Economists are warning that US President Donald Trump’s efforts to meddle with the Federal Reserve are going to wind up raising prices even further on working families.
Michael Madowitz, principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute, said on Wednesday that the president’s efforts to strong-arm the US central bank into lowering interest rates by firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook would backfire by accelerating inflation.
“The administration’s efforts to politicize interest rates—an authoritarian tactic—will ultimately hurt American families by driving up costs,” he said. “That helps explain why Fed independence has helped keep inflation under 3%, while, after years of political interference in their central bank, Turkey’s inflation rate is over 33%.”
Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, said that the president’s move to fire Cook “radically undermines what Trump says his own goal is: lowering U.S. interest rates to spur faster economic growth.”
She then gave a detailed explanation for why Trump imposing his will on the Federal Reserve would likely bring economic pain.
“Presidential capture of the Fed would signal to decision-makers throughout the economy that interest rates will no longer be set on the basis of sound data or economic conditions—but instead on the whims of the president,” she argued. “Confidence that the Fed will respond wisely to future periods of macroeconomic stress—either excess inflation or unemployment—will evaporate.”
This lack of confidence, she continued, would manifest in investors in US Treasury bonds demanding higher premiums due to the higher risks they will feel they are taking when buying US debt, which would only further drive up the nation’s borrowing costs.
“These higher long-term rates will ripple through the economy—making mortgages, auto loans, and credit card payments higher for working people—and require that rates be held higher for longer to tamp down any future outbreak of inflation,” she said. “In the first hours after Trump’s announcement, all of these worries seemed to be coming to pass.”
Economist Paul Krugman, a former columnist for The New York Times, wrote on his personal Substack page Thursday that Trump’s moves to take control of the Federal Reserve were “shocking and terrifying.”
“Trump’s campaign to take over monetary policy has shifted from a public pressure to personal intimidation of Fed officials: the attack on Cook signals that Trump and his people will try to ruin the life of anyone who stands in his way,” he argued. “There is now a substantial chance that the Fed’s independence, its ability to manage the nation’s monetary policy on an objective, technocratic basis rather than as an instrument of the president’s political interests and personal whims, will soon be gone.”
The economists’ warnings come as economic data released on Friday revealed that core inflation rose to 2.9% in August, which is the highest annual rate recorded since this past February. Earlier this month, the Producer Price Index, which is considered a leading indicator of future inflation, came in at 3.3%, which was significantly higher than economists’ consensus estimate of 2.5%.
Data aggregated by polling analyst G. Elliott Morris shows that inflation is far and away Trump’s biggest vulnerability, as American voters give him a net approval of -23% on that issue.
The Trump administration has introduced a new immigration policy that allows U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to deny visas, green cards, and even citizenship applications if an applicant is flagged for “anti-American” activity online. The move is already drawing concern from immigration attorneys and digital security experts, who warn that the vague wording opens the door to arbitrary decisions and potential violations of free speech.
Ayla Adomat, managing attorney of Adomat Immigration and specialized in green card applications, said in an interview with Latino News Network, the government has not provided a clear standard for what qualifies as “anti-American.” “So it does seem that prior social media posts can put a visa or green card application at risk. This has been confirmed by USCIS,” she explained. “What we are seeing, though is…we’re still kind of figuring out what counts as social media here.”
Adomat noted that obvious hate content, such as anti-Semitic posts or symbols tied to extremist movements, has already been flagged. But she cautioned that political commentary could also come under scrutiny. “Commentary against Trump or the Trump administration…this can really be construed a couple of different ways,” she cautioned. “Because these policies are so new, we’re still waiting to see how these are really interpreted by the government and also later the courts, because there’s absolutely going to be litigation.”
On constitutional grounds, Adomat said there is a strong legal argument that the First Amendment applies to non-citizens. “Several Supreme Court cases have alluded to this, though it hasn’t been the central holding. That’s why I think the Trump administration is fighting it”, told LNN.
Existing immigration vetting already screens applicants for ties to terrorism, criminal activity, or other security risks. The new policy represents a shift from concrete threats to ideology and opinion. Nic Adams, co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity firm 0rcus, argued in a statement sent to LNN the vagueness of the guidance highlights the risks of giving officers wide discretion to scrutinize digital histories. Leaving “anti-American” undefined, he warned, “could allow officers to conflate legitimate political dissent with a fundamental rejection of the United States,” putting otherwise eligible applicants in the position of having to defend old posts or satire as if they were security threats.
“The lack of a specific time limit for this review and the broad nature of what can be considered ‘anti-American’ means that applicants must be prepared to have their entire public digital history scrutinized”, Adams added. The expert said that this could put otherwise eligible applicants in a position of having to explain or defend past speech that, at the time, was a simple expression of political opinion.
Critics say the policy could create a chilling effect among immigrants and applicants for legal status, who may self-censor for fear that online comments could be misinterpreted. Adomat stressed that applicants are now being advised to review their digital history carefully because even opinions, not just past actions, could be grounds for denial.
