MAGA brings back “pray the gay away”

I’m planning to cover this in more depth for Wednesday morning on the Salon site, but I’m flagging for readers that today the Supreme Court will hear arguments about laws banning conversion “therapy.” Unsurprisingly, the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, is manipulative and dishonest, despite claiming to be a good Christian.

She told the New York Times that she wants to help kids gain “comfort” with their “biological sex,” implying that this is about trans kids, who are the center of a national hysteria. But if you read her actual petition, she also wants to work with clients to “eliminate unwanted sexual attractions.” Yep, it’s about praying the gay away.

The anti-trans panic has never just been about trans people, although that alone is a good enough reason to oppose it. It’s also a fig leaf for coming after all gay people, along with women who don’t accept submissive roles.

Bad Bunny is a native-born American citizen

Benito Martínez-Ocasio, aka the rapper Bad Bunny, is a United States citizen by birth. He was born in Puerto Rico to U.S. citizen parents. He is not an immigrant of any sort, legal or undocumented or naturalized or otherwise.

So it’s telling that Donald Trump’s administration reacted to the news that Bad Bunny would headline next year’s Super Bowl halftime show by threatening him with an ICE assault. “I think people should not be coming to the Super Bowl unless they’re law-abiding Americans,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said, after promising to swarm the game with ICE agents. That is empty nonsense. Trump, as a convicted felon, is himself not a law-abiding American. Bad Bunny, however, absolutely is. (Furthermore, I doubt that Noem will try to bar foreign tourists who purchase tickets to the game.)

MAGA is trying to tap-dance around this mess by claiming the issue is about Bad Bunny’s undocumented fans, but no one is fooled by that. This is about race and ethnicity, and about white people who think you must be a criminal if you listen to reggaeton instead of white country music about how Jesus loves the flag.

Nor is this just culture-war nonsense. As Popular Info document, the number of U.S. citizens getting swept up in ICE raids is spiraling out of control, because the Trump-worshipping Supreme Court says it’s OK to make assumptions about someone’s citizenship status based on their skin color, their name or their ability to speak another language.

The good news is that people are noticing this. Trump did surprisingly well with Latino voters in 2024, some of whom bought into the lies that his overt racism was just a “joke” and that he only planned to deport “criminals.” Now they understand what he really means, and a lot of those voters are starting to turn on Trump. This ludicrous hysteria around Bad Bunny will only accelerate that process.

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Epstein’s ghost is haunting the White House

Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein problem isn’t going away. First Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick bragged to a podcast host about being Epstein’s friend, just like Trump was. He also said Epstein made his money by being the “greatest blackmailer ever,” which doesn’t make Trump’s fears about releasing the Epstein files sound innocent.

Then the Supreme Court, which usually wants to help Trump out, refused to hear the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former partner, who is in prison for her role in sex trafficking minors. Maxwell has been using her pending appeal as an excuse not to testify before Congress. So this would be a good opportunity for Democrats to start pushing again for the release of the Epstein files — and for Maxwell to testify in public.

That “in public” part is important, because the Trump administration tried to pass off a private interview between Maxwell and Trump’s former defense attorney as if it were actual testimony. If you actually read the transcript, Maxwell comes off like a self-serving liar and her claims that Trump wasn’t involved seem dubious. But Republicans knew that most people wouldn’t bother to read what Maxwell really said, so they’ve been pretending that the words of this lying sex offender, when not under oath, are gold.

Republicans would flip out if Democrats wanted Maxwell to testify in public, because they know her laughably obvious falsehoods would be exposed. Whatever she says would be clipped and shared all over social media, making Trump look even guiltier because of her lame attempt to defend him. I say, make them hide it. The cover-up has already hurt Trump immensely, and we need to keep reminding the public about it. Besides, if Democrats win the House next year, they can subpoena Maxwell and Republicans won’t be able to stop her from talking.

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What we're reading this week

• “This Is What Autocrats Dread,” David Shimer, New York Times

• “The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession,” Laura Bullard, Wired

• “Bringing a Survey to a Gun Fight,” Anat Shenker-Osorio, Weekend Reading

• “Not Just ‘Medbeds’: How Truth Social’s Bogus Medical Claims Fool Elderly Trump Fans,” Anna Merlan, Mother Jones

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