A top IRS lawyer involved in high-level policy interpretations has advocated action to “resist” President Donald Trump and holds radical far-left policy positions, pushing for Democrats to abolish prisons and pack the court to defy Trump.
Anthony Sacco, an attorney for the powerful IRS Office of Chief Counsel, openly advocated for far-left positions for years prior to joining the agency, a Daily Wire review of his social media found. Sacco, who holds a key role in interpreting complicated federal tax law, has called for people to “resist” the GOP and attacked the police. 
Sacco has co-authored multiple <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-irs-guidance-a-brief-primer">revenue rulings</a>, including as recently as April 17, 2025, three months into the Trump administration. Revenue rulings are official IRS interpretations of how tax laws are applied in specific situations and impact how government officials, tax professionals, and taxpayers maintain compliance with federal law.
Before joining the IRS in September 2022 by the Biden administration, Sacco <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-sacco-5a4319a4/">worked</a> under Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden for the Senate Finance Committee, according to his LinkedIn. His social media activity demonstrated his strong opposition to the Trump administration. In 2020, for example, he attacked Republicans ahead of the Senate vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. 
“The Republican Party has completely obliterated principles, integrity, and norms. Screw ‘going high.’ Pack the Court.<a href="https://archive.ph/o/UtXC5/https://x.com/hashtag/resist?src=hashtag_click"> #resist</a><a href="https://archive.ph/o/UtXC5/https://x.com/hashtag/gop?src=hashtag_click"> #gop</a><a href="https://archive.ph/o/UtXC5/https://x.com/hashtag/election?src=hashtag_click"> #election</a><a href="https://archive.ph/o/UtXC5/https://x.com/hashtag/vote?src=hashtag_click"> #vote</a><a href="https://archive.ph/o/UtXC5/https://x.com/hashtag/packthecourt?src=hashtag_click"> #packthecourt</a>,” he posted to X.
Shortly after The Daily Wire reached out to Sacco for comment on his previous views, he <a href="https://x.com/APSacco">locked</a> his X account, restricting who can see his posts — but not before The Daily Wire archived and saved the posts. Sacco did not respond to the inquiry. Briefed on the posts by The Daily Wire, Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton said Sacco &#8220;should be fired immediately.&#8221;
“With deep state leftists in its leadership, it is no wonder the IRS has repeatedly targeted conservatives and conservative organizations,” Cotton told The Daily Wire. “This individual should be fired immediately.”
<div id="attachment_962657" style="width: 1175px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-962657" class="size-full wp-image-962657" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-9.58.57-AM.png" alt="" width="1165" height="1063" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-9.58.57-AM.png 1165w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-9.58.57-AM-300x274.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-9.58.57-AM-631x576.png 631w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-9.58.57-AM-768x701.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1165px) 100vw, 1165px" />Sacco post on X.</div>
Sacco is currently one of the main attorneys for IRS’s Chief Counsel’s office who specializes in looking at pass-through businesses, a tax structure where owners are taxed at the individual rather than corporate level.
The revenue <a href="https://www.irs.gov/irb/2025-19_IRB">ruling</a> he drafted in April withdrew <a href="https://www.irs.gov/irb/2024-28_IRB">one</a> he had written under Biden, which increased regulations on certain business partnerships. It was based on an executive order from Trump ordering his administration to cut unnecessary regulations, meaning a advocate for resisting Trump was left responsible for putting his orders into effect.
According to one senior Republican aide who works on finance issues in the Senate, Sacco&#8217;s office was viewed as a politicized office in the financial policy world. It was, for example, behind plans that would supercharge the IRS beyond its current form. The aide pointed to the IRS’s push for a “direct file” program that was approved by the Chief Counsel’s Office during the Biden administration, which Republicans <a href="https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/crapo-statement-on-irs-direct-file-pilot-project#">argued</a> would have turned the IRS into &#8220;tax preparer, tax collector, and tax enforcer.&#8221;
“The idea that a far-left &#8216;resister&#8217; who helped the Biden IRS set policy is now setting policy for Trump is deeply concerning,” the aide told The Daily Wire, adding that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent &#8220;should clean house to get this politicization out.&#8221;
“I’m not surprised he’s said those far-left things because that’s how he has operated in the Chief Counsel’s Office,” the aide added. “We shouldn’t trust leftwing ideologues at the IRS in light of their weaponization of the agency during the Obama and Biden administrations.”
Outside of social media, Sacco. helped prepare a lengthy <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-133/abolition-constitutionalism/">academic article </a>arguing that prisons should be abolished published by the Harvard Law Review. In the forward, the  primary author argued “that white supremacy is deeply woven into the fabric of every legal institution in the United States.”
In a post discussing his work on the project, Sacco contemplated the future of criminal justice in America. 
“It was truly amazing to work with Prof. Roberts and my fellow RAs on this piece over the past summer. It&#8217;s not easy to imagine a society without prisons, but I look at the prison system and mass incarceration completely different now after this experience,” he posted. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-962663 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-4.05.58-PM.png" alt="" width="525" height="406" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-4.05.58-PM.png 525w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-4.05.58-PM-300x232.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px" /></div>
The author of the article wrote that there “is good reason to renounce the Constitution because constitutional law has been critical to upholding the interests of the racial capitalist regime while advancing legal theories that justify its inhumanity.”
“Indeed, it is the realization that white supremacy is deeply woven into the fabric of every legal institution in the United States and upheld by U.S. constitutional law that made me an abolitionist in the first place,” the author added. 
Sacco also frequently posted anti-police messages on his account, including a call from anthem-kneeler Collin Kaepernick to “abolish” the “white supremacist institution of policing” and another post that claimed “policing is based on race” and that the job itself was “racist.” 
<div id="attachment_962661" style="width: 1164px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-962661" class="size-full wp-image-962661" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-10.20.53-AM.png" alt="" width="1154" height="509" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-10.20.53-AM.png 1154w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-10.20.53-AM-300x132.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-10.20.53-AM-1024x452.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-19-at-10.20.53-AM-768x339.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1154px) 100vw, 1154px" />Screenshot of Sacco repost.</div>
Sacco&#8217;s account, now locked, states that he is currently &#8220;focused on tax policy, racial and criminal justice.&#8221;
The IRS did not respond to request for comment on Sacco&#8217;s status at the agency.