The policy, still in its early stages, is likely to face challenges in federal court. Until then, immigration lawyers are advising clients to review their digital footprint and think twice before posting about politics online.
Despite the inarguably awful actions this administration has taken during its first eight months in office, Donald Trump remains largely impervious in the polls — low to be sure but hardly politically threatening, right in his zone. This despite taking some of the most unpopular and undemocratic actions in generations.
Yes, for a brief period, during his first week or two in office, he peaked above a 50 percent approval rating. But since then he has gracefully found the glideslope to his comfort zone, anywhere from 42-46 percent aggregate approval, 50-53 percent disapproval.
Even given the number of unpopular decisions that he has made — DOGE cuts to essential services, masked mauraders kidnapping the innocent, hiding the Epstein files, tariffs, health care cuts — the dynamic remains the same. There is almost nothing the man can do to fall into dangerous, sub-38 percent approval.
But there is are two elements on the horizon, one that likely shouldn’t play a huge role but does, another that always does.
First: there are exploding questions about his health.
Is there any there “there?” Seems so. Looks matter, especially within cults of personality. Trump’s age — 79 now — matters in the polls.
Much of Trump’s mystique among MAGA revolves around his seeming indestructibility, whether concerning his wealth, litigation against him (meagre attempts at criminal accountability, throwing out the award in a major New York civil case), or just his simple, unpleasant aggression.
The dynamic can even seep over to political independents, who see Trump as at least “doing something” and doing it well for himself. It must be working, some think. This is his real superpower.
So indications that Trump’s health may be teetering pose a major threat to the perception of invincibility. It’s important. If he ever loses the “cape,” it is all but impossible to get it back.
Both hands now show severe bruising. Fattened ankles have led — finally — to the admission that he does have some cardiovascular disease, whether just venous insufficiency or something more. There is the swinging gait that comes and goes. And there does seem to be a greater propensity to simply meander from topic to topic, on an ever-looser tether to linear thought.
He also just looks old: see pictures from the Oval Office meeting last Friday. Trump may never have looked worse.
The thing about cults is that the leader is absolutely invulnerable, the hold on people impermeable, right up until they are not. Once a leak springs, it is impossible to hold water back.
Yes, it is utterly infuriating that there has been so little pushback against troops in cities, threats to former allies, cutting Medicaid, the racism, the “cruelty as the point,” and even the Epstein files, which will now never amount to anything, a “Democratic hoax,” unless several victims come forward with direct knowledge of Trump’s actions, and they don’t seem to be in a hurry.
But it doesn’t appear that any of the above can puncture Trump. Anyone in doubt needs to revisit the polls that refuse to move or simply spend a half-hour on X. Nothing has changed, except Trump’s acceleration in his push to fascism.
In a post-truth America, where Trump can claim 70 percent approval rating with a straight face, dismiss a mediocre jobs report with a termination and declaration the numbers are fixed, make baseless claims to being the “hottest country in the world,” claim crime as a national emergency and only himself as the savior, Trump’s opponents are left searching for a leveling truth.
Enter the appearance of diminishing health.
Whatever is going on with his hands, it cannot be hidden. Whatever it is about his ankles, it cannot easily be cured. The doddering goes way back, but it means more now after all the attacks on Joe Biden.
It’s a fact that Trump is getting older and appears to be getting worse. The best his followers can do is write it off to simply aging. Precisely. It leaves them uneasy, seeing Trump vulnerable for perhaps the first time — that being time itself.
And then there’s the other wild card — the economy.
Inflation is just getting going. But in the same way it is impossible to hide a black spot on the back of a hand or slurred words going nowhere, no makeup can cover a bag of potato chips over $5, beef approaching $20 a pound for a decent cut and getting higher, along with other goods rising and rent to pay — all without any commensurate increase in pay.
Put the two undeniables together, Trump’s health and his sickening economy, and there are two paths to sinking Trump to polling levels that will leave him and the GOP extremely vulnerable in 2026.
The country is largely unmoved by troops invading cities, masked men kidnapping working undocumented migrants (and some Americans) off the streets, stolen legislative seats, threats to the vote.
All of it screams fascism, but all of it has too many people simply yawning.
Anyone doubting that Trump acutely feels the vulnerability need only look at his responses to his major problems: hiding the hand, firing people over numbers, the constant and humiliating talk about the country being “hot.” And yet too many simply don’t care. His supporters rely on him for entertainment and have their own lives to worry about. The marauding menace in Washington D.C. does little more than appear on screens as an owning of the libs, which is what he was hired for.
Nothing touches the man … except for indications that he’s weaker, going downhill, unable to fight like he once did. That and chips, for $5.50.
It’s the little things, things that don’t have to make sense.
Trump won’t get younger. Energy prices show no sign of going down. Chips and bread seem destined to jump. He promised to reverse such trends but he threw gas on the fire with tariffs. It isn’t turning around.
Cults are invulnerable until they’re not. The things that make them teeter don’t have to make any sense. Watch these developments. They just might work, which might be enough.
Keep an eye out for black and blue hands, puffy eyes and swollen ankles. And prices on chips and sirloin.
