Federal funds earmarked for increasing “the security and prosperity of the United States” bankrolled the work of the father of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani that would seem to do the opposite.
Columbia University’s Middle East Institute applied for the Department of Education’s “National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships” money based on its employment of professors including Mahmood Mamdani, who it called senior faculty, highlighting his recent work on “colonialism” and “native as political identity,” and his “courses on Islam, state violence, and international relations.”
The <a href="https://iris.ed.gov/downloads/applications/P015A180080/P015A180080_GrantApplication.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">application</a> said that Columbia should get taxpayer money because its international professors would shape the views of Americans who would go on to work for the United States government. It &#8220;specifically trains students for employment in positions in the government (State, Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence agencies, and Congressional Offices),” it said.
The Middle East unit at the lavishly endowed private university asked for more than $1 million from taxpayers to fund the professors&#8217; salaries and other costs for four years under the National Resource Centers program, and $1.6 million for &#8220;institutional payments&#8221; and &#8220;subsistence allowance&#8221; for students under the Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship. Between 2018 and 2024, Columbia University as a whole received nearly $12 million in grants from both programs, with nearly $4 million specifically for the Middle East program, according to data compiled by spending watchdog OpenTheBooks.
That means even as Columbia this week agreed to pay a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$200 million settlement</a> to the federal government and $20 million to Jewish employees it wronged with its culture of anti-Americanism and antisemitism, the federal government has been paying it to shape federal employees and diplomats.
When it comes to the Karl Marx-quoting prospective mayor of New York, who would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/given-three-chances-zohran-mamdani-wont-condemn-calls-to-globalize-the-intifada?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Given+Three+Chances%2C+Zohran+Mamdani+Won’t+Condemn+Calls+To+‘Globalize+The+Intifada’">not condemn</a> the phrase “globalize the intifada,” the son’s views appear to have been shaped by his father. In May 2021, Professor Mamdani <a href="https://x.com/mm1124?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>: “This is not a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We are witnessing something far more meaningful, the birth of the Third Intifadah against settler-colonialism!”
Even though the United States took in the elder Mamdani after he was cast out of Uganda by a dictator and made him a wealthy university professor, Mamdani&#8217;s 2020 book, &#8220;Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities,&#8221; criticizes America as oppressive, according to an interview with <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/mahmood-mamdani-nation-state-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nation</a>. The book reaches back hundreds of years to complain of &#8220;the genocide of Native Americans by Europeans&#8221; and conversion of Muslims by Christians, and casts &#8220;the founding of the state of Israel&#8221; as an act &#8220;of extreme political violence undertaken to create ethnically homogeneous states.&#8221;
He seemed to suggest to The Nation that the cure for Hamas violence was giving in to terrorists.
&#8220;You can fill an unlimited number of jails [with] perpetrators, but it will not bring a solution to the problem unless you acknowledge that the problem is more political than criminal, and that when it comes to political conflicts and political violence, adversaries mobilize around issues,&#8221; Mamdani wrote.
In his 2004 book &#8220;Good Muslim, Bad Muslim,&#8221; he made a similar argument, writing: &#8220;Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_891841" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-891841" class="size-large wp-image-891841" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-864x576.jpg" alt="Columbia University Expels, Revokes Degrees From Students Who Seized Campus Building" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Columbia University. Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images</div>
The professor <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/12/us-news/mamdanis-dad-part-of-anti-israel-group-sympathetic-to-suicide-bombers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sits</a> on an advisory council whose goal is &#8220;to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel&#8217;s genocide in Gaza&#8221; — a position that conflicts with that of the U.S. under Democrat and Republican administrations.
Columbia University also used Professor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doe-program-meant-to-boost-national-security-funds-anti-american-professors-study-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Joseph Massad</a> as a selling point for federal money. Massad called Hamas’ October 7 attack “a stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.” According to the Middle East Forum, students said Massad “takes a categorically anti-U.S. tack at every possible opportunity,” and lists “the West’s various cultural crimes ad nauseam.”
George Washington University, located near the State Department’s headquarters, received millions of dollars in Middle East Foreign Language and Area Studies funding from the Department of Education, even as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-washington-university-antisemitism-lawsuit?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=12&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=U.S.+Diplomat+Training+Ground+Let+Antisemites+Take+Over+Its+Faculty%2C+Lawsuit+Says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> said it let an anti-Israel activist group operate out of its international affairs school, leading to rampant antisemitism on a campus where more than one in four students is Jewish.
Prosecutors said in 2019 that a Texas-born woman charged with spying for Iran had her radicalization “<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/18/iran-spy-george-washington-university-muslim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accelerated while she was in graduate school</a>” at George Washington University, where she earned a master’s degree in its Middle East Studies program.
Also in 2019, the first Trump administration threatened the University of North Carolina and Duke University for their use of the funds, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-demands-unc-duke-revise-joint-middle/story?id=65754681" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> that &#8220;It seems clear foreign language instruction and area studies advancing the security and economic stability of the United States have taken &#8216;a back seat&#8217; to other priorities at the Duke-UNC CMES.&#8221; But little seems to have changed sector-wide.
<a href="https://www.openthebooks.com">OpenTheBooks</a> CEO John Hart said that the Department of Education’s persistent funneling of millions of dollars for professors who cultivate anti-American sentiment, using funds intended to do the opposite, shows that the National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies program, if not the department as a whole, should be abolished.
&#8220;Professor Mamdani&#8217;s embrace of faddish, faculty lounge DEI theories on &#8216;decolonialism&#8217; illustrates why the Department of Education needs to be eliminated or dramatically downsized,&#8221; Hart said. &#8220;I support Professor Mamdani&#8217;s free speech rights, and the rights of his son to call for &#8216;seizing the means of production,&#8217; but that does not mean either are entitled to advance their radical views with taxpayer subsidies.&#8221;

New York City Mayoral Candidates Campaign Ahead Of Primary Election

Federal Money Meant For Training Diplomats Bankrolled Mamdani’s Father’s Anti-Americanism

