The Patriot Post® · Friday: Below the Fold

• RFK confirmed as HHS secretary: “For 20 years, I got down every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I can end childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country. On August 23 of last year, God sent me President Trump.” So said¹ Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ended his quixotic presidential campaign that day and endorsed Donald Trump, and who yesterday was narrowly confirmed by the full Senate as Health and Human Services secretary. Kennedy’s appointment will likely have huge consequences for the health and well-being of the American people, and Trump immediately announced² the formation of the Make America Healthy Again commission, which Kennedy will chair and which will investigate and address “the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with an initial focus on childhood chronic diseases.”

• Federal pink slips begin: Thousands of federal employees are beginning to receive their walking papers as Donald Trump presses forward on his agenda to downsize the government. Those likely to get cut soon include some 280,000 workers³ who were hired within the last two years and are within the probationary period, making it easier to lay them off. Some of these layoffs will be tied to Trump’s ending of DEI programs within the federal government; however, as DOGE uncovers more waste, it is targeting areas within executive agencies for downsizing. With the current federal government civilian workforce numbering some 2.3 million and the national debt ballooning to $36 trillion, cutting spending⁴ is necessary.

• Trump fires USAID IG who ignored fraud and waste: Firing inspectors general seems a bit sketchy on its face, given that these are supposed to be impartial officers and guardians of the public trust. But there are exceptions. One such exception, it seems, would be the defenestration⁵ of USAID Inspector General Paul Martin, whom White House Office of Presidential Personnel Deputy Director Trent Morse “terminated, effective immediately” via email on Tuesday evening. No reason was given for giving Martin the gate, but the appalling waste and abuse uncovered within the agency by DOGE is surely reason enough. Otherwise, what’s an inspector general for? As it turns out, USAID was funding⁶ the Leftmedia and bankrolling all manner⁷ of perverse causes. To Martin we say: Good riddance.

• Foreign aid freeze unfrozen: U.S. District Judge Amir Ali has ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze funding from USAID⁸ for foreign aid in response to a lawsuit raised by two health organizations. The Washington, DC, judge questioned the rationale behind the “blanket suspension” of funds as the Trump administration conducts reviews of each USAID program. Meanwhile, earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a letter to lawmakers informing them that USAID could be completely shuttered after reorganization in the coming days.

• Federal judge wants mutilated kids: All Donald Trump wanted to do was protect children from surgical mutilation and chemical castration, but no good deed goes unpunished by leftist judges. A lone U.S. district judge on Thursday blocked⁹ Trump’s executive orders meant to stop the aforementioned abuse by granting a 14-day restraining order after a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision, which might ultimately end up at the Supreme Court. So-called gender-affirming care is a cash cow for many hospital systems, and at least one of them — a health system affiliated with the University of Virginia — got right back into business upon learning of the judge’s ruling. Without even a hint of irony, the pro-mutilation judge, Brendan Hurson, said that stopping the mutilation would be “horribly dangerous.” What’s horribly dangerous is the Left’s continued nourishment of this gruesome cult.

• HHS splurges and loses migrant kids: From 2020 to 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services massively increased grants to migrants for the purchase of houses, cars, and starting businesses. According to a report from watchdog OpenTheBooks, Joe Biden’s HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) spent a whopping $22.6 billion in taxpayer funding on this program. To justify the spending, ORR massively increased the number of eligible migrants, with the Biden administration handing out over $10 billion in grants in 2023 alone. At the same time, the ORR, whose job it is to keep tabs on these migrants, lost track of 32,000 migrant children. OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart observed¹⁰, “Vast sums are being outsourced to evade accountability and prop up an immoral, exploitive system that is hurtful to both American citizens and people in other countries who are longing for a better life.”

• Biden EPA funneled $20 billion to friendlies at 11th hour: It’s understandable if you’ve become somewhat numb to the rampant fraud, waste, and abuse that Elon Musk’s DOGE team has uncovered of late, but this one stands out. As Trump EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a YouTube video¹¹: “An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day.” These weren’t literal gold bars, of course. Only disgraced former Democrat Senator Bob Menendez gets those. What they were, as Zeldin notes, is roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars, and they were being doled out to eight favored leftist entities by a Biden administration that knew it had been repudiated at the ballot box but just didn’t care.

• WH again blocks AP over Gulf of America: The Associated Press finds itself in a Mexican standoff with the White House over its refusal to use Donald Trump’s official name change¹² for the Gulf of America. As a result, AP reporters have not been admitted to open press conferences at the White House. That’s “deeply troubling,” complained AP Executive Editor Julie Pace, and “an incredible disservice to the billions of people who rely on The Associated Press for nonpartisan news.” The White House Correspondents Association agreed, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back, noting, “It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.”

Headlines

• Trump agriculture pick Brooke Rollins confirmed (Fox News¹³)

• The new DOGE site is up and running (Townhall¹⁴)

• Trump announces reciprocal tariffs on allies, competitors to address “unfair trade practices” (Washington Free Beacon¹⁵)

• Illegal border crossings hit record lows after Trump’s swift crackdown (NY Post¹⁶)

• AOC webinar teaches illegal immigrants how to avoid deportation (National Review¹⁷)

• Egypt reportedly plans to fund Gaza rebuild with Arab-led nations, countering Trump's proposal (Daily Wire¹⁸)

• Humor: Congressional Democrats announce new oversight committee to oversee government oversight committee (Babylon Bee¹⁹)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here²⁰.