Two small pins, sharp enough to pop the balloon. He knows it.
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/trump-age-2673924798
In the words of White Stripes singer Jack White, “It’s now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy professional wrestler’s dressing room.”
For decades, every president has made the Oval Office his own.
John F. Kennedy specially chose a rug in Harvard crimson, although he did not live to see its installation. Richard Nixon’s office featured a navy rug with gold stars, accented by gold curtains. Jimmy Carter surrounded himself with warmer, more natural shades. George H.W. Bush opted for powder blue as both a floor and window treatment.
The presidents have chosen different sofas, different coffee tables, different books for the shelves, different knick-knacks for the tables and paintings for the walls.
But none have had the aesthetic impact of President Donald Trump.
In his second term, Trump has endeavored to leave a more lasting footprint on the White House by drawing on his long career in real estate development. He paved the Rose Garden’s grassy center, erected two enormous flag poles and revealed plans to build a large ballroom on the East Wing to host events.
Trump’s Oval Office, though, has been the site of the most striking transformation so far.
The iconic space has been positively drenched in gold — curtains, of course, but also vases, frames, trophies, platters and vast amounts of gilding, including shiny curlicued moldings that ensure no part of the wall is left blank. This style is either Rococo or decidedly not Rococo.
An ivy plant that had adorned the Oval Office fireplace for over a half-century was replaced by lifeless objects. (The Washington Post figured out the ivy had been relocated to a greenhouse for safekeeping.)
Trump, it seems, has cast aside norms in decorating just as quickly in his second term as he has cast aside norms in governing. Anyone familiar with Trump Tower in Manhattan or his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida will not be surprised to see the full extent of his changes to the Oval, given his instinct to gild the properties that bear his name.
But that is also why his changes rub some people the wrong way. The White House — the People’s House — is not Trump’s own. First families may make changes to the residence to make it feel more comfortable during their stay, but the Oval Office is not part of a Trump-branded enterprise.
In the words of White Stripes singer Jack White, “It’s now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy professional wrestler’s dressing room.”
….
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-oval-office-gold-gilding_n_68910956e4b06ab33893e975
An executive order (EO) signed by President Trump on Thursday (Aug. 28) — just before millions of Americans began their Labor Day holiday weekend — removes NASA employees from federal labor-management protections, eliminating collective bargaining rights for the space agency’s civil servants under the justification of national security.
The order affects several thousand engineers, scientists and technicians across every NASA center, and strips away long-standing union rights that were emplaced to protect more than half the agency’s workforce. The move marks the largest rollback of labor protections for NASA’s employees in history.
The scope of the change is exemplified by the situation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association (GESTA) now finds itself unable to legally represent employees amidst an onslaught of program cuts, facility closures and early resignations.
A new executive order
The president’s order amends EO 12171 and places NASA on the list of agencies excluded from Chapter 71 of Title 5, which governs federal employees’ rights to organize, bargain collectively, and negotiate workplace conditions. The new exclusion removes those rights for NASA civil servants nationwide on the grounds of the agency’s involvement with “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”
Other newly excluded agencies include the satellite and weather divisions of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), parts of the U.S. Patent Office and the units in the Bureau of Reclamation associated with hydropower facilities.
“Presidents have in the past utilized that authority,” Mark Gaston Pearce told Space.com. Pearce was chairman of the National Labor Relations Board in the Obama administration (from 2011 to 2017). He is also the former executive director of, and is currently a senior advisor at, Georgetown University’s Workers’ Rights Institute.
“The question,” Pearce said, is “what constitutes a national security concern sufficient for the president to … exclude employees from their abilities to engage in collective bargaining?”
Normally, the Merit System Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority would serve as guardrails against what Pearce and other experts regard as presidential overreach. Pearce said those institutions have essentially been knee-capped by the removal of key members. “Both… have been put in a situation where they’re not able to act because of lack of quorum, and all done at the hands of this administration,” he said.
Pearce also served on the Federal Service Impasses Panel, which resolves disputes when unions and agencies are deadlocked. It has also been left vacant. “That impasse panel has not been replaced after the board was essentially asked to resign … Any kind of impasses over federal contracts that exist will not be addressed,” Pearce explained.
WIth enforcement capacity dismantled, the impact of President Trump‘s EO on existing collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) “cannot be reviewed or assessed by agencies whose charge it is from Congress to regulate these kinds of disputes,” Pearce said.
No more NASA unions
Roughly 53% of NASA’s workforce belonged to a bargaining unit prior to the order, according to NASA’s website. Now, thousands of employees across NASA centers have lost those protections overnight.
NASA officials are aware of the EO and are moving forward accordingly. “NASA is aware of this executive order issued on Aug. 28 regarding exclusions from the Federal Labor-Management relations program,” an official wrote to Space.com in an email on Friday (Aug. 29). “We are working to implement this and align with the President’s vision for our agency.”
The email included a link to a White House fact sheet on the order.
As of Friday afternoon, GESTA President Tryshanda Moton had not received any notice from NASA management regarding the order, she told Space.com in an email.
