Friday, July 3, 2026. Chump's greed and corruption are on full display, ICE arrested a nun on her way to church this week, Chump's ordered ICE to ramp up arrests, his failing state fair turns out to be another corrupt fraud, and much more.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and billionaire mogul who died in 2023, is often considered to have set the mold for President Trump
with his mastery of the news media, gilded taste and, above all,
legislative maneuvers that drew accusations of conflicts of interest.
Mr. Berlusconi passed laws that appeared tailor-made to protect and benefit his family’s vast business empire. And his annual earning disclosures showed he had been paid tens of millions of dollars while serving as prime minister.
This week, new financial disclosures
suggested that Mr. Trump has broken that mold by making at least $2.2
billion in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4
billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses.
Mr.
Trump’s profits are a haul once unimaginable for any leader of a
liberal democracy, particularly a sitting American president. No modern
Western leader has ever publicly disclosed such big windfalls while in
office.
The Trump family’s earnings, experts
said, have moved him into an echelon of enrichment more associated with
strongmen in Russia and Turkey.
His
gains were all the more striking because the United States has long
positioned itself as a standard-bearer for financial regulation,
anti-graft measures and the rule of law. Yet his cryptocurrency earnings
highlight an unusually glaring conflict: As president, Mr. Trump
oversees the regulation of an industry that, as a businessman, he also
greatly profits from.
The
typical American has suffered a major decline in wealth since the start
of the decade, even as the United States has continued to create
millionaires at a remarkable pace, according to UBS’ Global Wealth
Report 2026.
UBS found that inflation-adjusted median wealth
per adult in the U.S. fell significantly between 2020 and 2025, while
average wealth per adult increased, underscoring a growing divide
between households in the middle and those at the top of the wealth
ladder.
That's the typical
American. Not the typical crooked American. This isn't Donald Chump,
you understand. He's been grifting like crazy -- so much so that he
took in two billion dollars last year. Two billion dollars. Casey Tolan, Isabelle Chapman and Kevin Liptak (CNN) report:
As
President Donald Trump’s wealth has soared since retaking office, a new
financial disclosure shows his two premier Florida resorts have also
delivered record-breaking surges in revenue – a potent illustration of
how Trump’s personal business and presidential politics overlap.
Trump
has visited the properties, Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral, more
than two dozen times since the beginning of last year, hosting
million-dollar-per-plate fundraising dinners, feting foreign dignitaries
and welcoming GOP galas as industry leaders and political groups have
scrambled to book their own events there as well.
Trump
has also supercharged the money coming from Mar-a-Lago by raising the
membership initiation fee to $1 million shortly before his reelection.
The lavish resort is conducive to impromptu conversations with the
president, who often dines on the patio at night, according to people
familiar with the club.
Some ethics experts
described the confluence of politics and profit as a blatant opportunity
for special interests to get a direct line to Trump.
“People
are going to Mar-a-Lago because they want proximity to the president,”
said Robert Weissman, the co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer
rights advocacy group. “A whisper in the president’s ear is worth an
awful lot – more than what they’re paying to get in the door.”
President Trump’s $2.2 billion in personal earnings
during his presidency has been met largely with silence from his MAGA
base, which has been increasingly willing to revolt against policies
they view as an abandonment of his promises to put everyday Americans
first.
Far-right members of
Congress, prominent media pundits and grass-roots activists have
criticized Mr. Trump’s war with Iran and openly broken ranks to demand
the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. They have accused him of
prioritizing his own interests over the needs of the voters who elected
him to office.
But few far-right
voices aligned with Mr. Trump have criticized him over the scale of his
personal haul, reported this week, or the conflict inherent in his
status as a major cryptocurrency industry operator and its top
policymaker.
First off, not every supporter of Chump is being quiet. Second of all, the amount is stunning. The amount of money this crook has taken in is stunning. I'd say give it a few more days and then see if grassroots activists on the right are still silent. Members of Congress? On the right? On the right most of them -- the majority of them -- have been silent this whole time on what Chump's doing and what he's done. Don't look for them to lead.
But the average person who supported Chump? Look for them to awaken. A few already have processed it.
Speaking at the sparsely attended Great American State Fair
in Washington, D.C., Barrón-López asked whether it is “appropriate” for
the president to make so much money while in the White House.
“I
actually don’t, no. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” one man, whose
name was not given, replied. “If you’re in office, take your salary.