Anti-Semitism

Columbia University

Department of Education

New York

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Vanderbilt University administrator was caught on camera admitting that the school is actively pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in violation of President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive action cracking down on colleges pushing the leftist DEI agenda.
G.L. Black, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, said last month that the school remains &#8220;thoughtful around DEI work&#8221; and its &#8220;focus on belonging and building communities and sustaining communities and access and resources,&#8221; according to a video obtained by The Daily Wire.
&#8220;All the things that I would say are components of DEI work are part of what we do,&#8221; Black added. &#8220;Even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Footage obtained by The Daily Wire shows the <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a> Vice Provost for Student Affairs admitting that the university continues to push DEI, &#8220;even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/MZbv8enIgf">pic.twitter.com/MZbv8enIgf</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1948423032411688999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Along with being nationally recognized for its pre-law and business programs, Vanderbilt — located in Nashville, Tennessee — is also a leading medical school, <a href="https://news.vumc.org/2024/03/11/school-of-medicine-in-top-10-in-nih-funding-survey-2/#:~:text=Vanderbilt%20University%20School%20of%20Medicine,of%20the%20last%2010%20years.">receiving</a> hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Last year, Vanderbilt ranked 10th in the country in total research support from the NIH.
After taking office in January, President Trump signed multiple executive orders targeting DEI practices in the federal government and at federally funded colleges and universities. In one executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">order</a>, Trump blasted DEI policies, saying they &#8220;undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.&#8221;
Vanderbilt told The Daily Wire that it remains &#8220;fully compliant with all applicable federal and state laws&#8221; and added that it is &#8220;aware of recent covert recordings by external groups on university campuses nationwide.&#8221;
&#8220;Any comments by individual employees that suggest otherwise do not reflect university policy and are being reviewed through appropriate channels,&#8221; the university said.
Vice Provost Black did not return a request to comment from The Daily Wire.
After publication of this article, Vanderbilt released a statement saying that it hired the law firm Baker Donelson, which &#8220;will be tasked with reviewing the specific circumstances related to the recordings and identifying steps the university can take to ensure all employees fully understand the university’s policies and consistently act in accordance.&#8221;
&#8220;The university will review the findings and recommendations of the report and take any appropriate follow-up actions,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;As part of our protocol, staff involved will step back from regular responsibilities to allow the review to unfold.&#8221;
The Education Department told The Daily Wire that Vanderbilt is already under investigation &#8220;for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.&#8221; That <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0">investigation</a>, which was announced in March, also targets 44 other universities nationwide. The Education Department alleges that Vanderbilt&#8217;s PhD Project, which focuses on providing networking opportunities for PhD students, “limits eligibility based on the race of the participants.”
&#8220;We expect all academic institutions that receive taxpayer support to abide by federal law and will continue to vigorously hold violators accountable,&#8221; the Education Department added.
Another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught on camera saying that the university&#8217;s DEI agenda has remained unchanged, even if the name has changed, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">reported</a>. She said the new names for DEI help &#8220;clue people in.&#8221;
&#8220;At one point, you know, everybody, like different universities, were under investigation for their, like, DEI practices and stuff like that. So, that&#8217;s why I think the naming has changed,&#8221; said Ivie Carmouche, an academic coach at the university&#8217;s Center for Student Wellbeing.
&#8220;We&#8217;re in the Center for Student Wellbeing — like I said, we have things that clue people in and let people know that this is a safe space for everybody,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Belonging and Communities is like as close to that DEI work you can probably get. Previously, they were the Center for Social Justice and Identities.&#8221;
Yet another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught discussing the school&#8217;s DEI policies and ripping Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.
&#8220;We have this one, gosh I think she&#8217;s a representative or something like that, and I just heard that she may run for governor. And I&#8217;m going, oh God, help us,&#8221; said Janet Roberts, Vanderbilt&#8217;s Peabody Facilities Manager. &#8220;She&#8217;s ridiculous.&#8221;
&#8220;We are heavily supported by federal funding &#8230; we&#8217;re not advertising diversity and inclusion lectures,&#8221; Roberts added. &#8220;We&#8217;re flying under the radar.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨BUSTED: <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a>&#39;s Janet Roberts was CAUGHT ON CAMERA disparaging Sen. Marsha Blackburn and hiding the school&#39;s DEI practices. 
&quot;God help us&#8230;[<a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarshaBlackburn</a>&#39;s] ridiculous&quot;
&quot;We are heavily supported by federal funding&#8230;[so] we&#39;re not advertising diversity and… <a href="https://t.co/CIxV6FCrwe">pic.twitter.com/CIxV6FCrwe</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1948057680871886969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Blackburn on Wednesday wrote to Vanderbilt University Chancellor Dr. Daniel Diermeier to express her &#8220;concern regarding reports that Vanderbilt University is concealing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs instead of fully complying with President Trump’s executive action to end wasteful DEI programs in educational institutions,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-blackburn-warns-tennessee-universities-against-hiding-dei-programs-behind-coded-language">reported</a>.
&#8220;Renaming woke DEI programs to circumvent compliance and public scrutiny degrades the educational experience of your students and the trust placed in institutions of higher education like Vanderbilt,&#8221; Blackburn added. &#8220;As a beneficiary of federal funding, Vanderbilt has a responsibility to align with the President’s executive order and return to a focus on providing quality education to your students. Instead of rebranding harmful, woke DEI initiatives, woke DEI initiatives, Vanderbilt should focus on the important work of research and workforce development that the institution does so well.&#8221;
Administrators at two other Tennessee universities, the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">University of Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/16/belmont-university-is-hiding-illegal-aliens-on-campus-n2659728">Belmont University</a>, were recently caught on camera discussing their respective institutions&#8217; DEI goals.
This article has been updated to include an additional statement from Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Vanderbilt Administrator Caught Saying DEI Remains ‘Part Of What We Do’