As a result of the order, existing good-faith CBAs can be nullified without cause, removing negotiated terms on things like office assignments, remote work and other on-the-job conditions. “The message is pretty clear: This administration does not believe that labor management relations should be in any respect bilateral,” Pearce said.
Affected federal employees are forbidden from going on strike, leaving them with few options beyond advocacy and long, uncertain litigation.
“There will probably be causes of actions that can be pursued, but the practical nature of these circumstances is such that these employees will need to continue to keep working,” Pearce said. “Funding these lawsuits are not a simple matter, and even if that is achievable, the time that would be taken for all of this to take place will be so long in the future that the immediate harm suffered could be insurmountable for many of the employees.”
GESTA is affiliated with NASA’s International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, representing engineers, scientists and technicians at Goddard. It is one of 10 collective bargaining agreements across NASA, all of which are now at risk.
Before the EO, GESTA’s role was to negotiate working conditions, contest reassignments and raise employee concerns, and the organization was in the process of addressing the many changes being enacted at Goddard.
“If there’s a change in working conditions, management is required to notify [the union]… so that we have a chance to request bargaining,” one Goddard engineer and GESTA union member who wished to remain anonymous told Space.com. “We represent civil servants who are non supervisory,” the engineer explained, though clarified, not all non supervisory civil servants fall under their umbrella.
Budget and workforce cuts, too
Goddard employees have faced months of preemptive cuts and abrupt management decisions executed in accordance with President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 26) budget request, which proposed the largest cut to NASA in the agency’s history and a 47% reduction in NASA’s science funding. Workers report diminished transparency, with GESTA often relaying critical information before supervisors themselves learn of it.
“A lot of times employees will hear information from GESTA and then they’ll tell their supervisors, and that’s how supervisors find out about management things,” the Goddard engineer said.
Facilities and workspace decisions have become flashpoints at the Maryland campus. Employees received official notice early this month of plans to close the Goddard Visitor Center, as well the cafeteria and vending services for employees.
Options for dining at Goddard now include a trio of food trucks that usually have exceptionally long lines, or making a 30-minute round trip to the nearest restaurant. Packing your lunch is also obviously an option, but a shuttered cafeteria closes the door on employees’ ability to branch out.
“A big impact of that is being able to meet with colleagues and build relationships over lunch,” the engineer said. “We’ll have knowledge exchange and see what people are working on. So that will be a hit to our ability to do our jobs.”
Closing the visitor center is an even harder hit, according to the Goddard engineer. “The visitor center is free to the public,” the engineer explained. “It’s the primary way for the community to interact with Goddard, so that has big impacts on our outreach and being able to bring the next generation up.”
Additional closures under discussion include the health unit and fitness center, raising concerns about employees losing the ability to address occupational safety concerns and access to required checkups. “There are a lot of things that the Goddard health unit can do because they’re familiar with the hazards on site… especially, the [potential] chemical exposures are very specialized knowledge,” the engineer explained.
More than just facility closures, employees describe conditions at Goddard designed to push people out. While the budget awaits finalization from Congress, NASA officials and agency leadership have already begun implementing cuts, issuing reductions in force notifications (RIFs) and encouraging people to take advantage of the government’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP).
After two rounds of DRP deadlines, the most recent ending July 25, NASA is poised to lose more than 20% of its workforce — about 4,000 employees.
“It does feel to me, and to a lot of people … that this is all part of making life miserable so that people leave,” the Goddard engineer said.
Congress has signaled a willingness to restore NASA’s budget to 2025 levels, reducing the impact of the White House’s proposed cuts. But by the time that happens, some of the preemptive cuts may not be possible to recover.
“Even though Congress is trying to pass a budget that gives NASA more funding … NASA management … is taking actions as if the president’s budget request is going to be final,” the Goddard engineer said. Missions have been told to prepare for shutdown despite still returning data, and other programs are being left short-staffed by employees opting to take the DRP, leaving many in irreparable positions even if funding is restored.
Pearce noted that, without labor oversight, employees have no independent agency to appeal to: “Federal employees cannot strike… they can leaflet, and they can litigate. They cannot engage in [the same] activity … as private sector employees.”
Fear of retaliation
In the meantime, NASA workers report heightened restrictions and a fear of retaliatory policies.
“[One supervisor told his staff that] line employees are not allowed to talk to HR without first running it by their supervisor,” the Goddard engineer said. In an email obtained by Space.com, branch supervisors told employees, “please do not contact … HR, unless directed by your supervisor.” According to the email, this communications guidance was being orchestrated by the management team, which is smaller and better able to operate under this arrangement.
Policies were also extended to Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), with directives to remove Pride displays and other ERG-related materials from offices. Like many large office settings in the United States, NASA centers have provided community benefits for their workforce, including LGBTQ+ Pride groups, drama and music clubs, and more. “The direction to remove anything Pride related from our offices was also not put in writing, just conveyed verbally,” the engineer said, adding that it was made clear that “we weren’t going to get it in writing.”
The engineer clarified that those instructions have since been rescinded at Goddard, but the unease within their working environment remains.