Your investments are in the hands of third parties that you don’t have
influence over.”
A woman standing next to him
added, “I think you should just concentrate on being the president. I
think he has enough money already.”
After
playing the clip, Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace repeated
the woman’s belief that Trump “has enough money already.”
“I do too, but those folks are people who voted for Donald Trump 18 months ago,” Wallace said.
Trump,
who has an estimated net worth of more than $6 billion, made improving
the economy and tackling the cost-of-living crisis two of his main 2024
campaign promises.
However, the 80-year-old
president has only exacerbated the financial hardships facing millions
of Americans during his second term because of policies such as his
sweeping tariffs and the war in Iran, which sent gas prices soaring.
In
a segment that aired on Morning Joe on Thursday, several Florida
residents who had voted for Trump were asked about the disclosures, and
every one was unhappy with how much the president has profited.
“That’s
very frustrating to actually hear that. And like I said, I don’t do the
politics and stuff, but to hear that come from another American that,
you know, is not getting $2 million put in their pocket,” Olivia
Danielle told the MS NOW reporter.
“$2 billion,” the reporter corrected.
Stunned,
she added: “$2 billion, $2 million, $2 trillion – you know, that’s a
lot of money. You know, that’s a lot of money. And that would help out a
lot of people around here, a lot of homeless people. You could open
shelters. You could really help somebody out with that.”
“Somebody’s making money on the side. It’s not me. That’s all I got to say,” MAGA voter Allen Warfield said.
“Is it frustrating?” the reporter pressed.
He
replied: “It’s frustrating that you see your president getting richer
and richer, and the middle class is getting poorer, and that’s about
it.”
One MAGA voter at a gas station, Jerry
Lepore, told the network: “Life in America right now, the economy is
tough. People are struggling, you know, and hopefully it’ll change.”
Another
man, Kevin Chavez, raged at Trump more specifically: “He definitely
made lots of promises and he made them seem like they were going to come
a lot quicker, faster than they actually were to ever come or ever will
come.”
Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, they noted Chump's advocating for inside information.
This is not a one day story. The amount is mind boggling, the sweep is grandiose. It's something that will be absorbed.
Namesake
products like the God Bless the USA Bible, which retails for $99,
dipped in revenue, decreasing from $1.306 million to $208,486 following a
year of his bizarre Bible references.
On
multiple occasions, Trump rambled off twisted verses from the revered
text. His flub from a decade earlier resurfaced in 2025. He inaccurately
boasted, “Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy.’ I’ve had that
thing all of my life where people are bending to envy.”
The Trump Sneakers and fragrances profits also decreased from $2.5 million to $67,634.
The economy. Chump's tanked it. Trina noted last night:
That reads like a slap in the face to Chump because it is one. This
lower number is a rebuke to all the lies he continues to tell about the
economy which has not recovered. Our economy was in recovery -- when
Joe Biden was president. But Chump has destroyed the economy and
doesn't want to take credit for doing that. He will lie to steal credit
for every and any success in the world but when it comes to owning
blame, the little weasel never wants his earned credit.
What's she talking about? The jobs report that just came out for the month of June.
There
was more bad news for Donald Trump on Thursday morning as the new jobs
report revealed dismal growth, leading MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle to raise
a new red flag for the president’s embattled administration.
Appearing
on “Morning Joe,“ Ruhle, a former Wall Street executive, noted that
only 57,000 new jobs were created — a far cry from the 115,000 expected
by economists.
Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire,
who warned, “We've seen downward revisions for the last two months,”
Ruhle first explained that Trump should not expect a rate decrease from
the Fed as the job market remains stagnant.
She
later elaborated, “People cannot afford to get their lives started;
they cannot afford the basic things they need to work to get to work, a
place to live, a decent job that's an issue —we're talking about a jobs
number that's almost half of what we expected."
Donald
Trump was dealt a brutal pre-4th of July blow when the jobs report
showed weaker-than-expected growth, with Americans souring on the
president for his handling of the economy.
The
U.S. added only 57,000 jobs in June, less than half of what forecasters
had anticipated. Economists had expected 115,000 jobs added last month.
Matthew Robinson (NEWSWEEK) points out, "The
unemployment rate edged down to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent in May,
though economists noted that the decline was driven largely by fewer
people participating in the labor force rather than a surge in
hiring." Sean Williams (THE MOTLEY FOOL) weighs in with:
To
preface this discussion, a modest level of inflation is normal and
healthy for the U.S. economy. But when prices rise quickly or move
beyond subjective "modest" levels, it can upend the economy and/or the
stock market. As of May 2026, U.S. inflation is at a three-year high.