MixCollage-20-Aug-2025-12-18-PM-8990

Top IRS Lawyer Under Trump Pledged To ‘Resist’ President, Is Former Dem Aide

Court Packing

Donald Trump

Supreme Court

Tom Cotton

The Department of Justice on Tuesday <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/28/james-boasberg-justice-department-complaint-00480938?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=00000155-9c90-dad1-ad7d-fed474bb0000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a misconduct complaint against James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, for “improper” comments he made about President Donald Trump at a meeting of federal judges in March.
Boasberg claimed at the biannual closed-door meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States that he was concerned the Trump administration “would disregard rulings of federal courts, leading to a constitutional crisis.”
The <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26033573-dojboasbergcomp072825/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaint</a>, authored by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff Chad Mizelle, alleges that Boasberg strayed from traditional topics to “attempt to improperly influence” the other justices, many of whom are presiding over active litigation involving President Trump.
“These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will not stand for that,” Attorney General Pam Bondi <a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1949974166205034753" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote on X</a>.
Boasberg has come under fire for his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-blocking-deportations-of-venezuelan-gang-threatens-trump-admin-with-consequences?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Judge+Blocking+Deportations+Of+Venezuelan+Gang+Threatens+Trump+Admin+With+%E2%80%98Consequences%E2%80%99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempts to block</a> the Trump administration’s deportation policies, filing a temporary restraining order blocking the administration’s efforts to deport hundreds of illegal aliens and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/nx-s1-5329777/tren-de-aragua-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-venezuelan-gang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tren de Aragua</a> members to El Salvador, citing an abuse of due process.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-obama-appointed-judge-trying-to-stop-trump-from-deporting-criminal-illegals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Obama appointee</a>, who threatened the Trump administration with “consequences” if it continued its deportations, later had his order vacated by the Supreme Court. Last month, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling against the constitutionality of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-5448821/universal-injunction-supreme-court-executive-order-birthright" target="_blank" rel="noopener">universal injunctions</a>, which lower courts were using to unilaterally block executive orders from being enforced.
The Justice Department’s complaint alleges that, following the conference, Boasberg “began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump administration would not follow court orders.”
The complaint alleges that “Boasberg rushed the government through complex litigation, sometimes giving the Trump Administration less than 48 hours to respond and threatening criminal-contempt proceedings and the appointment of an outside prosecutor against senior Trump Administration officials for failing to comply with an order that had already been vacated.”
The Judicial Conference serves as the policymaking body for the federal court system and is headed by Chief Justice John Roberts. Its 27 members include each of the chief justices of the 13 federal circuits and a district judge from each circuit.
It is strictly reserved for discussing policy issues related to the federal courts, such as &#8220;budget, security, and facilities.”
“Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis,” the complaint reads. It claims that the Trump administration has “always complied with court orders,” noting that Boasberg failed to provide examples of noncompliance alongside his remarks.
University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo criticized Boasberg in a recent interview for using an “inappropriate setting” to “try to get the Chief Justice of the United States to give his opinion on whether there is a constitutional crisis between the courts and the presidency.”
He said that Bosenberg was “trying to entrap the Chief Justice of the United States and get him on the record and join him to almost approve what he’s doing to spark this fight with President Trump.”
The complaint requests an investigation into Bosenberg’s conduct. If Bosenberg is found to have engaged in “willful misconduct,” the Justice Department is asking for a public reprimand and consideration of impeachment by the Judicial Conference.

MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-12-00-PM-9923

Justice Department Files Misconduct Complaint Against Anti-Trump Judge

Department of Justice

Deportations

James Boasberg

Pam Bondi

Ghislaine Maxwell&#8217;s attorneys have formally petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn her 2021 sex trafficking conviction, claiming that her crimes were covered under a 2007 plea deal.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in the crimes of deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/28/us-news/ghislaine-maxwell-makes-long-shot-supreme-court-bid-to-overturn-sex-trafficking-conviction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claiming</a> through her attorneys that the controversial deal — struck between Epstein and South Florida prosecutors — included her in addition to allowing the disgraced financier to plead guilty to state charges of solicitation and to procuring minors for the purpose of prostitution.
Her attorneys, husband-and-wife team <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-1073/368155/20250728111721067_24-1073ReplyInSupportOfPetitionForWritOfCertiorari.pdf">David Oscar and Mona Markus</a>, are citing one specific stipulation from the 2007 agreement that resulted in Epstein serving only 13 months in a work-release program — a line stating that the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office would “not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.&#8221; The agreement named four such &#8220;potential co-conspirators,&#8221; but Maxwell was not one of them.
&#8220;Rather than grapple with the core principles of plea agreements, the government tries to distract by reciting a lurid and irrelevant account of Jeffrey Epstein’s misconduct,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote. &#8220;But this case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did.&#8221;
&#8220;This promise is unqualified. It is not geographically limited to the Southern District of Florida, it is not conditioned on the co-conspirators being known by the government at the time, it does not depend on what any particular government attorney may have had in his or her head about who might be a co-conspirator, and it contains no other caveat or exception,&#8221; they wrote. &#8220;This should be the end of the discussion.&#8221;
Maxwell has been in the headlines recently as she&#8217;s agreed to cooperate with the United States Justice Department in its continued efforts to get to the bottom of Epstein&#8217;s crimes. She recently spoke with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in an interview that stretched over two days, and according to reports, gave him the names of some <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-gave-doj-info-on-100-people-linked-to-epstein-her-lawyer-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">100 people</a> who were connected to Epstein in some way.
President Donald Trump has said that he wants to publish as much information about Epstein as possible, but has been adamant that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/spin-cycle-democrats-cant-quit-the-epstein-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">victims should be protected</a>. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said the same, stating that he would block a bipartisan push to release the files because the measure did not do enough on that front.
Trump also left the door open for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-hes-allowed-to-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-keeps-option-open-after-doj-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pardoning Maxwell</a>, saying recently that he at least was leaving the option on the table.

Sunday, January 4, 2015 Ghislaine Maxwell

Epstein Accomplice Rolls Dice With Supreme Court, Appeals To Get Conviction Tossed

Courts

Crime

Jeffrey Epstein

Politics

Sex Crimes

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling on presidential immunity last year would likely shield former President Barack Obama from any prosecution related to the Russiagate hoax.
Trump accused Obama of committing &#8220;criminal acts&#8221; over the debunked Russian collusion claims that tied Trump&#8217;s 2016 election victory to Moscow. The president acknowledges, however, that the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling on presidential immunity, which helped Trump in 2024, would likely also protect Obama.
&#8220;It probably helps him a lot,&#8221; Trump said, adding, &#8220;But it doesn&#8217;t help the people around him at all.&#8221;
&#8220;He&#8217;s done criminal acts. There&#8217;s no question about it,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot. He owes me big. Obama owes me big.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Trump correctly says Obama would benefit from the Supreme Court’s presidential powers ruling last year, making it hard to prosecute him for 2016 actions. “Obama owes me big.” <a href="https://t.co/XWjsaLUxfx">pic.twitter.com/XWjsaLUxfx</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1948750505250808067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Prosecuting Obama appears to be unlikely. Last July, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-rules-trump-has-immunity-for-official-acts-likely-delays-trial-past-election">ruled</a> 6-3 in favor of Trump, saying that presidential immunity shields him from federal prosecution for official acts. The ruling stemmed from the case against Trump alleging that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump&#8217;s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents last week showing that the Obama administration suppressed intelligence proving that Russia did not influence the outcome of the 2016 election. Gabbard&#8217;s revelation led to calls for the Trump administration to prosecute those in the Obama White House, all the way up to the former president himself. Gabbard said declassified documents &#8220;clearly show there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.&#8221;
An Obama spokesman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gabbard-fires-back-at-obama-after-he-denies-guilt-in-russia-collusion-hoax-the-art-of-deflection">called</a> the allegations &#8220;ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.&#8221; Gabbard responded, saying, &#8220;The intelligence community had one assessment, that Russia did not have the intent or capability to try to impact the outcome of the U.S. election leading up to  Election Day,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;The same assessment was made after Donald Trump was elected by the American people as president in 2016 defeating Hillary Clinton. And it wasn&#8217;t until after that pulled president&#8217;s daily briefing document that you referenced that the Principals Committee was called and the National Security Council, and President Obama then directed his then DNI, James Clapper, to lead the effort to create this new intelligence community assessment.&#8221;
Trump said on Tuesday that Obama, along with other Democrats, should face &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/time-to-go-after-people-trump-wants-severe-consequences-for-dems-who-pushed-russia-hoax?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Time+To+Go+After+People%E2%80%99%3A+Trump+Wants+%E2%80%98Severe+Consequences%E2%80%99+For+Dems+Who+Pushed+Russia+Hoax">severe consequences</a>&#8221; for their alleged involvement in the Russian collusion conspiracy, adding that &#8220;it&#8217;s time to go after people.&#8221;
&#8220;Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader. Hillary Clinton was right there with him, and so was Sleepy Joe Biden, and so were the rest of them — [former FBI Director Jim] Comey, Clapper, the whole group. They tried to rig an election, and then they got caught,&#8221; Trump said in the Oval Office.
The Department of Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justice-department-to-form-strike-force-to-assess-weaponization-of-intel-community">announced</a> on Wednesday that it formed a &#8220;strike force&#8221; to evaluate the evidence put forward by Gabbard and look into &#8220;potential next steps.&#8221;

Obama/Trump

Trump Says SCOTUS Immunity Ruling Could Protect Obama: ‘He Owes Me Big’

Barack Obama

Executive

Russia Collusion Hoax

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="auto, (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="auto, (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="auto, (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

Department of Education

Gavin Newsom

Inflation

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

Education

U.S.