NASA workers, specifically at Goddard, have spent the last several months trying to protest cuts and closures. A group called NASA Needs Help, started by employees, organized two protests over the summer, trying to bring public attention to what’s happening at the space agency and calling on Congress to act.
Pearce says the only recourse left may be the courts. “The most immediate hope right now is whether or not there is going to be a response from the judiciary that would slow or halt the impact,” he said.
Meanwhile, employees describe ongoing instability at the space agency. The engineer at Goddard isn’t sure there’s an end in sight: “At the beginning [of the year], there was a lot of chaos with all the EOs. We thought it was just going to be the first 100 days, and then we had the DRP round two. And that’s all everyone was talking and thinking about. So we thought, once that window closed, things would calm down. But now we’re dealing with the imminent FY 26 budget, and so now I’m thinking in FY 26 maybe things will calm down, but … I’m sure they won’t.”
With the new EO, the struggle now goes beyond budgets. Without the ability to collectively bargain and the mechanisms and agencies in place meant to protect them essentially neutralized, advocacy and public pressure may be employees’ only remaining tools, Pearce warned.
“Federal employees will have to pursue civically as best as they can,” Pearce said — for example, “lobbying efforts with their respective representatives to provide as much pushback as they can. Their voices have to be heard on a regular basis, and federal employees need to do what they can to let the public know that this is something that is going to affect everybody, and they can’t afford to be complacent.”
A Baptist chaplain at a privately-run ICE lockup in Pennsylvania is facing accusations of sexually abusing a detainee over the course of more than a year, beginning shortly after he gained her trust by gifting her a Bible.
Pastor Mark Melhorn, 67, engaged in “extraordinary misconduct” at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center “under the guise of providing pastoral services,” according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
His “repeated and pervasive” misconduct started with sexualized comments and gestures, with Melhorn telling the plaintiff in the case, who is identified as Jane Doe in court filings, that she was “hermosa,” “bonita,” and “preciosa,” according to the complaint.
“Melhorn would ask Ms. Doe if she liked how he looked, stare at her breasts, and lick his lips while staring at her,” the complaint alleges. “While Melhorn and detained women sang hymns together, he would position himself so that he could stare at Ms. Doe from behind. When she tried to change her position so that he could not stare at her from behind, he would change his position and continue staring at her.”
On numerous occasions, Melhorn approached Doe and placed his hands on her head as if he was praying for her, but instead ran them down her body suggestively, according to the complaint. From there, it says things got worse until Melhorn one day entered Doe’s cell and allegedly sexually assaulted her. He then warned Doe not to tell anybody about what had happened, because “even if she did, nothing would happen.”
Doe in fact reported Melhorn – twice – to higher-ups at Moshannon, the complaint says. And, according to the complaint, nothing happened.
“The system absolutely failed our client,” Doe’s attorney Trina Realmuto told The Independent. “It takes a lot of courage to speak up, [especially] when you’re fighting an immigration case in a detention facility.”
Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said Doe, an undocumented Dominican citizen living in New Jersey, remains deeply traumatized by the experience, and continues to suffer from anxiety, nightmares and a diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Melhorn did not respond to The Independent’s requests for comment.
On August 21, 2023, Doe arrived at Moshannon in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where she was assigned a two-person cell in the women’s housing unit, according to her complaint. It was filed two years later, almost to the day, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The 1,800-bed facility has been at the center of significant controversy, once again making headlines last month when a 32-year-old detainee from China died by suicide as he awaited a hearing with the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Melhorn visited the women’s housing unit every weekday afternoon, and conducted a church service for female detainees at least one evening a month, the complaint continues. Doe, a devout Christian, met Melhorn a few days after getting to Moshannon and was “comforted to know that a chaplain was available to provide religious guidance.”
She trusted Melhorn, and when he asked him to bring her a Bible, he did so, the complaint states.
Shortly after Doe first met Melhorn, things started getting creepy, the complaint alleges. Beyond showering her with inappropriate comments, Melhorn “began to go out of his way to touch Ms. Doe,” according to the complaint. Oftentimes, it says, Melhorn would enter Doe’s cell to give her printouts of Bible passages, but instead of simply handing them to her, he would set them down on her lap and rub her inner thigh.
In October 2023, Doe’s complaint claims she caught Melhorn peering into her cell while she was partially nude.
“At first, she believed it was her roommate and was not concerned, so she showered,” the complaint states. “When she got out of the shower, however, she saw that her roommate was asleep and that Melhorn was standing on his toes so that he could see Ms. Doe over the [privacy] screen.”
During the next several months, Melhorn’s overtures gradually got “forceful and more invasive,” until eventually becoming “even more extreme,” according to the complaint.
On March 29, 2024, Melhorn entered Doe’s cell while she was sleeping, woke her up and groped her under the sheets, the complaint maintains.
“Ms. Doe was terrified and got up abruptly,” it says. “Melhorn immediately warned Ms. Doe not to report him. He told her no one would believe her. Ms. Doe thought this was true and decided not to report Melhorn’s actions to anyone. Because Ms. Doe did not report Melhorn, his conduct continued and worsened.”