The
bulk of this year's inflationary surge has been driven by two decisions
from President Donald Trump (i.e., "Trumpflation"). The first policy, implementing sweeping global tariffs, has placed modest upward pressure on prices for select goods.
However, the primary catalyst
behind inflation's jump from 2.4% in February to 4.2% in May is the
Trump-led Iran war. Shortly after the president approved military
operations against Iran, the latter closed the Strait of Hormuz to
commercial vessels. This action crippled the daily flow of approximately
20 million barrels of petroleum liquids.
The
reaction in energy markets was impossible to miss, with gas prices
climbing at the fastest pace in over three decades and diesel prices
rising by an even steeper percentage.
Yes,
Chump worked hard to destroy this economy. Under President Joe Biden,
the economy was recovering from the pandemic and it was the envy of the
world. Chump trashed it on the campaign trail and promised to fix it
all on day one. Instead he destroyed the economy with his tariffs
(which were a tax on Americans) and then his war of choice on Iran.
People are struggling. They're not like him doing insider trading.
They're struggling
Questions about why ICE arrested a nun continue to grow after her release from custody.
The
Catholic Diocese of Brownsville said that on Sunday, Sister Leticia
Ugboaja was detained by agents as she was walking to attend mass at Our
Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas.
Sister Ugboaja, a
Nigerian national, is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System
and was a certified nursing assistant at health center in Edinburg,
Texas, for 10 years, the Diocese said in a press release. She's part of
the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation and volunteers as a
minister at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
Sister
Ugboaja was released the same day she was detained, according to Rep.
Monica De La Cruz, a Republican, who initially posted on Facebook that
her office was working with DHS to "resolve Sister Letty's detainment as
quickly as possible."
In a statement, the Catholic Diocese of
Brownsville said: "At this time, we are continuing to gather
information regarding the circumstances that led to Sister Leticia's
detainment and the manner in which she was detained."
[. . .]
Bishop Daniel E. Flores condemned the arrest.
"Sister
Letty is a well-known source of goodness and hope in our community, and
I am grateful she has been released. There are many questions remaining
about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty's arrest and
detention," Bishop Flores said in a statement.
"For
now, it is clear that Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make
it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and
handcuffed while peacefully walking to Church on a Sunday morning are
wildly disturbing and need to be reformed," he added.
The
Diocese of Brownsville said Ugboaja is part of the Daughters of Mary
Mother of Mercy congregation, which is headquartered in Nigeria. She
volunteers as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of
Sorrows Church and is a registered nurse at South Texas Health System's
McAllen Medical Center.
Before
volunteering at the church, Ugboaja worked for a decade as a certified
nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Texas, according to the
diocese.
[. . .]
As
news of Ugboaja's detention spread, members of southern Texas’
congressional delegation called for her release. Rep. Monica de la Cruz,
a Republican, said June 28 that her office was working with the DHS to
secure Ugboaja's release as quickly as possible.
"As I have
repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent
criminals," de la Cruz said in a post on Facebook. "A Catholic nun on
her way to church is not a threat to our community."
Later
that day, de la Cruz announced that Ugboaja would be released after
discussions with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
"I
just got off the phone with Secretary Mullin. I'm pleased to announce
that Sister Letty will be coming home," de la Cruz said in a post on
Facebook. "My office worked closely with the Department of Homeland
Security, and I'm grateful they acted to resolve this quickly."
Democratic
Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez and Joaquin Castro also
criticized Ugboaja's arrest. Cuellar had demanded that Ugboaja be
released and said he was in contact with federal officials about the
nun's arrest.
Donald
Trump has quietly ordered a surge in immigration arrests that has seen
more than 10,000 people detained in just five days.
The
clampdown marks a change of gear for a president, 80, whose
high-profile enforcement operations last year descended into chaos and
bloodshed. Border Patrol and ICE agents shot at least 14 people between
September 2025 and February 2026, among them two U.S. citizens killed in
Minneapolis.
They were Renee Nicole Good, a
37-year-old mother shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7, and
Alex Pretti, also 37, and a VA intensive care nurse, who was thrown to
the ground and shot by Border Patrol agents at a protest weeks later.