The Trump administration is considering multiple different countries that it could potentially deport suspected MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia to, naming both Mexico and the African nation of South Sudan as potential destinations for the illegal alien erroneously dubbed a “Maryland man.”
Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States to stand trial for a human smuggling charge after he was first deported back to his home country of El Salvador. But now the Salvadoran national is expected to be deported yet again if he is let free from jail as he awaits trial.
ICE officials <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/10/us-news/trump-admin-still-deciding-where-it-would-deport-kilmar-abrego-garcia-ice-official-tells-judge/">noted</a> that the federal agency would detain Abrego Garcia and deport him to a so-called “third country,” a country other than an alien’s nation of origin that agrees to receive deportees from the United States. Abrego Garcia has claimed that he is at risk of being tortured if he returns to El Salvador.
The third country arrangement was made possible by a Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-secures-victory-in-scotus-ruling-enabling-more-deportations?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Secures+Victory+In+SCOTUS+Ruling+Enabling+More+Deportations">victory</a> for the Trump administration late last month, which overturned a lower court ruling barring the administration from sending deportees to third countries. Now, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/23/supreme-court-immigrants-deport-torture-sudan/83885228007/">thousands</a> of illegal aliens are expected to be sent to third countries.
The case came after eight criminal illegal aliens, including Cuban and Vietnamese nationals, were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-deports-murderers-and-rapists-to-south-sudan-but-judge-might-order-their-return-to-u-s">deported</a> to South Sudan after their home nations refused to accept them.
Abrego Garcia is currently awaiting trial in Tennessee as he faces charges for a suspected human smuggling incident. The illegal alien was caught on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-suspected-maryland-man-of-getting-paid-to-traffic-illegals-body-cam-footage-shows">body camera footage</a> in 2022 during a traffic stop, in which Tennessee Highway Patrol officers found Abrego Garcia to be driving a modified van with nine men, none of whom spoke English or had driver’s licenses. One officer speculated that Abrego Garcia was “hauling these people for money.”
Abrego Garcia’s case has become a national flashpoint in the immigration debate, with Democrat politicians advocating for the illegal alien and incorrectly referring to him as a “Maryland man,” and Maryland politicians even calling him their constituent.
The illegal alien, who has also been accused of domestic violence, was a member of a far-left organization that advocated for illegal aliens and called for ICE to be abolished, while also receiving federal funding from the Biden administration, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-belonged-to-a-biden-backed-illegal-alien-advocacy-group?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Maryland+Man%E2%80%99+Kilmar+Abrego+Garcia+Belonged+To+A+Biden-Backed+Group+That+Called+For+Abolishing+ICE">revealed</a>.

Trump with Bukele

Here Are The Countries Kilmar Abrego Garcia Could Be Deported To

Here Are The Countries That Kilmar Abrego Garcia Could Be Deported To

deportation

Immigration

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Mexico

Tennessee

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s latest opinion pitted her against her fellow liberals on the bench and revealed her to be far less prepared for her weighty role than her peers, according to a legal expert.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said Jackson’s dissent in a Wednesday court opinion showed her as unserious and unfit for the role of Supreme Court justice.
“What it tells me is that Brown Jackson is really at the far end of the spectrum and that the other justices are getting tired of her,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Wire.
Jackson was the lone dissenter in a court opinion that cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin crafting plans to downsize the federal workforce. The junior justice wrote that the majority opinion is “not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal on the high court, wrote a concurrence siding with the majority
“I agree with Justice Jackson that the President cannot restructure federal agencies in a manner inconsistent with congressional mandates,” wrote Sotomayor. “Here, however, the relevant Executive Order directs agencies to plan reorganizations and reductions in force ‘consistent with applicable law’ … and the resulting joint memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management reiterates as much.”
The court opinion and the split on the bench suggests that Jackson is ill-equipped to handle the intellectual rigors of the Supreme Court, according to von Spakovsky.
“This case was eight-to-one. Even justices Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan joined with the majority because they didn&#8217;t want a dissent in this particular case,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Wire. “Only the lone dissenter, Brown Jackson, was once again, you know, engaging in an emotional tirade about the idea that — horror, shock — federal employees might actually lose their jobs.”
Jackson has been singled out in other cases as well. In a court decision last month over “birthright citizenship,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justice-amy-coney-barrett-lays-the-legal-smackdown-on-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson">suggested</a> that Jackson’s dissenting argument was vacuous, or at least not motivated by any serious legal theory.
“The principal dissent focuses on conventional legal terrain, like the Judiciary Act of 1789 and our cases on equity,” wrote Barrett. “JUSTICE JACKSON, however, chooses a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever. Waving away attention to the limits on judicial power as a ‘mind-numbingly technical query … she offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.”
“I disagree often with what Justice Kagan and Sotomayor put in their decisions, but they at least try to have a legal basis for what they’re saying,” von Spakovsky said.
Jackson claims Trump’s plans to downsize the federal government is &#8220;needless&#8221; and &#8220;there’s no need for getting rid of federal employees,&#8221; von Spakovsky added. “That&#8217;s a policy decision. That&#8217;s got nothing to do with the law. That’s got nothing to do with the constitutional authority of the president to run the executive branch.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s just another sign that, frankly, she was a big mistake getting put on the court, and that she just doesn&#8217;t have the legal acumen to be on the court,&#8221; von Spakovsky said. &#8220;Sotomayor, Kagan, they do, even though I think they&#8217;re often wrong, but I don&#8217;t think [Jackson] does.&#8221;