The following month, Melhorn walked into Doe’s call under the pretext of bringing her religious pamphlets, according to the complaint. It says he stood in front of her bed, and began to make “sexually explicit comments,” then grabbed at her breasts, inner thighs, buttocks and crotch, after which he forced Doe to touch his erect penis, the complaint alleges. Melhorn only stopped when Doe’s cellmate returned, according to the complaint.
At that point, it says Doe walked out of the cell and went to the unit’s common area. But, Melhorn followed her and continued to force himself upon her, the complaint contends. Melhorn again told Doe not to tell on him, and said other women had tried to report him, but that no one had believed them, according to the complaint.
As before, Doe believed Melhorn and kept quiet.
On April 16, 2024, Doe met with a social worker at Moshannon Valley. She said she was having trouble sleeping, and asked for a prescription that might help her relax, the complaint states. When the social worker asked Doe why she was so anxious, the complaint says she finally opened up about Melhorn.
The social worker told Doe that she was obligated to report the allegations, under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or, PREA, and that she was glad she spoke up “because Melhorn had done things like this before,” according to the complaint. This, the complaint asserts, was corroborated by a nurse at Moshannon Valley, who told Doe that Melhorn had earned a reputation at the facility as “a pervert.”
Further, a female guard told Doe that she and another employee had complained about Melhorn after he entered the women’s locker room while staffers were changing or using the bathroom, according to the complaint.
Roughly three weeks later, the jail’s PREA investigator closed Doe’s case, deeming her allegations unsubstantiated due to insufficient evidence, the complaint states. (According to Doe, most of the incidents with Melhorn occurred in areas not covered by surveillance cameras; a lack of video evidence is what led to the “unsubstantiated” determination, the PREA investigator told Doe, according to the complaint.)
Because of this, the complaint says Melhorn – who had been removed from the women’s housing unit while the PREA investigation was underway – would be permitted to return. But when the other women in the unit turned on Doe and threatened her for “snitching” on Melhorn, she was moved into protective custody, the complaint says.
On July 5, 2024, Melhorn located Doe in protective custody and stood outside her cell, staring at her while she used the toilet, according to the complaint.
“Melhorn sang Ms. Doe’s name and asked her what she had done to end up in protective custody,” it continues. “Ms. Doe, frightened, immediately yelled out for an officer.”
Melhorn left the area, and Doe asked to speak with a supervisor. A new PREA investigation was opened, and Doe was transferred to a different segregation unit, the complaint explains. But, once again, without the necessary video evidence, Doe’s allegations were subsequently closed as “unsubstantiated,” according to the complaint.
Doe’s anxiety and nightmares worsened, and on August 29, 2024, Doe’s immigration lawyer submitted a request to ICE that her client be released, “based on, among other things, Melhorn’s sexual abuse,” the complaint states. The next day, Doe was sent home, where she remains, fighting deportation.
Doe’s complaint suggests that she was far from alone, citing an August 2022 report issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in response to “a concerning number of reports of sexual assault and harassment” at Moshannon Valley. Federal authorities, along with the GEO Group, which operates the Moshannon Valley facility under a contract with ICE, are legally obligated to prevent such abuse.
“Despite this knowledge, they failed to act,” the complaint says.
In an email, Lauren DesRosiers, who heads the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School, told The Independent, “I wish that the abuse alleged in the complaint was an isolated incident. There’s good documentation that abuse is a widespread problem – for example, Senator Jon Ossoff’s office recently released this report on abuse of pregnant women and children in detention.”
Kristina M. Fullerton Rico, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Racial Justice at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, emphasized the point, saying that Doe’s allegations are “part of a larger pattern of sexual violence perpetrated by staff and volunteers on people who are under their supposed care. This has been documented for decades.”
Realmuto, the attorney representing Doe in her suit against Melhorn – which also names the U.S. government, the GEO Group, and Moshannon Valley’s PREA investigator – hopes to hear from others who have gone through similar experiences to the one Doe says she endured.
“There are an untold number of women who have passed through this facility who have been subjected to the same or worse types of sexual abuse,” Realmuto told The Independent. “… It’s particularly disturbing when it’s coming from the clergy, which, for many people who are detained, is supposed to be a source of comfort.”
Doe’s lawsuit alleges 11 individual causes of action, including negligence, intrusion upon seclusion, and violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages to be determined in court, plus attorneys’ fees.
ICE and the GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment. The Moshannon Valley PREA investigator, whose full name is not listed in court records, was unable to be reached.
The Art of The Deal has come to government. President Trump wants a piece of the action on transactions needing government approval or funding. He wants equity stakes in an ever-increasing number of America’s major corporations, giving him a say in what those corporations invest in, from whom they buy, to whom they sell, whom they fire and much more. The free-market capitalism that saw this nation prosper like no other is no more. The confessedly corrupt early 20th-century politician George Washington Plunkitt famously said, “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” Trump “seen” his.