Agency
leaders have now ordered top ICE officials to throw more of their
officers into rounding up immigrants marked for deportation, according to the New York Times,
which obtained internal documents and spoke to federal officials. The
White House wanted more arrests, three officials with knowledge of the
conversations told the paper. They were told 2,000 detentions a day was
the new benchmark.
According to its own
figures, that appears to have worked. Daily arrest numbers have roughly
doubled from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year. Agents have
seized people at routine immigration check-ins, during traffic stops,
and out on the street.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have reportedly been instructed to set a new standard of at least 2,000 daily arrests. The number of people in ICE detention
has also climbed to more than 63,000, adding thousands of detainees to
the nation’s sprawling network of prison-like facilities.
The
operations do not appear to be part of any surge, such as operations of
militarized officers into Democratic-led cities, after Homeland
Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin entered office earlier this year
hoping to keep the agency out of the headlines as he fulfills the
president’s mandate to deport 1 million people a year.
But
the latest wave of arrests has already come under intense scrutiny from
immigration lawyers as well as Democratic and Republican lawmakers. A 56-year-old Catholic nun in Texas
left a detention center in tears after she was arrested on the way to
Sunday mass, and several arrests inside an immigration courthouse in New
York City this week appear to have violated court orders that struck down the Trump administration’s policy of picking up immigrants the moment they leave their hearings.
How's Chump's State Fair working out? Not so good.
They're covering US House Rep Jared Huffman's statements and the new report he's overseen. This is the press release his office issued yesterday:
Washington, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources
Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released a new 55-page
report following months of investigative work by Committee Democrats
exposing how Donald Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a unifying,
non-political celebration of our country's 250th birthday and made it
all about him – his vanity projects, his political and religious agenda,
his business ventures, and his cronies who gorged on public funds under
cover of a shadow corporation shielded from public scrutiny.
“Donald Trump’s hijacking of America's 250th birthday will go
down as one of the most corrupt, brazen abuses of public trust in
presidential history, even by the dubious standards of this
administration. As our country prepared to celebrate a milestone that
belongs to every American, Trump and his operatives launched a hostile
takeover of the bipartisan commission established by Congress to lead
the celebration. When that failed, they sidelined the commission,
siphoned its resources, and infiltrated a beloved national charity under
cover of a shadow corporation that shielded them from public scrutiny.
Then they proceeded to deceive donors, solicit foreign money, sell
access to the President, award no-bid contracts to Trump loyalists,
harvest Americans’ personal data, and push a white-washed, Christian
nationalist version of history,” said Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif).
“But
they didn’t account for us. Over the past year, our investigation has
pursued the truth about the machinations, schemes and abuses of trust
they’ve tried to hide. We’ve uncovered extensive evidence of corruption,
self-enrichmentand potential crimes. The Republican majority in
Congress, which has far more investigative tools and power than we do,
could have joined us in conducting serious oversight and demanding
answers. Instead, they’ve used their power to shield the individuals and
entities involved.
“The American people deserve to know the truth about how the
official national celebration of our country’s 250th anniversary was
stolen, along with a large – and so far unaccounted for – sum of their
taxpayer dollars. So, today – against the obstruction and resistance of
our Republican colleagues – we are dragging this fiasco out of the
shadows and shining a bright light on the corruption and fraud
surrounding Freedom 250. We can’t stop from tarnishing the country’s
July 4th celebration, but we can stop it from ever happening again – we
can protect the next government program, the next fund, the next thing
that's supposed to work for all of us, from being exploited and misused
this way. That’s why we must confront this grift and corruption now.
From our earliest days, America has stood for government by the people,
not powerful tyrants. We will fight to keep it that way.”
When the nonpartisan, congressionally chartered America250 Commission
refused to bend to the President's demands, the White House built a
replacement - Freedom 250 LLC – and declared it the central platform for
the national celebration. The White House lodged this shadow
organization inside the National Park Foundation so it could exploit the
credibility and donor relationships of a beloved public charity while
operating outside the transparency rules Congress wrote into law for the
commission.
Key Findings
The President put himself at the center of the nation's birthday. Trump
issued an executive order making himself and the Vice President Chair
and Vice Chair of a White House task force, then staged his own birthday
as a national event twice: the Army's 250th military parade on June 14,
2025, and a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026,
run under the Freedom 250 banner.