Nashville

Tennessee

Trump Administration

Universities

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With 2028 in his sights, Gavin Newsom goes on offense – attacking red states and defending his leadership in California. Inflation ticks up fueling President Trump’s calls for an interest rate cut. And, Trump gets the go-ahead for layoffs at the Department of Education.
It’s Wednesday, July 16, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here: 
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Newsom Eyes 2028</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947551" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be ramping up for a presidential run, while his state of California continues to battle a number of crises.
Last week, Governor Newsom visited South Carolina for a two-day tour, meeting with local Democrat leaders and voters. He said he was there to discuss federal health care cuts, but it’s clear this was political &#8212; South Carolina might be a red state, but it will be the first state on the schedule in Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries.
“[Republicans are] banning speech, in classrooms, but also in the boardrooms,” Newsom told South Carolina voters in what, to an outsider observer, sounded very much like stump speech. “DEI, ESG, CRT – anything with three letters they seem to ban &#8230; what we&#8217;re experiencing is America in reverse; they&#8217;re trying to bring us back to a pre-1960s world, on voting rights, on civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights.”
Since 2024, Newsom has launched his own podcast and invited several prominent right-of-center guests on his show, including Trump loyalists Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, in what appears to be an attempt to reach younger voters and appear more moderate. Newsom has also proposed limiting free health care coverage for illegals, and suggested he’s not totally on-board with males who identify as transgender in female sports. More recently, he appeared on &#8220;The Shawn Ryan Podcast&#8221; – which is generally viewed as right-of-center. During the<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BBq3Q_fHSU"> 4 hour-long episode</a>, Newsom said he was directing an “objective review” of California COVID policies. California had some of the strictest lockdown orders in the nation.
However, Newsom has been a very vocal critic of the Trump administration and has sparred with the president on numerous issues – from disaster response to immigration enforcement to environmental policies. Newsom has also defended the policies of California and other Democratic strongholds, balancing attempts to appeal to centrist voters with the need to defend his progressive record and anti-Trump bonafides.
“[California] provided $83.1 billion more than we received from the federal government,” Newsom told Ryan. “Texas took $71.1 billion. I’m not saying that to bash Texas, but you know what? Pretty <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly80zlk1lyo">proud</a> of my godd*** state.”
California is the most populous state in the country and it has an <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-04-30/californias-economy-is-now-the-4th-largest-in-the-world-or-is-it">economy</a> larger than almost every other nation on Earth – its population is roughly the size of Canada’s and its economy is twice as large. That being said, despite being home to ~12% of the U.S. population, California accounts for <a href="https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/">~25%</a> of America’s homeless, and has the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/affordability/cost-living">highest cost of living</a> of any state. <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/">Gas prices</a> in particular are the highest in the country – this July, Californians are paying ~$4.52 per gallon compared to the national average of $3.15.
<h2>Inflation Up, Interest Rates &#8230; Down?</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947549" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Inflation ticked up slightly last month, as President Trump continues to pressure the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
When President Trump took office, economists offered apocalyptic warnings that his trade policy — specifically tariffs — would cause inflation to spike. Month after month, though, inflation fell significantly below expectations.
But on Tuesday, the latest report showed rates going ever so slightly up. Consumer prices were up 2.7% compared to a year earlier, while core inflation was at 2.9%. The goods most impacted were natural gas, coffee, and beef — all of which were up 10% compared to last year. While gasoline, televisions, and smartphones were all down ~10% on average.
“I would say that in general, the inflation numbers have been absolutely fantastic,” Joe Lavorgna, a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, told The Daily Wire. “They&#8217;ve been much lower than virtually everybody, perhaps outside the administration, had thought. There&#8217;s really been no noticeable impact of tariffs at all.”
Critics say this uptick is just the beginning — they believe companies are trying to hold off on price increases until the president sets his final tariff rates in September, at which point prices could really take off. They argue there’s no way for businesses to pay double digit tariffs for imports without passing at least some of that cost on to consumers. To that point, last month, furniture, toys, and clothing all saw relatively significant price increases — those are all items particularly sensitive to tariffs.
Context: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/us-inflation-rate-by-president-8546447">Year-over-year inflation</a> hit a 40-year peak under Biden in 2022, and the Biden administration oversaw an average annual rise in prices of ~4.95% per year, compared to the 2.46% average during Trump’s first term.
<h2>Downsizing The Department Of Education</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947553" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The Supreme Court says President Trump can move forward with mass layoffs at the Education Department.
The court voted 6-3 along ideological lines on Monday to block a lower court’s order — a federal judge in Boston said in May that about 1,400 employees of the Education Department must be allowed to return to work after they were fired in mass layoffs earlier this year. Now the Trump administration will be able to fire them, at least while the rest of the legal challenge plays out.
“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground,” Trump said in a celebratory post to <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114854251111136308">Truth Social</a>. “But we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE. America’s Students will be the best, brightest, and most Highly Educated anywhere in the World.”
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf">blasted</a> the conservative majority, describing their decision as “indefensible.” Sotomayor argued that Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval. During his 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to shutter the Department of Education, but eliminating the department entirely would require an act of Congress – his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">executive order</a> dismantles it as much as possible in the meantime. The other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, joined Sotomayor’s dissent.
Critics have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">pointed</a> out that the Education Department doesn’t do much educating. Though it spends $80 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, it has no say over public school curriculums, which are decided at the state and local levels. Instead, it doles out $18.4 billion annually for Title I, the low-income school district program, and $15.5 billion for special education. It also enforces certain Title IX civil rights laws and sets the rules for colleges to participate in the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program. The Trump administration says other departments are better equipped to manage these programs.
And … under the Trump administration, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-cuts-over-600-million-divisive-teacher-training-grants">terminated</a> over $600 million in grants for training teachers in “divisive ideologies” including social justice activism, anti-racism, and recruiting teachers based on race.

