Trump Screws Over Millions With Order on Student Loan Forgiveness

Donald Trump is continuing to crack down on free speech by threatening to revoke a program that forgives the student loans of federal and non-profit employees, teachers, police, and pastors, among others.

Trump signed an executive order Friday barring individuals who engaged in “improper” activities from receiving relief under the government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a Bush-era policy that cancels student loans after 10 years of payments.

This move is clearly intended to have a chilling effect on the work of non-profits, which operate in some of the policy spaces most affected by Trump’s agenda, such as immigration. Under Trump’s order, loan forgiveness could be stripped away from individuals who provide legal support, advocacy, or education work on behalf of undocumented immigrants.

In addition to targeting work on illegal immigration, the White House said that the order would exclude individuals whose work had been tied to foreign terrorist groups. This is a clear sign they intend to continue cracking down on pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism.

The Trump administration previously threatened to revoke federal funding from any schools that allow large protests, and on Thursday announced it would cancel $400 million in grants to Columbia University for “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Meanwhile, earlier this week, the university once again sicced police officers on its own peaceful student protesters, and has begun investigating students over speech critical of Israel.

As of December, more than two million Americans had eligible employment and open student loans, according to the Associated Press. While only a small percentage of claims are eligible for relief through PSLF, the work of hundreds of groups may be affected by Trump’s order.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, wrote on X Friday that Trump’s order was “shockingly unlawful and a clear First Amendment violation.”

“The PSLF program provides the president no authority to restrict it to only those people who work for nonprofits whose work he supports,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote. “Expect lawsuits within short periods of time.”

DropSite News’s Ryan Grim sarcastically quipped that he’d heard from the Supreme Court that “the president can’t change the terms of student loans,” a dig at the high court blocking President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts.

The Trump administration is canceling $400 million in grants to Columbia University over what it says is “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

In reality, the president is clamping down on pro-Palestine protests that began in late 2023, when Israel responded to Hamas’s attack on the country with a brutal military campaign that human rights organizations have called genocide. Columbia had some of the highest profile protests of any American college campus at the time, setting up an encampment and briefly occupying a university building.

On Thursday, the administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of staffers from the Justice Department, Health and Human Services Department, Education Department, and the General Services Administration, told Columbia that it would soon be conducting a “comprehensive review” of their federal grants and contracts. That review seems to have taken all of one day.

In a statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon implied that Columbia did not comply with federal laws against discrimination.

“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” the statement read. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

Left out of the statement was the fact that the university is facing a lawsuit from three students alleging civil rights violations, breach of contract, negligence, unlawful eviction, and other Title VI violations over Columbia’s harsh crackdown on pro-Palestine student protesters.

In recent months, the university’s new disciplinary committee, the Office of Institutional Equity, has brought several cases of discriminatory harassment against students who expressed criticism of Israel. “Infractions” include writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel, sharing social media posts supporting the Palestinian people, or joining “unauthorized protests.”

These actions appear to have been for naught in the eyes of the Trump administration, which appears to be trying to make an example out of Columbia and suppress criticism of Israel and support for Palestine. Trump is fulfilling a threat he made on Tuesday, when he said in a Truth Social post that “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests” and threatened to deport foreign students who take part in such protests.

The notion of “illegal protests,” particularly in places like colleges and universities which have a long legacy of protesting going back decades, seems to be a massive violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment, and contradicts Trump’s own claim that he “stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.” But Trump has never been consistent on any principles, and seeks to punish anyone who goes against his views.

Donald Trump is desperately trying to solve the country’s egg crisis, and failing.

Amid a record-breaking outbreak of avian flu that’s decimated egg production across the country, the cost of eggs has skyrocketed. Nationwide, a dozen eggs sold for $4.95 on average in January, up from $2.52 last year.

Trump’s solution? To import 70 million–100 million perishable and fragile eggs from other countries within the next month. The plan is as foolproof as it sounds. With a short shelf life, strict trade requirements for animal products, and countries abroad experiencing their own egg shortages due to bird flu, Trump is realizing that importing eggs isn’t easy.

