, and presidents are free to choose who they want in that role at any time, although it is normally a four-year assignment.
It'll be interesting to see who else gets their walking papers in the coming weeks and months.
The Senate has confirmed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, placing the former TV personality in charge of two health programs used by millions of Americans.
The vote to confirm Oz fell along party lines, with 53 Republicans for and 45 Democrats against. Democrats have criticized Oz as a potential threat to Medicaid as Republicans consider cuts to the program, which provides health insurance at low or no cost to poor people.
Oz has said he plans to tackle waste and fraud in the healthcare system, and he has echoed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s emphasis on reducing the cost of healthcare by confronting an epidemic of obesity and chronic disease.
“We have a generational opportunity to fix our health care system and help people stay healthy for longer,” Oz said during his confirmation hearing last month.
President Trump, while nominating Oz, said "there may be no physician more qualified and capable... to make America healthy again."
Trained as a heart surgeon, Oz became a household name as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show before launching his own talk show, which ran from 2009 to 2022. He is known for his advocacy of alternative medicine and a holistic approach to wellness that emphasizes diet and lifestyle.
Democrats have criticized Oz as a quack who has peddled dubious treatments, and they say he will advance an agenda to privatize government health insurance that poor and vulnerable people depend on.
Oz deflected questions about Medicaid cuts when grilled by the Senate last month, but he pledged to tackle insurance fraud in Medicare Advantage, a privately run version of Medicare that Oz had long supported in his career as a TV personality.
The doctor was critical of the use of "upcoding" to jack up the cost of treatment by listing questionable diagnoses. He also suggested using automation to reduce delays and costs tied to prior authorization, which insurance companies require to certify the medical necessity of certain procedures.
"If you're going to have a knee replacement and you can bend your knee more than 120 degrees, you don't get to get the knee replacement -- or whatever number you want to put in there,” he said. “And then, if we know those numbers ahead of time, like a credit card -- credit card approval doesn't take you three months – you know immediately whether the transaction's approved or not. We will be able to do something similar so that pre-authorization could happen rapidly.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which Oz now leads, has an annual budget of $2.6 trillion and oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, which collectively provide health coverage to about half of Americans.
Medicaid provides health coverage at low or no cost for poor people, while Medicare covers people above age 65 and younger people who are disabled.
About 300 CMS employees are facing layoffs as part of Secretary Kennedy's restructuring of the Health and Human Services Department, which includes CMS. While thousands of workers have been fired across HHS, Kennedy has said Medicare and Medicaid won't be impacted.
The high-powered law firm where the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris works has agreed to provide $100 million in free legal services for the Trump administration, marking another humiliation for Harris after her decisive election loss to Trump last fall.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which employs Harris' husband Doug Emhoff, is the third elite law firm to make an agreement with the White House to avoid sanctions.
It's the latest capitulation from the elite legal profession, or "Big Law," which has skewed to the left for years. The Trump administration has sought to bring the politicized legal profession to heel, threatening sanctions against firms with a history of engaging in "lawfare."
Wilkie Farr provided tens of millions of dollars in pro bono work for two Georgia women who won an eye-popping settlement in their defamation suit against Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump ally who was separately disbarred over his 2020 election advocacy.
Wilkie Farr also employs former investigators who worked on the politically motivated January 6th committee, which recommended criminal charges against Trump for "insurrection."
According to the Trump administration, Wilkie Farr will provide $100 million in legal services to advance causes across the political spectrum, such as helping veterans, fighting antisemitism, and ending the weaponization of the justice system.
Wilkie Farr also agreed to stop discriminating against job applicants on the basis of politics and race. The firm will desist from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy and hire based on merit. Finally, the firm committed to providing legal representation for all, regardless of their political beliefs.
"Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP proactively reached out to President Trump and his Administration, offering their decisive commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession. The President is delivering on his promises of eradicating Partisan Lawfare in America, and restoring Liberty and Justice FOR ALL," the White House said in a statement.
According to sources, Emhoff was opposed to the firm's decision and encouraged them to resist Trump.
“The rule of law is under attack. Democracy is under attack. And so, all of us lawyers need to do what we can to push back on that,” Emhoff told students at a Georgetown University event Tuesday.
Two other top firms, Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps, have reached similar agreements with the White House.
The White House is engaged in a multi-front legal war to defend Trump's agenda, which has faced a series of setbacks in front of activist judges.
Courts have blocked Trump from targeting certain law firms such as Perkins Coie, which became a household name over its role in procuring the notorious Trump-Russia dossier on behalf of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.
A beloved professional chef from San Diego was killed in a freak accident while hiking with her boyfriend.
The up-and-coming pastry chef, 26-year-old Gianna Buzzetta, was crushed by a falling boulder while visiting a picturesque waterfall in Hawaii on March 23.
"They heard a really loud noise. He looked up, but couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. Within a second, it happened … The rock dislodged from quite a ways up … then it landed on her," Gianna's father Sal Buzzetta told 10 News.
It had been Buzzetta's dream to see Makaleha Falls. While taking in the breathtaking view, Buzzetta was suddenly struck by a rock and fell unconscious.
Her boyfriend, 23-year-old Connor Quinton, had scrambled to save her, but he had to run three miles to get help, as there was no phone service in the remote area.
Unfortunately, it was too late to save her. Buzzetta was airlifted to a hospital, where she died.
"She had told her boyfriend, Connor, that day, he had fulfilled her dreams and it was the best day of her life," Caty Buzzetta, Gianna's mother, told ABC affiliate KGTV.
Buzzetta's parents were able to fly to Kauai to say goodbye to their daughter before she passed.
Buzzetta's tragic death has left an impact on the Michelin-rated Jeune et Jolie restaurant near San Diego, where she was making a name for herself as a professional pastry chef.
In honor of Buzzetta, the restaurant is donating proceeds from the evening of April 7 to help pay her family's medical expenses.
"Gianna was our former Pastry Chef, and our friend. She brought such joy, intensity, passion and love to this restaurant and to our team. Her sudden loss leaves all of us heartbroken, and searching for ways to be of help to her family," the restaurant wrote in an Instagram tribute.
"And so, we are doing the one thing we know how to do. We are coming together as a restaurant, and welcoming guests in to celebrate the relationships that give our lives meaning."
The family has also set up an online fundraiser that has collected $40,000 out of its $225,000 goal. Despite the tragic circumstances of her death, Buzzetta's family is glad that she died doing what she loved.
"She was in nature. That was her element. She was with the love of her life," Caty said. "In a glimpse of time, she had pure bliss, no one could take that form [sic] her or us."