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Morning Brief: Newsom Eyes 2028, Inflation Data, SCOTUS Okays Education Dept Downsizing

California

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Gavin Newsom

Inflation

Politics

Supreme Court

President Donald Trump&#8217;s Education Department opened an <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-opens-foreign-funding-investigation-university-of-michigan">investigation</a> into the University of Michigan&#8217;s foreign funding on Tuesday, weeks after two Chinese nationals with ties to the university were charged by the Department of Justice for smuggling biohazards into the United States.
Michigan has a &#8220;history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence&#8221; and &#8220;recent reports reveal that UM’s research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage,&#8221; according to the Education Department&#8217;s Office of General Counsel (OGC) Chief Investigative Counsel Paul Moore. The Department of Education said that it will look into whether UM is in compliance with federal law after &#8220;a review of the university’s foreign reports revealed inaccurate and incomplete disclosures.&#8221;
&#8220;Unfortunately, tens of millions of dollars in foreign funding in UM’s disclosure reports have been reported in an untimely manner and appear to erroneously identify some of UM’s foreign funders as ‘nongovernmental entities,’ even though the foreign funders seem to be directly affiliated with foreign governments,&#8221; Moore said. &#8220;OGC will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that the American people know the true scope of foreign funding and influence on our campuses.”
The Education Department is demanding that UM hand over tax records, documents, and lists of all gifts detailing any agreement with foreign governments within 30 days. The Trump administration also wants the names and contact information &#8220;of all university research personnel and contract personnel, undergraduate and graduate, involved in bilateral or multilateral research collaborations with non-U.S. research institutions.&#8221;
&#8220;Today’s investigation into UM reflects the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to hold colleges and universities accountable for failing to comply with federal disclosure laws on foreign funding, consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities,&#8221; the department stated.
Last month, two Chinese scholars at the university were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/alarming-pattern-another-chinese-national-arrested-for-smuggling-biological-materials-into-u-s">arrested</a> and charged by the DOJ for attempting to smuggle “biological materials” that could potentially wipe out crops into a laboratory at Michigan. The DOJ said the arrests are &#8220;part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security.&#8221; Michigan, which <a href="https://research.umich.edu/news-and-issues/research-annual-reports/fy24-research-annual-report/fy24-news-release/">boasts</a> of being one of the top public research schools in the world, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-policies-under-review-after-chinese-researchers-charged-with-smuggling-biohazards?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=University+Policies+Under+Review+After+Chinese+Researchers+Charged+With+Smuggling+Biohazards">said</a> last month that it was “actively reviewing all relevant policies” after the arrests of the Chinese nationals.
FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-arrest-chinese-scholar-for-attempting-to-smuggle-pathogen-used-for-agroterrorism-into-u-s">called</a> the arrests &#8220;a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences… putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.&#8221;
Earlier this year, UM ended its partnership with the Chinese Shanghai Jiao Tong University over national security concerns after the FBI <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/us/5-chinese-nationals-charged-with-covering-up-midnight-visit-to-michigan-military-site">said</a> that five Chinese UM students attempted to mislead investigators about a suspicious late-night trip they took to a Michigan military base in 2023.

Michigan

Trump Admin Probes University’s Foreign Funding After Chinese Biohazard Smuggling Arrests

Communist China

Education

Investigation

U.S.

University of Michigan

The Supreme Court decided Monday that President Donald Trump can go ahead with dismantling the Education Department in the latest victory for the administration at the high court.
The court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to block a federal judge&#8217;s order to reinstate about 1,400 employees who were fired in mass layoffs at the Education Department earlier this year.
In March, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, following through on a key campaign promise to strengthen parental rights and improve academic outcomes across the country.
Also that month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon laid off about half of her department&#8217;s workforce.
The administration was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-blocks-dismantling-of-education-department-orders-fired-workers-back">hit</a> with two lawsuits, one filed by a pair of Massachusetts school districts and the American Federation of Teachers union, and the other filed by 21 Democratic attorneys general.
In May, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/politics/education-department-judge-ruling">blocked</a> the administration’s order and said the fired employees must be allowed to return to work.
His ruling is now on hold while the legal challenge continues, but the administration is cleared to proceed with the layoffs for now.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf">wrote</a> a dissent accusing the conservative justices of making an &#8220;indefensible&#8221; decision, arguing that Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval.
To eliminate the Department of Education outright, Trump would need an act of Congress, but his executive order dismantles the department as much as possible in the meantime.
&#8220;When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,&#8221; Sotomayor wrote.
&#8220;The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,&#8221; the liberal justice wrote.
The other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, joined Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent.
“Everybody knows it’s right. The Democrats know it’s right,” Trump said just before signing the order. “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs, and this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work. Absolutely, it’s going to work.”
Critics have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">pointed</a> out that the Education Department doesn’t do much educating. Though it spends $80 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, it has no say over public school curriculums, which are decided at the state and local levels. Instead, it doles out $18.4 billion annually for Title I, the low-income school district program, and $15.5 billion for special education. It also enforces certain Title IX civil rights laws and sets the rules for colleges to participate in the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program.
Under the Trump administration, the Education Department also <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-cuts-over-600-million-divisive-teacher-training-grants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terminated</a> over $600 million in grants for training teachers in “divisive ideologies” including social justice activism, anti-racism, and recruiting teachers based on race.
Frustration with public schools reached a boiling point over the last several years. During the pandemic, parents pleaded with schools to open the classrooms and stop requiring face masks on children. After COVID, parents complained of crippling learning loss, schools hiding children’s gender identity changes, and teachers pushing controversial ideologies like Critical Race Theory.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-INAUGURATION

