Category: Politics

Food dye and ADHD: FDA commissioner says listen to parents | The Conversation

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FDA’s Makary on ‘male-dominated’ culture of medical research | The Conversation

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All modern U.S. presidents, both Republican and Democratic, have attempted to reduce the population of millions of undocumented immigrants. But their various strategies have not had significant results, with the population hovering around 11 million from 2005 to 2022.

President Donald Trump seeks to change that.

With harsh rhetoric that has sowed fear in immigrant communities, and policies that ignore immigrants’ due process rights, Trump has pursued deportation tactics that differ dramatically from those of any other modern U.S. president.

As a scholar who examines the history of U.S. immigration law and enforcement, I believe that it remains far from clear whether the Trump White House will significantly reduce the undocumented population. But even if the administration’s efforts fail, the fear and damage to the U.S. immigrant community will remain.

Presidents Bush and Obama

To increase deportations, in 2006 President George W. Bush began using workplace raids. Among these sweeps was the then-largest immigration workplace operation in U.S. history at a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa in 2008.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployed 900 agents in Postville and arrested 398 employees, 98% of whom were Latino. They were chained together and arraigned in groups of 10 for felony criminal charges of aggravated identity theft, document fraud and use of stolen Social Security numbers. Some 300 were convicted, and 297 of them served jail sentences before being deported.

In 2008, Bush also initiated Secure Communities, a policy that sought to deport noncitizens – both lawful permanent residents as well as undocumented immigrants – who had been arrested for crimes. Some 2 million immigrants were deported during Bush’s two terms in office.

The Obama administration limited Secure Communities to focus on the removal of noncitizens convicted of felonies. It deported a record 400,000 noncitizens in fiscal year 2013, which led detractors to refer to President Barack Obama as the “Deporter in Chief.”

Obama also targeted recent entrants and national security threats and pursued criminal prosecutions for illegal reentry to the U.S. Almost all of these policies built on Bush’s, although Obama virtually abandoned workplace raids.

Despite these enforcement measures, Obama also initiated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2012. The policy provided relief from deportation and gave work authorization to more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

Obama deported about 3 million noncitizens, but the size of the undocumented population did not decrease dramatically.

The first Trump administration and Biden

Trump’s first administration broke new immigration enforcement ground in several ways.

He began his presidency by issuing what was called a “Muslim ban” to restrict the entry into the U.S. of noncitizens from predominantly Muslim nations.

Early in Trump’s first administration, federal agents expanded immigration operations to include raids at courthouses, which previously had been off-limits.

In 2017, Trump tried to rescind DACA, but the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s effort in 2020.

In 2019, Trump implemented the Remain in Mexico policy that for the first time forced noncitizens who came to the U.S. border seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims were being decided. He also invoked Title 42 in 2020 to close U.S. borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump succeeded in reducing legal immigration numbers during his first term. However, there is no evidence that his enforcement policies reduced the size of the overall undocumented population.

President Joe Biden sought to relax – although not abandon – some immigration enforcement measures implemented during Trump’s first term.

His administration slowed construction of the border wall championed by Trump. Biden also stopped workplace raids in 2021, and in 2023, he ended Title 42.

In 2023, Biden sought to respond to migration surges in a measured fashion, by temporarily closing ports of entry and increasing arrests.

In attempting to enforce the borders, his administration at times pursued tough measures. Biden continued deportation efforts directed at criminal noncitizens. Immigrant rights groups criticized his administration when armed Border Patrol officers on horseback were videotaped chasing Haitian migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

As of 2022, the middle of the Biden’s term, an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants lived in the U.S.

A second chance

Since his second inauguration, Trump has pursued a mass deportation campaign through executive orders that are unprecedented in their scope.

In January 2025, he announced an expanded, expedited removal process for any noncitizen apprehended anywhere in the country – not just the border region, as had been U.S. practice since 1996.

In March, Trump issued a presidential proclamation to deport Venezuelan nationals who were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. In doing so, he invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 – an act used three times in U.S. history during declared wars that empowers presidents to remove foreign nationals from countries at war with the U.S.

Declaring an “invasion” of migrants into the U.S. in June, Trump deployed the military to assist in immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

Trump also sought to dramatically upend birthright citizenship, the Constitutional provision that guarantees citizenship to any person born in the U.S. He issued an executive order in January that would bar citizenship to people born in the U.S. to undocumented parents.

The birthright executive order has been challenged in federal court and is mostly likely working its way up to the Supreme Court.

Under the second Trump administration, immigration arrests are up, but actual deportation numbers are in flux.

ICE in June arrested the most people in a month in at least five years, roughly 30,000 immigrants. But deportations of noncitizens – roughly 18,000 – lagged behind those during the Obama administration’s record-setting year of 2013 in which more than 400,000 noncitizens were deported.