Despite the rise in demand from the United States, there aren’t enough eggs to ship; just 3 percent of the world’s egg supply enters global trade.

“It’s a very local industry. If you want to rebalance the market, you need big volumes. It’s almost impossible, in the short term, to do that,” animal protein expert Nan-Dirk Mulder told Bloomberg.

Some of the world’s top egg-exporting countries have received egg-import requests from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bloomberg reported.

But Poland faces health certification barriers for selling eggs in U.S. retail stores. Last month, the U.S. pulled import licenses for eggs from the Netherlands—the world’s top egg exporter—due to industry practice concerns, but Trump plans to reinstate the license in a desperate bid to get Americans their eggs.

As usual, the president and his cronies are blaming Democrats, not the disease that’s killed more than 166 million commercial birds and devastated farms across the country.

“This shows the price of eggs over the last 40 years,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in an interview with Fox News, while pointing to a graph. “As you can see, the price was pretty static for 40 years, 50 years actually, and then all of a sudden under Obama it went up a little bit, Trump went down, and then Biden it has skyrocketed.”

Amid the excuses, consumers, retailers, and farmers continue to pay the price.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alongside other miffed agency heads,  laid into billionaire bureaucrat Elon Musk during Thursday’s meeting of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, according to The New York Times. 

During the meeting, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency complained that Rubio had fired “nobody,” despite the sweeping government layoffs recommended by his organization.  

The secretary of state, who was already seething after Musk had axed USAID, an agency within Rubio’s purview, unleashed onto Musk in front of the president’s entire Cabinet. 

Rubio claimed that Musk was lying, conveniently forgetting the 1,500 officials who had taken the government’s offer for deferred resignation. Rubio even asked whether Musk wanted him to hire all of them back, just so he could fire them in a more outrageous fashion, according to the Times. Rubio then tried to lay out his plans to reorganize his agency, which didn’t impress the DOGE czar, either. 

Musk remarked that it was a good thing Rubio was so “good on TV.” 

In the end, Trump defended Rubio, who he said was doing a “great job” and was incredibly busy implementing Trump’s agenda. 

About 700 State Department employees, including 450 career diplomats, have resigned in the last two months. The Times reported Friday that senior officials at the State Department have drawn up plans to close a dozen consulates overseas by the summer, and are considering wider shutdowns—a move that will likely undermine U.S. soft power around the world. 

Rubio wasn’t the only one who got into it with the DOGE czar. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy also got heated over Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, and accused him of trying to fire air traffic controllers. His accusation comes amid a national shortage of the highly essential workers, and following several high-profile plane crashes. 

Musk said that Duffy’s claim was a “lie,” and the two went back and forth. When Musk demanded names, Duffy said there were none because he had stepped in before the positions could actually be terminated. 

Musk then baselessly claimed that the Federal Aviation Authority had staffed air traffic control towers with so-called DEI hires, which Duffy denied. Trump ended that argument by demanding Duffy hire air traffic controllers who were “geniuses” from MIT, the Times reported. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to launch a study on connections between vaccines and autism, despite extensive research debunking the conspiracy theory.

The move comes weeks after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a long history of opposing vaccination, was confirmed as secretary of health and human services. It’s not clear if he is involved with the decision. Right now, the United States is in the midst of a massive measles outbreak resulting in two deaths and more than 150 infections, and Kennedy’s response has been lackluster.

Kennedy downplayed the first recorded measles death in a decade last week, and since then, has refused to endorse the vaccine and instead touted therapeutic remedies like vitamin A, alarming experts. Last month, on Kennedy’s first day heading the department, the CDC laid off half of its Epidemic Intelligence Service, otherwise known as the “Disease Detectives,” axing 1,260 employees.

This latest move gives in to the conspiracy theory of a link between vaccines and autism, which is fueled by a rise in diagnoses that researchers say is really due to more screenings taking place. In the late 1990s, a now-discredited and debunked British study connected autism to the widespread administration of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.

During his address to Congress on Tuesday, President Trump mentioned the rise in autism among children, tasking Kennedy with finding the cause.