Supreme Court Greenlights Trump’s Education Department Layoffs

The Department of Education is ending a Clinton-era rule allowing illegal aliens access to federally funded tuition programs.
<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/07/10/exclusive-trumps-ed-dept-ends-free-tuition-for-illegals/">According</a> to The Daily Caller, the Trump administration argues that the policy, which funds career, technical, and adult education programs, violates the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The Education Department notified postsecondary education programs that the rule would no longer apply and declared that providers have “obligations to verify the eligibility of participants.”
This was one of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/taxpayer-funded-benefits-are-for-american-citizens-not-illegals/">several</a> such moves the White House announced today. The Department of Health and Human Services &#8220;is restricting illegal aliens from 13 additional public programs, including Head Start,&#8221; while the Labor Department &#8220;is barring illegal aliens from accessing federal workforce development resources and grants.&#8221;
According to a White House fact sheet, the cuts save &#8220;roughly $40 billion in benefits for American citizens, overturns decades of bureaucratic defiance and builds on President Trump’s executive order directing an END to the subsidization of open borders.&#8221;
“Past presidents sat by and allowed illegal aliens to steal public benefits at the expense of hardworking American taxpayers — that ends now,&#8221; White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Under President Trump, it’s America first always.”
PRWORA previously exclusively allocated the use of federal funds to American citizens, permanent residents, and a small category of “qualified aliens” (e.g., refugees, asylees). However, the Clinton administration exempted postsecondary programs from the rule. The Trump Education Department stated that the exemption “mischaracterized the law by creating artificial distinctions between federal benefit programs based upon the method of assistance.”
In line with PRWORA, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-ends-taxpayer-subsidization-of-postsecondary-education-illegal-aliens">said</a> if the federal government is going to fund postsecondary education programs, it “should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities,” she said. “The Department will ensure that taxpayer funds are reserved for citizens and individuals who have entered our country through legal means who meet federal eligibility criteria.”
The Trump administration has been cracking down on states that provide benefits to illegals in education.
On June 30, it announced the revocation of nearly $7 billion in federal grants, part of which went toward teaching English as a second language. The administration argued that the money was being used to push a “radical left wing agenda.”
Despite threats from the administration, some schools continue to provide benefits for illegals and protect them from deportation.
The Education Department’s new interpretation of the Clinton-era rule will take effect on August 9, 2025.

Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff

Trump’s Dept Of Education Shuts Door On Free Tuition For Illegals

Bill Clinton

illegal alien

illegal immigrants

Illegals

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled Wednesday that California violated Title IX by allowing men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-finds-california-department-of-education-and-california-interscholastic-federation-violation-of-title-ix">announced</a> the results of the office’s investigation on Wednesday.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions.”
“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” McMahon said. “The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” she added.
<a href="https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/title-ix-and-sex-discrimination">Title IX</a> “prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.”
President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">executive order</a> in January to formally recognize only two genders, based on a “fundamental and incontrovertible” reality. Under this framework, male participation in women’s sports counts as sex discrimination under Title IX. 
The following month, Trump signed another executive order to remove funding from states that violate Title IX. 
The California Interscholastic Federation responded in February by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/california-plans-continue-allowing-trans-athletes-compete-girls-sports-despite-trump-executive-order">declaring</a> it would continue to allow trans athletes to compete alongside women in accordance with state law.
 &#8220;The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences…consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records.”
California has 10 days to comply with Title IX and Trump’s executive order, or it will face “imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings,” and removal of federal education funds, the Education Department says.
The Office fo Civil Rights has also instructed California to “restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions,” and sent a personalized letter of apology to each female athlete affected, “for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”
The state must also propose a monitoring plan to ensure that it continues to abide by Title IX.
California receives a tremendous amount of federal funding. In 2022, the state <a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-money-does-the-federal-government-provide-state-and-local-governments/state/california/">received</a> over $161 billion. Residents say they won’t look kindly on Newsom if he puts these funds at risk.
“Without these federal funds, California’s budget crisis would dramatically worsen, and California’s most vulnerable students would stand to lose crucial programs and support,” writes the <a href="https://californiapolicycenter.org/california-accepts-billions-in-federal-funds-for-education-while-defying-federal-law/">California Policy Center</a>. 
“Newsom and the California Department of Education should reassess their priorities and consider what California families want most: a quality education for the next generation.”

Linda McMahon

Department of Education Says California Violated Title IX, Threatens Legal Action

Title IX

Women's sports

An education watchdog asked the Trump administration to crack down on one of the largest all-women’s colleges in the country because it admits transgender-identifying males and maintains restrooms. 
Defending Education filed a civil rights <a href="https://defendinged.org/complaints/ocr-complaint-smith-college/">complaint</a> on Friday alleging that Smith College’s admissions, discrimination, and restroom policies violate federal law. The complaint urges the department to investigate Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, for discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX. 
The complaint also argues that the university policies defy President Donald Trump’s executive orders combating gender ideology and the Education Department’s <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-enforce-2020-title-ix-rule-protecting-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guidance</a> that Title IX does not include gender identity as a protected class. 
“Discrimination based on gender identity is not the same as discrimination based on sex under Title IX, as this Department well knows, and the Supreme Court has never held it is,” Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry wrote in the complaint. “In other words, to the extent Smith’s accommodations for so-called gender identity encroach upon sex-specific programs and spaces, it is in violation of Title IX.”
The complaint also says that the school is violating federal policy by allowing males who identify as females to take the place of females in admissions. For the 2023-2024 school year, Smith only admitted around 20% of those who applied. 
Its policies make clear that the historically all-women’s college allows men to enter so long as they identify as transgender. 
“People who identify as women—cis, trans and nonbinary women—are eligible to apply to Smith,” the college <a href="https://www.smith.edu/your-campus/offices-services/equity-inclusion/gender-identity-expression">explains</a>. “Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”
The decision to admit males was first made in 2015 after Smith <a href="https://www.smith.edu/president-kathleen-mccartney/letters/2014-15/admission-policy-announcement">conducted</a> a year-long study group on the topic. 
“Smith has students, faculty and staff who are trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming. Smith students are here to engage with each other socially and academically in respectful ways, and our community values the range of identities that the student body represents,&#8221; Smith says. 
The college says that it is expanding more of its facilities to allow men into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. 
“Every single-occupancy restroom on campus is designated all-gender, and more and more multi-stall bathrooms are as well,” the college notes, adding that it has “an all-gender locker room in the athletic facilities, with private showering and changing areas.”
The complaint flagged other aspects of Smith’s embrace of gender ideology, including the Schacht Center for Health and Wellness&#8217; commitment to providing “gender-affirming primary care, including hormone therapy, labs and specialty consultations and referrals for students interested in surgeries,” <a href="https://thesophian.com/gender-affirming-care-at-the-schacht-center-amid-trump-bans/">according</a> to the college’s independent student newspaper. 
Defending Education would like to see the Education Department, which has pushed for schools to abandon gender ideology, address the &#8220;unlawful&#8221; policies at Smith. 
“At a minimum, then, Smith’s gender-identity-based Equal Opportunity Policy; its admissions policy, which accepts natal men in lieu of similarly situated female applicants; and its all-gender restroom and locker room policies, which divest female students of their privacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity, all appear to violate Title IX,” Perry wrote in the complaint.
In a statement shared with The Daily Wire, Perry added that it remains important to fight for girls and women 53 years after the passage of Title IX.
“On the anniversary of Title IX, it bears remembering that Title IX was passed after an extensive campaign from women&#8217;s rights activists and a federal court decision holding that high school girls were not entitled to the same athletic opportunities as boys. Yet today, some institutions of higher education, including those that hold themselves out to be single-sex, appear to adhere to the notion that sex is fungible &#8212; even something that arch feminist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote was false.&#8221;
&#8220;Our organization is keenly interested in ensuring equality of educational opportunity for all students, and it is our hope that when assessing the &#8216;female-only&#8217; policies of colleges like Smith, the Department of Education will take a closer look at that college&#8217;s possible attempts to rewrite Title IX, and allow transgender-identified males access to women&#8217;s-only spaces and admission slots,&#8221; Perry said. &#8220;Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. Today and always, Title IX is worth celebrating, protecting, and enforcing so that men and women can truly be equal&#8211;and equally protected&#8211;in American education.”