The White House built Freedom 250 on deceit. Musical
performers, among others, were misled about programming and connections
to Trump’s political machine. Fundraisers may have misled donors who
intended to support America250 and handed them Freedom 250's banking
information, routing contributions meant for the nonpartisan foundation
to the President's substitute entity instead. The report finds that, if
true, this could constitute wire fraud and charitable solicitation fraud
under federal and District of Columbia law.
Freedom 250 sold access to the President and courted foreign money in America's name. The
organization circulated sponsorship packages starting at $500,000 and
climbing above $10 million, backed by a "historic photo opportunity"
with President Trump. Its CEO solicited foreign governments,
corporations, and individuals at the World Economic Forum in Davos to
fund the President’s priorities. If foreign funds reach the President's
vanity projects, the report finds the conduct would clearly violate the
Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause.
Trump and his operatives cashed in. Event
Strategies, Inc., the firm that helped plan the January 6th rally, has
collected tens of millions in federal contracts connected to the
anniversary, including a master contract worth up to $100 million. Trump
traded in the stock of companies that donated to Freedom 250 and staged
a White House UFC fight that shamelessly promoted his own investments
and business ventures. Freedom 250's event registration process was run
through Campaign Nucleus, the firm founded by Trump campaign operative
Brad Parscale, which uses artificial intelligence to score visitors and
target "persuadable" voters. Thousands of unwitting fans handed over
their personal information at a free FIFA World Cup Fan Zone on the
National Mall. Freedom 250’s official merchandise is sold by the Trump
campaign’s official merchandise vendor, Ace Specialties, and agencies
have purchased the merchandise and required employees to wear it.
The White House imposed a false, Christian nationalist history. Federally
funded "Freedom Trucks" carried revisionism and outright falsehoods to
schoolchildren, including an AI rendering of George Washington claiming,
"our rights are a gift from God," a statement Washington is not
documented to have made. The Interior Department also urged employees to
wear Freedom 250 pins and threatened discipline against those who
refused the pin, which anonymous employees took to calling their "Vichy
pin," a reference to World War II-era lapel pins that served as loyalty
and propaganda badges.
Freedom 250 created a blueprint for corruption. The
report concludes Freedom 250 is "a blueprint, not a one-time abuse,"
already test-driven at the Department of Agriculture, where the
administration steered companies with business before the government to
donate through a conservation charity into a fund the Secretary
controls.
The investigation drew on confidential disclosures from sources
interviewed by Committee Democrats, internal Freedom 250 documents and
talking points obtained by the Committee, sworn testimony from two
Committee hearings, and written responses from the National Park
Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.
Republicans on the Committee refused to conduct any oversight to hold
the administration accountable, even when Democrats repeatedly raised
evidence of wrongdoing at Republicans’ own hearing entitled, “All in for
America250: Public-Private Partnerships Supporting America’s
Semiquincentennial on our Public Lands.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
testified he was "not aware of the final decisionmaker" behind Freedom
250, and the Department has refused to provide that information since.
Chump's state fair has been a huge failure. OK reports:
The
Great American State Fair has already dealt with thin crowds, power
problems, canceled performers and weather delays. Now it has anti-Trump
graffiti inside one of its state exhibits.
Photos
taken at the National Mall event showed “8647” scrawled onto a
Cadillac-themed installation inside the Texas pavilion, part of the
broader America250 celebrations leading up to the nation’s 250th
anniversary. The exhibit, called “Let’s Texas,” was designed to showcase
the state’s culture and identity.
The number
sequence is widely read in political contexts as “86 47,” a coded
message suggesting the removal of Donald Trump, the 47th president.
But that's not all. Like everything else about Chump, it just gets worse. DC is expected to have a heatwave and Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reported yesterday, "Air
conditioning units reportedly failed at some exhibits at President
Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., as
temperatures hit a sweltering 100 degrees. It is the latest setback for
Trump’s fair, a weeks-long celebration of America’s 250th birthday on
the National Mall, amid lackluster crowds and musicians dropping out of
performances." But apparently he's now focused solely on Saturday's
speech -- specifically the turnout he'll have. Cheyenne Ubiera (IRISH STAR) reports:
White
House aides are reportedly worried about the turnout for President
Donald Trump's July 4th address after he was infuriated by the crowd
during his Great American State Fair.
The
president promised that his July 4th rally on the National Mall would be
the "most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen." But
some inside his White House aren't sure how many people will actually
show up.
Discussing
the crowd size fears, a White House official told CNN: "I’m really not
sure who thought this was a good idea. I do not understand why we are
doing this so late." The president will speak at 9.45 pm on Saturday.