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Even Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Liberal SCOTUS Colleagues Tire Of Her Weak Arguments

Heritage Foundation

Sonia Sotomayor

Questions mount over the DOJ and FBI’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, fueling public suspicion, the Supreme Court clears the way for Trump’s mass government layoffs, and a deadly “screwworm” is spreading through cattle in Mexico.
It’s Thursday, July 10, 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:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Epstein Questions Remain &amp; Deadly Screwworm Dangers" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xu2kRDcFpl4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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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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<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epstein-questions-remain-deadly-screwworm-dangers-7-10-25/id1576594336?i=1000716643324" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
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<h2>The Curious Case Of Jeffrey Epstein</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945081" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Days after the Trump administration declared the Epstein investigation closed, public outrage continues to grow. Now, some Republicans are calling for the removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The Trump administration released a now-infamous <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline">memo</a> Sunday night saying the Jeffry Epstein case was closed, but that is clearly not what many in the GOP base wanted to hear. Some conservative radio hosts and influencers, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill, have made clear they don’t believe the official story.
According to their memo, the Department of Justice determined that Epstein’s death was a suicide after reviewing the existing evidence in the FBI&#8217;s possession — critics want to know why they didn’t seek to gather more evidence. 
“I&#8217;m not surprised to hear that within the existing case files, they didn&#8217;t find anything,” Mike Howell, President of the Oversight Project, told The Daily Wire. “The FBI didn&#8217;t fulsomely investigate the Epstein [case] &#8230; They should have investigated with this new leadership &#8230; You had the richest and most powerful people in the world descending on an island where a known massive sex trafficker was. This goes out to the nature of the global elites and their relationship with the intelligence community and law enforcement, which appears to be very preferential. These are massive questions about the functioning of our country and the rule of law, not only the safety of young women.”
For years, the president and his allies have vowed to present evidence on this case to the American people. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, for example, said on the campaign trail that they would declassify the “Epstein Files.” FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino also vowed to prioritize transparency on the case. 
But perhaps the most vocal of all was Attorney General Pam Bondi, who made public statements claiming that there were “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn” as well as other co-conspirators in the case whose names would be made public. In an interview with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/attorney-general-bondi-under-siege-after-doj-reveals-no-epstein-client-list">Fox News</a> earlier this year, Bondi went so far as to claim that she had a list of Epstein’s clients “on my desk” – the DOJ now claims that document does not exist.
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<h2>SCOTUS Sides With Trump Administration, Permits Mass Layoffs</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945079" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for President Trump to move forward with plans to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
In February, shortly after taking office, President Trump ordered federal agencies to develop plans to implement the recommendations of the DOGE to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Several federal employee unions and activist groups sued, arguing that the executive did not have the authority to restructure the federal workforce without congressional approval. In May, Judge Susan Illston of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide injunction, pausing the Trump administration’s plans.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court stayed the injunction, while it did not preclude future court cases challenging the legality of specific layoffs. The court’s ruling will allow the Trump administration to implement its proposed workforce reductions.
“There are [going] to be more lawsuits, but I do think [Trump’s] got enough running room to really start going forward with this,”  Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire. “What people ought to realize is how stupid so many of these lawsuits are. Reductions in force … Almost every president has done that. Heck, Obama did it. And nobody thought it was some kind of legal issue or problem until now, when folks are raving about it and saying that President Trump is somehow doing something wrong.”
Interestingly, the stay appears to have divided the court’s liberal members. While her reasoning differed from the majority decision, Justice Sonya Sotomayor signed a concurrence in favor of it. The court’s most junior member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, signed a pointed dissent calling the majority decision “not only truly unfortunate but also hubristic and senseless.”
“Brown Jackson is really at the far end of the spectrum and that the other justices are getting tired of her,” von Spakovsky said. “I disagree often with what Justice Kagan and Sotomayor put in their decisions, but they at least try to have a legal basis for what they&#8217;re saying … she just doesn&#8217;t have the legal acumen to be on the court.”
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<h2>Flesh-Eating Maggots Threaten Livestock</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945083" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.10.25-Seg-Head-3.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: A flesh-eating maggot has appeared in Mexico, with <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/article/screwworm-maggots-flies-texas-20421558.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com">outbreaks</a> within 700 miles of the United States&#8217; southern border. The pests are spiking fears about potential devastation to U.S. cattle and other livestock. 
A species of parasitic fly, the New World screwworm, spread to Mexico late last year after decades of efforts by the United States to keep the pest out of North America. The adult screwworm lays its eggs in the wounds or other openings (eyes, nostrils, etc) of warm-blooded animals like cattle, other livestock, and sometimes even humans, and consumes their flesh, leading to severe tissue damage or even death – the most recent Mexican outbreak has seen at least <a href="https://mexicobusiness.news/health/news/mexico-confirms-eight-screwworm-myiasis-cases#:~:text=Mexico%20confirms%20eight%20cases%20of,often%20causing%20significant%20tissue%20damage.">eight cases</a> of human infections. They wreak havoc on livestock, in particular – a screwworm infestation can kill a cow in a matter of days. 
On May 11, immediately after the outbreaks were detected, the Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread">suspended</a> live cattle, horse, and bison imports through America&#8217;s ports of entry along the southern border with Mexico. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has repeatedly said the screwworm <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread?utm_source=chatgpt.com">poses</a> a serious threat “to our livestock industry, our economy, and our food supply chain.” 
After implementing those restrictions, the Department of Agriculture announced its next step to eradicate the screwworm: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fly-factory-texas-flesheating-screwworm-cattle-5eb62edc42bcfce40cdbea27b5f8b60c">breed billions of flies</a>, sterilize them, and release them into Mexico and southern Texas. Female screwworms only mate once, so flooding an area with sterilized males is an effective way to prevent wild flies from reproducing. The United States has already done this once – the New World screwworm’s historic range extended into much of North America before it was systematically <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fly-factory-texas-flesheating-screwworm-cattle-5eb62edc42bcfce40cdbea27b5f8b60c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eradicated</a> decades ago – and this method is said to be much safer, more effective, and more environmentally friendly than spraying the pests. 
The Department of Agriculture is also <a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread">monitoring</a> Mexico’s animal health controls and improving surveillance and detection of screwworm, including providing traps, lures, and technical expertise to Mexico, among other measures.  In a press release issued on June 30, the department said it&#8217;s now consistently conducting sterile fly dispersal, releasing more than 100 million flies each week. They also have teams working with Mexico to observe this and say they’ve not seen “a notable increase in reported screwworm cases in Mexico, nor any northward movement of the pest over the past eight weeks.” 
However, 19 different cattle groups <a href="https://www.r-calfusa.com/19-cattle-groups-urge-usda-to-maintain-ban-on-mexican-livestock-imports-amid-screwworm-threats/">sent a letter </a>to Rollins, urging the USDA to keep the ban on Mexican imports in place, as they claim this risk still persists.