Smith College campus, a women’s liberal arts college

All-Women’s College Breaking The Law By Admitting Trans-Identifying Men: Complaint

Massachusetts

Transgender

Tennessee challenged the Department of Education on Wednesday over a program that offers specific funding only to schools composed of at least 25% Hispanic students, arguing that the initiative is unconstitutional.
Joined by the organization Students for Fair Admissions, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti <a href="https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2025/2025-6-hsi.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the Education Department over its Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) program, which gives financial aid to institutions that have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment. In the suit, Skrmetti argues that the racial requirements of the program are arbitrary and violate federal law.
“The Department of Education cannot discriminate based on race or ethnicity — even when Congress orders it to. Yet under the Higher Education Act, the Department awards grants to colleges and universities only if they enroll a certain number of Hispanic students,” the suit says.
The lawsuit took aim at several aspects of the program, including the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant <a href="https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-special-populations/grants-hispanic-students/developing-hispanic-serving-institutions-program--title-v#:~:text=The%20Developing%20Hispanic%2DServing%20Institutions,program%20quality%2C%20and%20institutional%20stability." target="_blank" rel="noopener">opportunity</a> and the Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans <a href="https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-special-populations/grants-hispanic-students/promoting-postbaccalaureate-opportunities-for-hispanic-americans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiative</a>. Both of these programs, Skrmetti argues, violate federal law because of their racial component.
The suit notes that no college in Tennessee qualifies as “Hispanic-Serving” because none have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment, even though some institutions, like the University of Memphis, have a high percentage of minority enrollment.
“The State of Tennessee operates many colleges and universities. Every one of them serves Hispanic students. Every one of them serves low-income students. But not one of them qualifies to receive grants under the HSI program. Why? Because they don’t have the right mix of ethnicities on campus,” the lawsuit says, noting that the 25% number was an &#8220;arbitrary ethnic threshold.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
Skrmetti said that the grant program was un-American and unconstitutional, and violated the recent Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-issues-landmark-ruling-on-affirmative-action-at-universities">decision</a> to overturn affirmative action in admissions in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
“Treating people differently because of their skin color and ancestry drags our country backwards. The HSI program perversely deprives even needy Hispanic students of the benefits of this funding if they attend institutions that don’t meet the government’s arbitrary quota,” he said.
The Trump administration has pushed to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates from the federal government and cut grants for organizations that promote racial ideologies. In January, President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">executive order</a> directing his administration to ensure that any educational facility receiving federal dollars complied with the Students for Fair Admissions decision.

US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-EDUCATION-MCMAHON

Red State Sues Education Department Over ‘Arbitrary’ Racial Grant Program

Affirmative Action

WASHINGTON—The Education Department has launched two investigations into high-profile, Title IX-related cases that occurred during President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, The Daily Wire can first report.
As part of its observance of the first &#8220;Title IX Month&#8221; — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-celebrates-title-ix-month-ditches-pride-month">celebrated in place of Pride Month</a> — the Education Department will launch probes into the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado. These investigations will be conducted by the Education Department&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights.
Each of these probes will deal with a case that garnered national outrage and attention for allowing males in intimate female spaces.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: The Education Department has declared June “Title IX Month” rather than Pride Month. It&#8217;s also launching probes into two high-profile cases that developed under President Biden&#8217;s watch: one in Colorado and the other in Wyoming.
Details first in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a>: <a href="https://t.co/SZDmjvWMoT">pic.twitter.com/SZDmjvWMoT</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1929630381952897482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<h3>University of Wyoming</h3>
Members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Wyoming sued the university and Artemis Langford, a male who identifies as a woman, after Langford joined their sorority and lived in their sorority house. The girls accused Langford of watching them shower and change and making inappropriate comments — and having visible erections as he watched them.
“Langford states that he is transgender and that he self-identifies as a woman. His behavior, however, does not reflect a man living as a woman let alone a man attempting to ‘consistently live’ as a woman,” the girls said in their lawsuit, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Leif Le Mahieu <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawsuit-against-man-who-joined-wyoming-sorority-dismissed-by-federal-judge">previously reported</a>. “Other than occasionally wearing women’s clothing, Langford makes little effort to resemble a woman. He has not undergone treatments to create a more feminine appearance, such as female hormones, feminization surgery, or laser hair removal.”
In August 2023, the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge who declined to define what a woman was.
“The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford. With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define ‘woman’ today,&#8221; wrote U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson, a Reagan appointee, in his decision. &#8220;The delegate of a private, voluntary organization interpreted ‘woman,’ otherwise undefined in the nonprofit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge.&#8221;
The University of Wyoming did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
<h3>Jefferson County Public Schools</h3>
The second investigation deals with Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, where an 11-year-old girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a transgender girl while on a cross-country school trip, as The Daily Signal first reported. This was not the only incident of its kind within the district, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-school-district-allowed-trans-identifying-female-to-supervise-little-boys-showering-lawsuit-alleges">The Daily Wire reported</a>.
Jefferson County School District’s “Transgender Students” policy requires that all students on overnight visits are to be roomed by their gender identity, rather than their actual sex, according to a September 2024 lawsuit first reported by The Daily Wire.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: This week we sat down with Joe + Serena Wailes, the parents of an 11-year-old girl shocked to discover on her school trip that she had been assigned to share a bed with a boy who identified as a trans girl.
Joe and Serena share their nightmare story with <a href="https://twitter.com/DailySignal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DailySignal</a>: <a href="https://t.co/w847Oi7nnO">pic.twitter.com/w847Oi7nnO</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1737930649887990158?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
Though the district shared this policy with trans-identifying students and chaperones, it did not share the policy with students or their parents, who were unaware of the policy until their children found themselves rooming with students and chaperones of the opposite gender on trips.
“I was really upset,” the child&#8217;s mother, Serena Wailes, <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/04/exclusive-school-assigned-girl-sleep-boy-who-identifies-trans-parental-notification/">told The Daily Signal in December 2023</a>. “One, I was really upset that she was put in that situation at 11 years old—I don’t feel that is fair to put kids in that kind of situation—and two, that we were not even given the information that this was a possibility before the trip. The whole time they’re saying, ‘Girls on one floor, boys on another, they’re not going to be in each other’s rooms unless it is pre-approved.’ So we’re going through this whole process, not even recognizing that this is a possibility.”
The girl&#8217;s father, Joe Wailes, told The Daily Signal that his wife called him from the hotel and filled him in on what had occurred.
“I felt a bit helpless,” he said at the time. “I was 2,000 miles away. My daughter is scared in a bathroom trying to get herself out of a situation. It was a frustrating experience, and I just really felt like it was not a situation my daughter should be put in.”
In another instance, according to the 2024 lawsuit, the school district placed an 18-year-old female student— who identified as a man but only a week earlier had identified as female — in a cabin with 11 and 12-year-old boys, where she allegedly supervised their changing and showering.
Jefferson County Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: Education Department Probes Two Schools That Let Men In Women’s Spaces