The first opportunity was presented by a global trading system that seriously disadvantaged the US. Trump replaced it with a system of tariffs that transfers enormous powers to him. Nvidia, a world leader in AI development, was granted an export licence to sell some of its chips to China in return for directing 15 per cent of the proceeds to the Treasury over which Trump, in effect, presides.
The president now has life-and-death power over Apple, which has won exemption from tariffs on its iPhones and other devices by pouring the odd billion into Trump’s headline-generating announcements of new investments in America. Such relief is in the gift of the president, creating a giant pay-to-play casino where market forces, flawed though they were, once prevailed. Congress can read all about it on Truth Social.
The second opportunity was presented to Trump by Nippon Steel’s request for approval of its acquisition of US Steel. Permission granted, in return for which the government received a golden share in the combined company. That, added to its need for tariff protection, gave Trump considerable power not only over the new US Steel but over the auto, appliance and other industries that use the metal, both domestic and imported.
The third opportunity for power enhancement was created for Trump when President Biden ladled out billions in subsidies to chipmaker Intel. In return, in the inimitable words of commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, “We got nothing, nothing.” A Republican president of the old school might have cancelled the Biden subsidies and left Intel at the mercy of market forces.
Trump has been accused of many things, but never of being a traditional Republican. He demanded that Intel issue and turn over to the government some $8.9 billion of new shares, in effect giving him control of 10 per cent of Intel’s outstanding shares. Socialist senator Bernie Sanders professed delight. Intel’s competitors not so much. Existing rivals and those the Silicon Valley crowd expects to conjure will be at a significant disadvantage competing with businesses in which the government has a financial interest, and with which Trump’s political future is now linked.
The president promises “many more” such deals, or “shakedowns” as his critics call them — the substitution of state capitalism for market capitalism, as an economist would put it. MP Materials, a potential major producer of rare earth magnets, is to receive government financial aid that it says will position the Department of Defense “to become the company’s largest shareholder”.
Lockheed Martin, which gets 90 per cent of its revenues from the US government, might be the next of many defence contractors Trump is planning to add to the congeries of enterprises under his management. The issuance of new shares to the government, of course, will dilute the value of existing shares, and is therefore a de facto seizure of private property. And, say critics, will surely slow the pace of risk-taking innovation.
In short, the extent of presidential control of the economy has not been seen since the end of the Second World War. Trump has added to his influence over macroeconomic policy by levying tariffs, another name for taxes. He is in the process of gaining control of monetary policy by packing the Fed board and firing an existing board member for alleged mortgage fraud, no trial necessary.
Fed independence, done and dusted, control of the macroeconomy complete, he is turning his attention to the independent players that make up the microeconomic economy. With sycophants in seats once occupied by powerful advisers and the opposition Democrats in disarray, effective resistance to Trump’s power push is negligible.
Economists have long linked free markets with individual freedom, state control of the economy with the power of government to decide which companies prosper and which industries provide jobs in which states. Trump has displaced those market forces with, well, himself. Add control of the criminal justice system and the firing or demotion of two dozen January 6 prosecutors; replacement of professional number-crunchers with Maga loyalists at no-longer independent agencies; raids on the home and office of former National Security Advisor John Bolton; and plans to replace local law enforcement with what the Founding Fathers feared, a federal “standing army” under the control of the president, America’s new CEO-in-chief.
“You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet” has long been a common boast among America’s entertainment celebrities, of which the star of The Apprentice is one. Now, as president, he is favouring visitors with baseball caps emblazoned “Trump in 2028”.
Liset Fernandez spent most of the summer worried about her dad, Luis, but a few weeks ago she got some good news. After Luis was held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody for weeks, an immigration judge in Texas granted him release on a $5,000 bond.
Luis, who came to the US from Ecuador in 1994, had been held in detention at a facility in Livingston, Texas, thousands of miles away from his home in Queens. Liset, 17, had taken on extra shifts working a retail job to support her mom and nine-year-old brother. Luis’s co-workers at the Square Diner, a railcar-style greasy spoon in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood for more than 100 years, had raised more than $20,000 to support him and his family.
But when Liset logged on to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website to pay the bond, she got a message telling her that her dad was ineligible for release. It fell to her to tell her dad that instead of coming home that day, he would remain detained. “It was upsetting for everyone,” Liset said. “His voice sounded completely disappointed.”
Luis was being detained because of a new DHS policy arguing that all people who enter the US illegally are ineligible for bond, regardless of how long they have been here and whether or not they pose a flight risk. In Fernandez’s case, DHS went even further, deploying a rarely used maneuver to pause the immigration judge’s bond ruling while it appealed his ruling. Federal regulations allow the agency to automatically stay an immigration judge’s bond decision while they appeal the case to the board of immigration appeals.
The maneuver means Fernandez will remain detained while his case is pending before the board of immigration appeals. Since the board is being bogged down with appeals, it’s unclear how long it could take to resolve the case, said Craig Relles, an immigration attorney representing Fernandez.
Fernandez’s case shows how the Trump administration is “ratcheting up every aspect of the immigration system” for people who are in the US illegally no matter how long they’ve been in the US, said Suchita Mathur, a lawyer at the American Immigration Council.