“So, we’re going to find out what it is, and there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you,” Trump said.

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy denied being anti-vaccine, although he refused to acknowledge that there were no proven links between vaccines and autism. And Trump NIH nominee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this week that he “would support a broad scientific agenda based on data to get an answer to” the rise in autism rates. It seems that, in terms of public health, the Trump administration has now adopted the philosophy of “We’re just asking questions.”

Donald Trump threatened sanctions against Russia Friday—before getting right back to blaming Ukraine for the continued fighting there.

Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that he was “strongly considering” placing additional sanctions on Russia, referring to reports that the fighting was still ongoing in Ukraine—which he recently cut off from U.S. military aid and intelligence after clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.

“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote. “To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”

Trump’s feeble first attempt at intimidating Russian President Vladimir Putin into ending the war comes just days after the White House reportedly started making a list of sanctions on Russia that they could lift as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing negotiations to end the invasion of Ukraine. This included lifting sanctions on individuals such as Russian oligarchs, who Trump has insisted are “very nice people.”

Despite his supposedly tougher message to Russia on social media, Trump continued his capitulation to Putin during a press conference, downplaying Russia’s continued aggression toward Ukraine while finding a way to blame Ukraine for the fighting.

When asked whether he thought Putin was “taking advantage” of the pause in U.S. military aid and intelligence to continue the fighting in Ukraine, Trump practically said he agreed with the Russian onslaught.

“I actually think he’s doing what anybody else would do, I think he’s, I think he wants to get it stopped and settled and I think he’s hitting ’em harder than he’s been hitting ’em. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Friday.

“He wants to get it ended, and I think Ukraine wants to get it ended,” Trump said incredulously. “But I don’t see—it’s crazy. They’re taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it.”

Trump’s remarks seemingly take the onus for the continued violence off Russia—and the U.S., which created the opportunity in the first place by undermining Ukraine—and place it back on Zelenskiy, whom Trump wants to paint as uncommitted to ending the fight.

In recent weeks, Trump has piled the pressure onto Zelenskiy while projecting nothing but confidence onto Putin, who is ultimately the aggressor behind Russia’s two-year, full-scale invasion.

During the Friday press conference, Trump also said that he still believes Putin “wants peace,” despite continuing to drop bombs in Ukraine. “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine,” Trump said.

Putin vowed Thursday that Russia would not retreat from the territory it has claimed in Ukraine, and would seek a peace deal that ensured Russia’s security in the future.

In his administration’s latest attack on labor rights, Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced Friday it will end the collective bargaining agreement with workers at the Transportation Security Administration.

“This action will ensure Americans will have a more effective and modernized workforces across the nation’s transportation networks,” the DHS said in a statement. “TSA is renewing its commitment to providing a quick and secure travel process for Americans.”

Around 50,000 people are employed by the TSA and are responsible for keeping air passengers safe across the country. They screen thousands of passengers to prevent weapons and explosives from being brought into airports and aircrafts. Now, without collective bargaining, the administration will likely lose a good chunk of its workforce, putting American travelers at further risk.

The DHS blamed collective bargaining for hindering “merit-based performance recognition” for TSA employees, and said it fails “to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe,” a ridiculous assertion given the job of TSA workers is to do just that—keep Americans safe. Last year, the TSA intercepted over 6,000 firearms from airport security checkpoints.

Ending the agreement is yet another move from Trump that will make flying in the U.S. more chaotic and unsafe. He’s already fired hundreds of crucial employees at the Federal Aviation Administration and pushed out the former administrator of the TSA, David Peskoke.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents over 750,000 federal government employees, slammed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision and defended the thousands of employees who “make sure our skies are safe for air travel” and ensure “another terrorist attack like Sept. 11 never happens again.”

“They gave as a justification a completely fabricated claim about union officials—making clear this action has nothing to do with efficiency, safety, or homeland security,” the AFGE statement reads.

“This is merely a pretext for attacking the rights of regular working Americans across the country because they happen to belong to a union.”