Colorado

Wyoming

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump&#8217;s Education Department has declared June &#8220;Title IX Month&#8221; in recognition of the 53rd anniversary of the historic legislation&#8217;s passage, The Daily Wire has learned.
The department will spend June highlighting the Trump administration&#8217;s actions taken to protect female sports and spaces, as well as reversing the weaponization of Title IX that took place during the previous administration. The festivities offer a stark contrast to the Biden Education Department&#8217;s &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; celebrations, which focused on gender ideology, critical race theory, and DEI.
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The Daily Wire can also first report that the Education Department&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights is launching probes into two high-profile cases that developed under the previous administration, one in Colorado and the other in Wyoming.
<div id="attachment_927993" style="width: 397px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-celebrates-title-ix-month-ditches-pride-month/screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11-59-34-am" rel="attachment wp-att-927993"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927993" class="wp-image-927993 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-387x576.png" alt="Screenshot, X. " width="387" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-387x576.png 387w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-201x300.png 201w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-768x1144.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM.png 796w" sizes="(max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px" /></a>The Biden Education Department celebrates Pride Month. Screenshot, X.</div>
In the first case, the Education Department will investigate the University of Wyoming for allowing a male into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter and letting him live in female-only campus housing, prompting members of the sorority to sue the school. The lawsuit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/women-file-lawsuit-against-sorority-after-it-accepts-man-who-allegedly-watches-them-while-visibly-aroused">describes</a> how the male student would allegedly watch, with a visible erection, as female students changed or walked through the sorority house in their towels.
In the second case, Colorado&#8217;s Jefferson County Public Schools is under investigation for assigning students to share overnight accommodations “with other students that share a student’s ‘gender identity.’”
The <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/04/exclusive-school-assigned-girl-sleep-boy-who-identifies-trans-parental-notification/">Daily Signal previously reported</a> that the school system assigned a young girl to share a bed with a trans-identifying boy on an overnight school trip — and she <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/21/parents-address-nightmare-school-trip-daughter-11-discovered-her-bedmate-was-trans/">likely would have been pressured into sharing his bed</a> had her mother not been present on that trip.
In a press release, the Education Department notes that Jefferson County Public Schools &#8220;allegedly misleads parents by informing them that girls and boys will be separated for overnight accommodations without divulging that its definition of &#8216;girl&#8217; includes boys who claim a female identity.&#8221;
Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Trump have been very open about their plan to hand over control of children&#8217;s education to both states and parents and ultimately eliminate the Department of Education. Since Trump returned to office, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/president-trumps-first-100-days-education-america">opened investigations</a> into California and Maine for alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which orders states to comply with parental rights laws, boosts school choice programs, and more.