The gap between arrests and deportations shows the challenges the Trump administration faces in making good on his promised mass deportation campaign.

Undocumented immigrants often come to the U.S. to work or seek safety from natural disasters and mass violence.

These issues have not been seriously addressed by any modern U.S. president. Until it is, we can expect the undocumented population to remain in the millions.

Kevin Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

​Politics + Society – The Conversation

White House struggles to shake off Epstein files storm | The Conversation

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Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez launched her gubernatorial bid on Friday, making her the first entrant into what’s expected to be a crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Gov. Tony Evers.

In her announcement video, Rodriguez, a former emergency room nurse and state legislator, pledged to work to expand Medicaid and give public school teachers a pay raise if elected.

“We’ve got a maniac in the White House. His tariffs are killing our farmers and his policies are hurting our kids. Next, our legislature refuses to expand Medicaid, even though 41 other states have done it,” Rodriguez said in the video. “With a Democratic governor, we can finally expand Medicaid and boost our healthcare workforce, strengthen our farms, unions, and small businesses, fund our public schools, and give teachers the raise they’ve earned. That’s the right path.”

Rodriguez’s launch video focused on biographical details, including her path from emergency room nurse, to health care executive, to state lawmaker.

Evers, who announced his retirement Thursday, unseated Republican Scott Walker in 2018 and won reelection in 2022. But the state remains a battleground, providing President Donald Trump his narrowest victory in 2024.

Wisconsin Democratic operatives listed several other potential primary contenders, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, state Sen. Kelda Roys and Milwaukee Mayor Chevy Johnson.

Republicans also expect a crowded primary. Walker posted a photo on X with a “Make Wisconsin Great Again” hat with “45-47” on the side with the comment: “Interesting.” Walker served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) has also suggested he’s interested in a run. Business executive Bill Berrien is already running.

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FDA commissioner Marty Makary defends Vinay Prasad | The Conversation

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President Donald Trump signed the wide-ranging One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025. It focuses on cutting taxes, mainly for households that earn US$217,000 or more each year, as well as increasing funding for military and border security and revamping social programs.

Republicans tout it as providing “an economic lifeline for working families” and “laying a key cornerstone of America’s new golden age.”

Democrat lawmakers argue that, in reality, Trump’s act “steals from the poor to give to the ultra-rich.”

The act is estimated to increase the country’s debt by more than US$3 trillion over 10 years, while knocking more than 10 million people off Medicaid.

About 41.4 million adults in the U.S. receive Medicaid. And 49% of Medicaid recipients who voted in the 2024 election backed Trump.

While 94% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said in a May 2025 survey that they are worried Medicaid cuts will lead to more adults and children losing their health insurance, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents expressed concern about this, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll.

Why, then, do Trump’s Make America Great Again supporters – especially those who will be hit hard by cuts to food assistance programs and health care, including hospitals – continue to support him even as he enacts policies that some think go against their interests? Indeed, over 78% of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters say they support the measure Trump signed.

As an anthropologist who studies MAGA and American political culture, I understand that many of the MAGA faithful believe that Trump is a once-in-a-lifetime leader who is catapulting the U.S. into a new golden age.

Sure, their reasoning goes, bumps in the road are expected. But they think that most of the criticism of Trump and this latest bill is ultimately fake news spread by radical leftists who have what some call Trump Derangement Syndrome, meaning anti-Trump hysteria.

Trump alone can fix it

In the eyes of the MAGA faithful, Trump is no ordinary politician. To them, he is a savior who can help ward off the threat of radical left socialism. They believe Trump’s proclamation: “I alone can fix it.”

Some see Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024, as evidence he is divinely chosen to lead the country. Trump himself claimed during his second inaugural address, “I was saved by God to make America great again.”

As I have repeatedly observed firsthand at Trump rallies and MAGA gatherings and heard in my conversations with Trump supporters, many Trump supporters – even those whom Democrats contend will be hurt by the bill – see the bill as a key step to making America great again. Doing so will not be easy and may cause some pain.

But as Trump himself has noted about policies such as tariffs, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

‘Fake news!’

Even if the bill may cause some short-term pain, MAGA stalwarts contend, the apocalyptic claims of critics of massive health cuts are hoaxes spread by the radical left media. White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, for example, dubbed the Medicare cut claims “a big fake news story.”

This view, based on my research and observations, is unsurprising. Trump has been pushing the “fake news conspiracy” theory, which holds that the media is part of the deep state, since his first term. He even dubbed the press “the enemy of the people.”

Trump’s fake news rhetorical strategy has been successful in helping him maintain support. Trump supporters take it for granted that negative news coverage of the president is most likely fake news.