MRN 7.10.25 Seg Head 3

Morning Brief: Epstein Threatens To Derail Bondi, SCOTUS Hands Trump A Win. Meanwhile, In Mexico …

Morning Brief: Epstein Threatens To Derail Bondi, SCOTUS Hands Trump A Win. Meanwhile, In Mexico ...

brooke rollins

Media

Morning Wire

SCOTUS

This month, America commemorates the 100th anniversary of a landmark cultural event that taught us about the dangers of censorship. July of 1925 witnessed the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” where a Dayton, Tennessee, public school teacher was put on trial for violating a state law that prohibited teaching human evolution.
The teaching of scientific ideas should never be banned, much less criminalized. We like to think of censorship as something from the dark ages of the past, before our modern enlightened era vanquished intellectual intolerance. But 100 years after Scopes, we have what the late Supreme Court Justice Scalia once called “Scopes-in-reverse,” where scientists and scholars face reprisals if they challenge neo-Darwinian evolution.
For about 20 years I’ve been collecting examples of academic speech codes that prevent faculty from discussing scientific alternatives to Darwin. For example:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Back in 2005, Cornell’s interim president devoted a State of the University Address <a href="https://president.cornell.edu/the-presidency/archives/rawlings/20051021-state-of-the-university-address/">to denounce</a> &#8220;intelligent design (ID),&#8221; arguing that it has no place in science classrooms. &#8220;The answer is that intelligent design is not valid as science, that is, it has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing&#8230;&#8221;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Also in 2005, the president of the University of Idaho instituted a campus-wide <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/2008/10/banned_book_week_and_intellige_2/">speech-code</a>, where “evolution” was “the only curriculum that is appropriate” for science classes. This was done in retaliation against biology professor Scott Minnich, who had just testified in favor of intelligent design at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial — a case which ultimately banned ID from public schools in Dover, PA.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago evolutionary biologist and atheist blogger, <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/2011/03/jerry_coyne/">once wrote</a> that “adherence to ID…should be absolute grounds for not hiring a science professor.” In 2013, Coyne attacked Eric Hedin, a physics professor at Ball State University (BSU), for briefly teaching about ID in an honors seminar. BSU’s president then caved, and issued a speech code declaring that “intelligent design is not appropriate content for science courses.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In 2020, two Norwegian scientists published <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519320302071">a paper</a> in Journal of Theoretical Biology citing the work of leading ID theorists and arguing for “a Design Science.” Facing pressure, the journal’s editors then issued <a href="https://retractionwatch.com/2020/10/15/editors-say-they-wont-retract-intelligent-design-paper-despite-subject-being-not-in-any-way-a-suitable-topic-for-their-journal/">a disclaimer</a> addressing no substantive arguments in the paper but implementing another speech code, announcing: “intelligent design is not in any way a suitable topic for the Journal of Theoretical Biology.”</li>
</ul>
Perhaps the most ironic recent example of evolutionary censorship will take place this month at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, not far down the road from Dayton, as it celebrates a “<a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/evolution/scopes-symposium/">Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial Centennial Symposium</a>.” Co-organized by <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/evolution/">Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Institute</a> and the National Center for Science Education, the symposium includes many credible speakers from science, philosophy, and law. Intelligent design is on the schedule, and there is an entire session devoted to the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. Yet exactly zero pro-ID scientists or scholars are slated for the symposium.
In February, and again in May, I emailed the organizers of the Scopes Symposium, offering to provide names of credible pro-ID scientists who would be open to participating in their event. No one even replied.
The irony is palpable: a symposium that is supposed to be remembering the dangers of censorship regarding evolution is itself practicing censorship regarding evolution.
An even worse irony is that Vanderbilt’s website hosts an official <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/dialogue-vanderbilt/free-expression/">“Dialogue Vanderbilt” / “Commitment to Free Expression”</a> page which boasts of the university’s supposed commitment to “bringing together people of differing viewpoints for a common purpose.” The page continues:
<blockquote>Transformative education, pathbreaking research and the timeless search for truth all require a wide variety of viewpoints, the uninhibited exchange of ideas, the persistent challenging of conventional wisdom, and courageous and vigorous debate.
A university that dutifully transmits canonical knowledge, but is not at the same time alive with diverse perspectives, probing critique and the practice of query and argument, is a university in name only.</blockquote>
The page then lauds the importance of “institutional neutrality,” quoting former Vanderbilt Chancellor Alexander Heard stating: “A university&#8217;s obligation is not to protect students from ideas, but rather to expose them to ideas, and to help make them capable of handling and, hopefully, having ideas.”
The one-sided Scopes Symposium completely rejects these ideals, aiming to “protect” students from non-Darwinian viewpoints — directly violating the Chancellor Heard’s warning. By Vanderbilt’s own standards, apparently it is “a university in name only.”