President Trump Holds National Council for the American Worker Meeting

EXCLUSIVE: Education Department Celebrates ‘Title IX Month,’ Ditches Pride Month

LGBTQ

School districts across the country have spent millions of federal dollars meant for low-income students pushing leftist concepts in the classroom, an education watchdog found.
Defending Education released a <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/hijacked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on Wednesday detailing how 55 school districts have used federal funding to push DEI, restorative justice, and Social Emotional Learning. The funds, many of which have been allocated through Title I and Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act, are meant to help schools with high percentages of students from low-income families.
Despite the intention of the funds, they often have gone toward things like racially-focused programs, training teachers to grade with equity, racial equity consulting, and other DEI initiatives. The report, which was first shared with The Daily Wire, found that $19,022,259 in federal funding, primarily through Title I, II, and IV, was spent by districts on DEI, restorative justice, and Social Emotional Learning.
&#8220;Instead of prioritizing reading, writing and arithmetic, school districts across the country have spent nearly $20 million in federal funds on organizations and consultants promoting progressive ideology in K-12 education,&#8221; Defending Education Investigative Reporter Kendall Tietz told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Programs centered on social emotional learning, as well as race- and sex-based content, often seek to influence students’ thoughts and beliefs by framing their understanding of the world through the lens of identity politics. Time and again, district spending illustrates how lucrative far-Left programming is for education activists,&#8221; she added.
The Hayward Unified School District in California in 2022 <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030212&amp;MID=12241&amp;enIID=QwwltgiXsyTABQiud78D9A%3D%3D&amp;srch=Crescendo+Education+Group&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allocated</a> $110,000 in Title funds for the Crescendo Education Group to train teachers in &#8220;equitable grading.&#8221; This means that teachers were <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Crescendo%20Contract_263810gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taught</a> &#8220;grading and assessment practices that are more accurate,&#8221; &#8220;bias-resistant,&#8221; and &#8220;motivational.&#8221;
Similarly, Jefferson Union High School District in California <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030270&amp;MID=30931&amp;enIID=XF0tHbtuREKlVhP4rewS5w%3D%3D&amp;srch=Crescendo+Education+Group&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> nearly $300,000 in Title 1 funding for Crescendo Education to provide training on equitable grading from 2022 to 2024.
Hayward also <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030212&amp;MID=14139&amp;enIID=oZpdaoyzbSn2syrxwUSYsw%3D%3D&amp;srch=woke+kindergarten&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> $200,000 in Comprehensive Support and Improvement funds for a contract with the organization &#8220;Woke Kindergarten&#8221; to push teachers to <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Woke%20Kindergarten_Contract%20Amendment_315462gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adop</a>t a &#8220;healing-centered &amp; liberatory learning practices made possible by developing their understanding of teaching through an abolitionist lens.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_926399" style="width: 1560px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-926399" class="size-full wp-image-926399" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM.png" alt="" width="1550" height="1038" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM.png 1550w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-300x201.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-860x576.png 860w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-768x514.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-1536x1029.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1550px) 100vw, 1550px" />Woke Kindergarten contracts with Hayward Unified School District.</div>
In nearby San Rafael City Schools, the school board used Title IV dollars in both 2023 and 2024 to <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030430&amp;MID=24502&amp;enIID=qCU3Hpr7yvVXtplus6VZUZBNQ%3D%3D&amp;srch=black+girls&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">create</a> a &#8220;Black Girls Group,&#8221; described as a place for &#8220;young Black girls to discuss, understand, and combat racism while fostering a sense of belonging.&#8221;
Another California school that has used federal funds to push racialized programs is West Contra Costa Unified School District, which <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030499&amp;MID=15557&amp;enIID=2pn8i9ccAkk8QnQESUCYeg%3D%3D&amp;srch=Wayfinder&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> over $330,000 in Title I funds in 2022 and 2024 for Improve Your Tomorrow&#8217;s College Academy program, whose <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Contract%20Summary.092122_344094gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mission</a> is to &#8220;increase the number of young men of color&#8221; going to college.
In Illinois, the Township High School District 211 <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/il/thsd211/Board.nsf/files/D3CHEU48303C/$file/Approval%20of%20Minutes%20--%20February%2022%2C%202024%20(03-21-24).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> $55,000 in Title II grants for professional development trainings with Courageous Conversations, an organization that <a href="https://courageousconversation.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> it wants to pursue &#8220;racial equity&#8221; by uncovering &#8220;personal and institutional biases.&#8221;
Indianapolis Public Schools has <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/indianapolis-public-schools-paid-racial-equity-consultant-1-3-million-over-10-years-including-over-680000-in-title-i-funds-adopts-equity-policy-that-calls-color-blindness-a-present-day-r/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> hundreds of thousands of Title I funding on contracts with the Racial Equity Institute, another group of consultants steeped in racial ideology. Other districts, like Lorain City Schools in Ohio, have <a href="https://filecabinet10.eschoolview.com/A37642F5-4C14-4F55-8D03-5BCCF1F87568/d37bd1be-ad61-4303-83f5-2893f8ff1a43.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> over $13,000 in Title IV on services from the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland for &#8220;services.&#8221; It is unclear what those services were.
Defending Education&#8217;s report also highlights how school districts have used federal funds to implement Social Emotional Learning concepts, pointing to contracts with organizations like Panorama Education, the Committee for Children, and Project Wayfinder.
Advocates of social emotional learning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-social-emotional-learning-is-nothing-more-than-unlicensed-therapy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> that the thinking behind it is that schools teach students how to regulate their emotions, develop healthy identities, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
According to Defending Education, 17 school districts have used federal funding to pay Panorama Education $2,427,721 using federal grants for their survey platform or related services. Panorama Education, which has <a href="https://www.panoramaed.com/blog/introducing-panorama-for-social-emotional-learning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed</a> Social Emotional Learning techniques, says that it allows local districts to tailor use of its platforms to their own needs and that it only provides the technology and doesn&#8217;t push any ideology.
The Committee for Children told The Daily Wire that its SEL programs &#8220;are evidence-based and focused on helping young people develop skills to support safety, well-being, and academic success. They are not political or ideological in nature. They are welcomed and actively used across thousands of communities in all 50 states, just as they have been for more than 40 years.&#8221;
The Education Department has indicated that it may be scrutinizing schools&#8217; implementation of Social Emotional Learning concepts to ensure that it is not being used as a workaround for restrictions on DEI. In an <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/frequently-asked-questions-about-racial-preferences-and-stereotypes-under-title-vi-of-civil-rights-act-109530.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FAQ sheet</a>, the Education Department said that some schools have looked to use SEL to push DEI through other means.
&#8220;Other schools have sought to veil racially discriminatory policies with terms like &#8216;social-emotional learning&#8217; or &#8216;culturally responsive&#8217; teaching. But whether an initiative constitutes unlawful discrimination does not turn solely on whether it is labeled &#8216;DEI&#8217; or uses terminology such as &#8216;diversity,&#8217; &#8216;equity,&#8217; or &#8216;inclusion,'&#8221; the departments wrote in February.
The Trump administration has directed all federal funding to be cut from schools receiving federal money if they push racial and gender ideologies on students. Already, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-deals-blow-to-taxpayer-funded-leftist-activist-training-program?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Deals+Blow+To+Taxpayer-Funded+Leftist+Activist+Training+Program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken action</a> to cut off funding for entities pushing radical ideology, including $1 billion in &#8220;mental-health grants,&#8221; many of which were going toward training leftist activists.

Transgender Symbol and Pencils With The Color of Lgbt Flag

How Schools Use Taxpayer Money For Poor Students To Push Leftist Ideology

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

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