Trump
was reportedly livid over the small crowd at his campaign-style speech
last week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. His
remarks were thrown together after nearly every musical act backed out
over the state fair's ties to MAGA.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
On Friday, Trump admin cancelled vast majority of grants awarded to communities nationwide to prevent teen pregnancy
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led a letter
to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
blasting his recent decision to terminate nearly all Teen Pregnancy
Prevention (TPP) Program grants—and calling on him to immediately
reinstate the funding for over 50 grantees nationwide.
“We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to
terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program
grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and
threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy,”
write the senators. “These grants, which were canceled
in the middle of their five-year project period, supported
evidence-based programs that worked to prevent teen pregnancy and
behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, as is required by
law.”
In their letter, the lawmakers note that teen pregnancy in the U.S.
has been on a steady decline for decades, thanks in part to successful
programs like TPP: “For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate
has been declining. According to the most recent data from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in
2025, reaching another historic low.”
The senators explain that Congress has appropriated $101 million in
fiscal year 2026 for the explicit purpose of making grants to support
“medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen
pregnancy,” and state that these cancellations ignore congressional
intent for the program, perhaps because the administration simply
disagrees with the program’s goals. “[A]llies of the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth rates are a ‘problem,’” the senators write. “It appears this administration may agree with that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs.”
“We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate
funding for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway
through their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen
pregnancy,” the lawmakers conclude.
Joining Senator Murray in sending the letter were U.S.
Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard
Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy
Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie
Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders
(I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI),
Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA).
We write to express our outrage over your recent decision to
terminate the vast majority of Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program
grants, which will deprive teens across the U.S. of vital resources and
threaten to unwind decades of progress made in reducing teen pregnancy.
These grants, which were canceled in the middle of their five-year
project period, supported evidence-based programs that worked to prevent
teen pregnancy and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy,
as is required by law. This decision to cancel 53 of 66 existing grants
follows a pattern of actions the Trump Administration has taken to
undermine access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and put the
health and wellbeing of our young people at risk. We call on you to
immediately reinstate funding for these grantees who have a proven track
record of working to uphold the goals of the program in accordance with
the law.
For the last 35 years, the teen birth rate has been declining.
According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), the teenage birth rate fell by 7% in 2025,
reaching another historic low. In 1991, the number of babies born to
mothers ages 15 to 19 was more than five times higher than it is today.
Evidence suggests that these declines are driven by several factors,
including the use of more effective forms of contraception, greater
access to information about pregnancy prevention, and a decline in teen
sexual activity, which the TPP Program has supported.
The very goal of the TPP Program when it was established in 2010 was
to support evidence-driven practices that would reduce teen pregnancy,
with the majority of funds directed to programs with models whose
effectiveness at preventing teen pregnancy had been demonstrated through
rigorous evaluation, known as “Tier 1”, and a smaller portion of funds
for the development and testing of new prevention programs, or “Tier 2,”
which helps to grow the list of approved Tier 1 curricula.
The bipartisan law that most recently appropriated funding for the
program in fiscal year 2026 reiterated the program’s goals—providing
$101 million for “making competitive contracts and grants to public and
private entities to fund medically accurate and age appropriate programs
that reduce teen pregnancy” with 75 percent of funds directed toward
“replicating programs that have been proven effective through rigorous
evaluation to reduce teenage pregnancy, behavioral risk factors
underlying teenage pregnancy, or other associated risk factors.”
These grants were awarded to state and local health departments,
universities, and community organizations across America, like the Boys
& Girls Club. These are organizations that know exactly how to reach
young people to provide them with the information they need to make
smart decisions about their health and futures.
We know that both Trump Administrations have long sought to destroy
the TPP Program. President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposed to
eliminate it, as did his prior budgets, and in 2017, the Trump
Administration attempted to cancel every TPP Program grant, a decision
that was ultimately struck down by the courts. Now, however, allies of
the president have increasingly suggested that declining teen birth
rates are a “problem.” It appears this administration may agree with
that assessment as you cancel funding for these proven programs. Your
decision to terminate this funding squarely aligns with your
department’s established pattern of rejecting evidence and science,
ignoring Congressional intent, and undermining the ability of people to
make their own healthcare decisions.
We demand that you immediately reverse course and reinstate funding
for established grantees of the TPP Program, who are midway through
their grants and doing essential work to prevent teen pregnancy.