A century ago, religious fundamentalists excluded evolution from education. Yet today, evolution advocates do the same to intelligent design. Vanderbilt’s Scopes symposium is just the latest reminder that in our modern era of “Scopes-in-reverse,” the power dynamic has shifted 180 degrees, but the problem of censorship still remains.
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Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg and a law degree from the University of San Diego. He is Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute and co-author of the book &#8220;Science and Human Origins.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

William Jennings Bryan At Scopes Trial

A Century After The Scopes Trial, Censorship Still Thrives In Evolution Debate

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Charles Darwin

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Vanderbilt University

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Tuesday for President Donald Trump to resume his plans to cut the federal workforce and restructure agencies, a key promise he made on the campaign trail to hack away at the size of the federal government.
The justices lifted San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Susan Illston&#8217;s May 22 order that had blocked large-scale federal layoffs called &#8220;reductions in force&#8221; affecting potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs, while litigation in the case proceeds.
Trump in February announced &#8220;a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy&#8221; in an executive order directing agencies to prepare for a government overhaul aimed at significantly reducing the federal workforce and gutting offices and programs opposed by the administration.
Workforce reductions were planned at the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and more than a dozen other agencies.
The Supreme Court, in a brief unsigned order, said Trump&#8217;s administration was &#8220;likely to succeed on its argument that the executive order&#8221; and a memorandum implementing his order were lawful. The court said it was not assessing the legality of any specific plans for layoffs at federal agencies.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole member of the nine-person court to publicly dissent from the decision. Jackson wrote that Illston&#8217;s &#8220;temporary, practical, harm-reducing preservation of the status quo was no match for this court&#8217;s demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this president’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.&#8221;
Illston wrote in her ruling that Trump had exceeded his authority in ordering the downsizing, siding with a group of unions, non-profits, and local governments that challenged the administration.
&#8220;As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,&#8221; Illston wrote.
The judge blocked the agencies from carrying out mass layoffs and limited their ability to cut or overhaul federal programs. Illston also ordered the reinstatement of workers who had lost their jobs, though she delayed implementing this portion of her ruling while the appeals process plays out.
Illston&#8217;s ruling was the broadest of its kind against the government overhaul being pursued by Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, a key player in the Republican president&#8217;s drive to slash the federal workforce.
Formerly spearheaded by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, DOGE has sought to eliminate federal jobs, shrink and reshape the U.S. government, and root out wasteful spending and fraud. Musk formally ended his government work on May 30 and subsequently had a public falling out with Trump.
The Left-leaning San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling on May 30, denied the administration&#8217;s request to halt the judge&#8217;s ruling.
The 9th Circuit said the administration had not shown that it would suffer an irreparable injury if the judge&#8217;s order remained in place and that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in their lawsuit.
&#8220;The executive order at issue here far exceeds the president&#8217;s supervisory powers under the Constitution,&#8221; the 9th Circuit wrote, calling the administration&#8217;s actions &#8220;an unprecedented attempted restructuring of the federal government and its operations.&#8221;
The 9th Circuit&#8217;s ruling prompted the Justice Department&#8217;s June 2 emergency request to the Supreme Court to halt Illston&#8217;s order.
Controlling the personnel of federal agencies &#8220;lies at the heartland&#8221; of the president&#8217;s executive branch authority, the Justice Department said in its filing to the Supreme Court.
&#8220;The Constitution does not erect a presumption against presidential control of agency staffing, and the president does not need special permission from Congress to exercise core Article II powers,&#8221; the filing said, referring to the constitution&#8217;s section delineating presidential authority.
The plaintiffs urged the Supreme Court to deny the Justice Department&#8217;s request. Allowing the Trump administration to move forward with its &#8220;breakneck reorganization,&#8221; they wrote, would mean that &#8220;programs, offices and functions across the federal government will be abolished, agencies will be radically downsized from what Congress authorized, critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will lose their jobs.&#8221;
The Supreme Court in recent months has sided with Trump in some major cases that were acted upon on an emergency basis since he returned to office in January.
It cleared the way for Trump&#8217;s administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own. In two cases, it let the administration end temporary legal status previously granted on humanitarian grounds to hundreds of thousands of migrants.
It also allowed Trump to implement his ban on trans-identifying people in the U.S. military, blocked a judge&#8217;s order for the administration to rehire thousands of fired employees, and twice sided with his Department of Government Efficiency.
In addition, the court curbed the power of federal judges to impose nationwide rulings impeding presidential policies.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