The Trump administration frequently invokes this conspiracy theory, including statements with headlines like “100 Days of HOAXES: Cutting Through the Fake News.”

The White House is taking the same approach with the new legislation. In June 2025, the Trump administration issued a statement stating “Myth vs. Fact: The One Big Beautiful Bill” and “MYTHBUSTER: The One Big Beautiful Bill Cuts Spending, Deficit – and That’s a Fact.”

There is already evidence that this depiction is resonating in places such as rural Nebraska, where many residents do not blame Trump for a health clinic that claims it is shutting down due to Medicaid cuts. “Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” said one woman of the clinic’s closure.

‘Crushing it’ in the Golden Age

More broadly, the MAGA faithful contend, the bill’s critics miss the bigger picture. For the most part, Trump has been “crushing it” while putting “‘W’ after ‘W’ on the board.”

From their perspective, Trump has assembled an all-star Cabinet team that is implementing key pillars of the MAGA agenda, such as restricting immigration, blocking unfair trade and avoiding drawn-out wars.

Trump supporters underscore the president’s accomplishments on immigration. Attempted unauthorized border crossings of migrants have plummeted in 2025, amid a rise in arrests of immigrants.

“Our message is clear,” stated Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

Gas prices are also down. Trump has followed through on his pledge to supporters to purge what he calls the deep state, by downsizing or gutting entire government departments and agencies.

Trump has clamped down on woke universities that brainwash students, as MAGA supporters see it.

He withheld funding from the University of Pennsylvania until it agreed to ban transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams. Trump also cut $400 million in funding for Columbia University because the administration said it did not sufficiently protect Jewish students from harassment during Palestinian rights protests.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in July for his diplomatic work in the Middle East.

Recounting Trump’s foreign policy achievements, one conservative commentator gushed that Trump “promised we would win so much we’d get tired of winning. Instead, the wins keep coming – and America isn’t tired at all.”

Trumpism = Trump

Yet, Trump faces challenges.

A June 2025 KFF Health Tracking Poll found that support for the new legislation decreased when people were informed about its negative health care impact, for example.

Republicans could also face backlash in 2028 after the full impact of the act takes effect and people lose health insurance and other public benefits.

Regardless, I believe MAGA faithful will likely continue to support Trump.

They may argue over parts of his bill, the airstrikes on Iran or the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

But, in the end, they will circle the wagons around Trump for a simple reason. Trump created the MAGA movement. He dominates the Republican Party. And there is no Trumpism without Trump.

Alex Hinton receives receives funding from the Rutgers-Newark Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America, Rutgers Research Council, and Henry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.

​Politics + Society – The Conversation

After a two-year break, “South Park” returned to TV on Wednesday night with an explosive episode aimed squarely at Donald Trump that depicted the president in bed with Satan and referenced Jeffrey Epstein.

The start of the new season of “South Park” was delayed by several weeks while the Paramount network secured a deal worth $1.5 billion with the show’s creators for the streaming rights. Paramount is the owner of CBS, which has been firmly in Trump’s crosshairs.

The episode features Trump arguing with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who complains about tariffs on Canada and says: “What are you, some kind of dictator from the Middle East?” After confusing Iran and Iraq, the “South Park” version of Trump tells Carney to “relax.”

Trump is also depicted lining the walls of the White House with naked pictures of himself. In another scene, Trump jumps into bed with Satan, who rejects his sexual advances and comments on the size of his penis.

Satan later confronts Trump about his name appearing on the “Epstein list” and adds: “It’s weird that whenever it comes up, you just tell everyone to relax.”

The satirical animated show also referenced Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount (Trump reached a $16 million settlement with Paramount Global, the parent of CBS News, over what he claimed was misleading editing of a pre-election interview with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on the show “60 Minutes”).

Days after that settlement, Paramount canceled “The Late Show” hosted by Stephen Colbert, in what it said was “purely a financial decision” and not because of performance or content. Colbert is a frequent critic of Trump.

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President Donald Trump is backing Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters to chair the Republican National Committee and replace Michael Whatley as he runs for Senate in North Carolina.

Trump announced his support Thursday in a Truth Social post about Whatley, who is expected to publicly announce his Senate candidacy in the coming days.

“Fortunately, I have somebody who will do a wonderful job as the Chairman of the RNC,” he wrote. “His name is, Joe Gruters, and he will have my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

The 48-year-old Florida lawmaker is the RNC treasurer and previously served as chair of the Florida Republican Party. Gruters had been expected to run to be the state’s chief financial officer against an ally backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The governor had opposed his candidacy. “Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do,” DeSantis said earlier this month.

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FDA Commissioner has ‘no preconceived plans’ for abortion pill policies | The Conversation

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