“At every step of the way, they’re inflicting the maximum punishment on people,” she said. “It’s all part and parcel of the administration’s effort to make this process so punitive and unbearable that people give up.”
The justice department, which oversees immigration courts, adopted the procedure for automatically pausing an immigration judge’s bond ruling in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks amid concerns about national security. At the time, there were concerns about how it could be used to unjustly detain people. Both Mathur and Relles said they had rarely seen the appeal-and-stay practice used until this summer. Now, they said, the practice is widespread.
Lawyers representing the Department of Homeland Security have been instructed to appeal every decision in which someone is granted bond and immediately pause the judge’s ruling while the appeal is pending, according to an agency official familiar with the matter. They have also been told they will be fired if they do not take such action, the person said.
Asked whether lawyers were being told to automatically appeal in all cases where bond was granted, the Department of Homeland Security said: “Every decision to appeal is based on the facts of the case. No one has been fired for not appealing a case.”
In recent months, federal judges across the country, including in Minnesota, Nebraska and Maryland, have ruled in favor of detained immigrants who have challenged the practice. Appealing the bond ruling and automatically staying an immigration judge’s decision to grant bond, the judges have said, puts the due process rights of detainees at risk.
“The government’s discretion in matters of immigration is deep and wide, but surely its chop does not overcome the banks of due process enshrined in the constitution,” Julie Rubin, a US district judge in Maryland, wrote this month in a ruling granting release of an immigrant who was detained even though an immigration judge had ordered bond. “Invocation of the automatic stay renders the [immigration judge’s] custody redetermination order an ‘empty gesture’ absent demonstration of a compelling interest or special circumstance left unanswered by [the immigration judge].”
“It seems like there’s a nationwide policy from headquarters instructing them to file these automatic stays,” Mathur said. Such a policy “would raise even more questions about due process. Because if they’re not even conducting individualized analyses before filing these, that’s even more shocking.”
The Department of Homeland Security said Fernandez had entered the country illegally and had two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated. The agency did not provide more information on the cases, but told Tribeca Citizen, a local news site, the charges were from 2003 and 2014.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
But that is not what Fernandez’s co-workers knew of him. At the Square Diner, he was known as a hard worker who would work overtime to support Liset and his nine-year-old son. He was the person who would welcome new employees into the fold, always quick with a joke, and who would cover for someone who needed to step out for an emergency and then give them the earnings they missed. He would FaceTime his kids during long shifts and never say a bad word about customers who were stingy with tips. The only thing he would ever eat at work – sometimes with some teasing – were big salad bowls filled with soup. Usually chicken, but occasionally different types mixed together.
The fact that Luis had been in the United States for so long, was working and paying taxes, and had two children who are US citizens made him someone who was clearly eligible for bond, Relles said.
“The Department of Homeland Security had the opportunity to present any and all evidence indicating that he was a danger, that there were serious infractions in the past. And he was able to meet his burden, establishing that he was not a danger and is not a flight risk,” Relles said.
“He’s human. He has heart,” said one co-worker who asked to remain anonymous because they feared for their safety. “He’s [an] extremely honest person. With money, with food, with anything, you just name it. And the most important thing is the best father.” The co-worker said they had spoken to Luis recently and he was working in the kitchen of the detention center where he is being held. Recently he volunteered to give the other detainees haircuts.
The last time Liset saw her dad in person was early in the morning on 24 June when he came to her bedroom to say goodbye. He had been summoned to appear that morning for a check-in on his asylum application in Long Island. The day before he was set to leave, Luis became suspicious that something might happen to him. He shared the location on his phone with Liset. Still, Liset didn’t think there was much to worry about and said goodbye.
It was a scorching hot day in New York and Liset went to the beach with her cousin to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation. While she was there, Luis called her. She could tell from the tone of his voice that something was wrong. He told her not to worry, but that he was going to be arrested. “They’re going to take me, Ice is here, and I’m not coming home anytime soon,” he told her. “If anything happens, make sure you take care of yourself.”
Fernandez is one of thousands of immigrants arrested by the Trump administration as part of its effort to ramp up deportations. Half of the immigrants arrested in the New York City area this year have been arrested, like Fernandez was, at routine check-ins at immigration offices, according to federal data analyzed by the New York Times.
Liset didn’t hear from her dad for a few days. But when she eventually got hold of him, he had been transferred to a facility in Texas. Since he’s been detained, Liset has talked to her dad almost every day, usually for just a few minutes. He’s told her that there are about 20 people in his room and that it’s extremely cold because air conditioners are running 24/7. The first few weeks in detention, Liset said, Luis would share a cup of ramen noodles with two other men for meals.
Liset described her dad as a hard worker who wanted to make sure his family was taken care of financially while also making sure he could spend time with them. Since her mom only speaks limited English, it’s fallen on Liset to take the lead on her dad’s legal case while also taking on more shifts at work.
“This is incredibly draining,” she said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/immigration-custody-bail-trump