Trump Wins At SCOTUS Again: Court Says Admin Can Resume Mass Layoffs Of Federal Workers

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

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There’s been a great deal of talk about the Trump vs. CASA decision at the Supreme Court. This, as you know, is the decision that put restrictions on universal injunctions against Trump administration policies issued by federal judge James Boasberg while Boasberg was wearing a cardboard Burger King crown and spinning around the room with his black robe flung out as if it were a pair of wings and simultaneously singing, “Look at me, mother. I am the ruler of the universe. Everyone look at me.” The court decided six to three along ideological lines that Boasberg should not only quit with the injunctions but also possibly see a mental health professional or at least turn down the volume in order to stop disturbing the neighbors. Boasberg responded to the decision by sitting curled up in a corner and sucking his thumb while still wearing the Burger King crown and muttering, “I don’t care what they say. I’m the ruler of everybody,” but in a much softer voice so the Supreme Court wouldn’t hear him and take his cardboard crown away and make him go to bed early.
The court’s decision was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and much of the media attention focused on Barrett’s comments about a dissenting opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Many felt that Barrett’s response to Jackson’s dissent was derogatory, disdainful, humiliating, sardonic, mocking, derisive, sarcastic, belittling, disparaging, denigrating, contemptuous, taunting and even humiliating — and I know I already said that, but it was so derogatory it was actually humiliating twice, and possibly vice versa.
Now part of the reaction to Barrett’s comments might have arisen from the fact that, during her confirmation hearing, Barrett answered questions with so much precision and expertise that it gave the impression that she’s a highly intelligent woman and also kind of hot in a wonk-girl Catholic mom sort of way, whereas at her confirmation hearing, Ketanji Jackson couldn’t even say what a woman is, giving the impression that she was a DEI hire, selected because she’s a black woman without taking into account the fact that she’s also a functional idiot.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
But here at the Andrew Klavan show, we feel we should take Justice Jackson’s dissent seriously because, you know, that would be funnier. So after spending a great many minutes reading the dissent in depth… I’m not sure exactly how many minutes, but it was a lot. Maybe ten even. I lost count around six or seven. But anyway, after spending a great many minutes studying Justice Jackson’s dissent, I have some important observations.
Jackson dissents to the court&#8217;s decision on the grounds that it hides behind a “smokescreen” of “legalese,” by comparing the issues involved in the case to legal precedents in American and English jurisprudence. Instead of this process, sometimes known as “applying the law,” or “judging,” Jackson proposes a different standard called the “sassy black woman” test. In this test, also known as the “Jasmine Crockett standard,” all court decisions and other forms of reasoned discourse must be able to withstand a black woman putting her fist against one upraised hip and saying completely incomprehensible things in an aggressive sing-song voice while leaving the g’s off the endings of her words and using foul language to declare herself entitled to be heard despite the fact that she’s obviously a functional idiot. Furthermore, if said sassy black woman ends said tirade with the words “full stop,” any disagreement will immediately be deemed racist even if it can be shown that it’s not her skin color that’s at issue but only her functional idiocy.
Justice Jackson also writes in her dissent — and this is a real quote, “A Martian arriving here from another planet would see these circumstances and surely wonder: ‘what good is the Constitution?’” This, of course, is a reference to the famous Martian clause in the founding documents of Planet Zeebeegununu in the Ratchet and Clank Solana Galaxy, which declares that the opinions of fictional extraterrestrials should be given priority, because, honey-child, these space aliens are way smarter than a fool like you, full stop. 
All in all, I think we can agree that the Jackson dissent is a mind-bogglingly deep dissent, if you spell dissent d-e-s-c-e-n-t.
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This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins). Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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