A Trump supporter in Virginia says he is reconsidering his support for the president after he was racially profiled and targeted by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE agents reportedly had their guns drawn as they interrogated and detained Jensy Machado, a Manassas resident, along with two other men he was driving home with after work. Machado told NBC News 4 Thursday night that he was not asked to produce documentation proving that he’s a U.S. citizen.

“They just got out the car with the guns in their hands and said, ‘Turn off the car, give me the keys, open the window,’” Machado told the channel’s sister station, Telemundo 44. “Everything was really fast.”

He said the agents were looking to deport a man who had been reported to reside at Machado’s home residence, but he did not recognize the individual’s name.

“They didn’t ask me for any ID. I was telling the officer if I could give him ID, but he said to keep my hands up, not moving,” Machado, who shared his Real ID-compliant Virginia state driver’s license with the news station, continued. “And then after that he told me to get out of the car, and then he put the handcuffs on me, and then he went to me and asked how I got into this country.

“I told him I was an American citizen, and he looked at his other partner [as if he was saying], ‘Do you believe this guy?’” Machado said.

Machado added that the two men he was with were taken into custody, though he did not know the reason why.

The whole ordeal has made Machado, a naturalized U.S. citizen, question his faith in the president and his immigration policies. He originally believed that the Trump administration would only target undocumented criminals—but now he’s not so sure.

“Because, like I said, I was a Trump supporter,” Machado told NBC. “I voted for Trump last election, but, because I thought it was going to be the things, you know, like … just go against criminals, not every Hispanic-looking, like, that they will assume that we are all illegals.”

The ousted head of human resources at the IRS, Traci DiMartini, is vowing to fight back after she says she was fired for telling IRS employees that agency firings came from the DOGE-controlled Office of Personnel Management.

DiMartini was placed on leave Monday for alleged “ineffective management” of the Trump administration’s mass federal employee purge, as well as “insubordination” toward the Department of Government Efficiency. She says she was fired not only for telling IRS staff where firings were coming from but also because she refused to call employees into the office over the weekend to onboard a DOGE staffer after they were putting in “60–70 hour” workweeks in the midst of tax season.

“They’re trying to politicize human capital,” DiMartini told Government Executive. “They want to be able to hire only loyalists, ignore Title 5 [of the U.S. Code] and commit flagrant prohibited personnel practices. When you look at the Merit Systems Protections Board and what the civil protections are, we’re supposed to have a nonpartisan civil service, and we have been completely whipsawed.”

DiMartini told the publication that she doesn’t plan to return to federal employment but will challenge her dismissal, saying she never faced discipline in 21 years of working in the government.

“It’s my job to stand up and be the buffer between politicals and career employees, and I’m just trying to do my goddamn job,” DiMartini said. “They have no idea who they picked a f—king fight with.”

DOGE has already infiltrated the IRS, seeking access to American taxpayers’ personal data, and Trump even wants to get rid of the agency altogether. But, like the rest of his efforts to overhaul the government, following the law is not one of his concerns.

Yet again, one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded on Thursday night, grounding flights across Florida as fiery debris fell from the sky.

In its eighth test flight, the 400-foot rocket launched from Brownsville, Texas, and exploded shortly after experiencing engine failure upon reaching space and spinning out of control.

The Federal Aviation Administration halted commercial flights at airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, a particularly congested airspace.

“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” SpaceX posted on X.

This is the second consecutive explosion of a SpaceX rocket. On January 16, a rocket failed shortly after launching, also diverting dozens of flights as debris fell from the sky. The incident caused property damage in Turks and Caicos.

“As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

It’s a futile statement coming from the company owned by a man who blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion for making America’s airspace unsafe while he launches exploding rockets into that same airspace.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has fired hundreds of crucial FAA employees and a SpaceX engineer turned DOGE staffer is threatening to fire more if employees don’t comply with SpaceX’s directives. Musk’s infiltration of the FAA blurs yet another line between a federal agency and one of Musk’s private business ventures.

There will no doubt be more victims in the billionaire’s relentless pursuit of the colonization of space.