Like scattered billiard balls, 16 Early Head Start children scampered across a rubber-matted playground in Southwest Philadelphia last week.
Vigilant for tumbles or conflicts, four teachers calmly monitored the 1- and 2-year-olds in their high-energy frolic at an early learning center run by KenCrest, a nonprofit that operates Head Start and other programs in seven neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.
Head Start’s low ratio of one teacher for every four toddlers is a hallmark of standards for the 61-year-oldfederal program that provides free education, health, nutrition, family support, and daycare services for low-income children from birth to age 5.
But now, advocates say, Head Start risks being eviscerated by changes proposed by the Trump administration.
The vaunted teacher-child ratio, along with other foundational principles that make Head Start unique, is being threatened by plans to “deregulate” the program — overhauling the way it operates by eliminating more than 1,400 regulatory mandates that dictate how the program is administered.
“We could be going to two staff members for 25 toddlers and two for 30 older kids,” said Melanie Brennan, executive director of early learning programs at KenCrest.
“What’ll bathroom time look like?”
The Trump administration defends its proposed changes as the building blocks for a better Head Start, which serves 700,000 low-income children nationwide, including an estimated 7,500 in Philadelphia.
“We are removing unnecessary bureaucracy, strengthening nutrition and physical health, trusting parents and local communities,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department administers Head Startat the federal level.
That does not ring true to Head Start professionals in Philadelphia.
“It’s laughable to say all they’re trying to do is take away some bureaucracy,” Brennan said. “By ending rules that guide Head Start’s high, uniform standards, the administration’s real goal is to leave the education business.”
In Philadelphia, more than $70 million in federal funding for Head Start goes through the Philadelphia School District, the program’s largest provider in the city, said Diane Castelbuono, the district’s deputy chief for early learning.
KenCrest Director Josie Jones with staff and Early Head Start students.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The district uses that money to directly operate Head Start programming in more than 60 school buildings, mostly elementary schools, throughout the city, she said. It also works with approved contractors who run Head Start classrooms at approximately 75 childcare sites in Philadelphia, Castelbuono added.
Asked for comment on the proposed changes, the school district said in a statement that the Head Start program has “positively impacted” students and that district officials “remain committed to preserving the robust standards that have proven essential to our program’s success.”
‘Stunned and sad’
While only Congress can repeal the statutory authorization for Head Start, which has an annual budget of about $12 billion, opponents of the Trump administration’s proposal warn the new rules would weaken the program to the point it became unrecognizable — or stopped existing altogether.
The plan, called “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs,” was released Aug. 7.
Public comment will be accepted until October, when the administration hopes to finalize the rules.
Kush Desai, a spokesperson for the White House, said the changes would enable the government to provide a stronger program that ensures services “are delivered effectively to children and families in need” by reducing “unnecessary administrative burden.”
Advocates who have spent their late-summer vacations reading the complex, nearly 200-page document say they are in the process of marshaling opposition, which they hope will delay or alter the administration’s plans.
“There’s so much to unpack,” said Kara McFalls, executive director of the Pennsylvania Head Start Association in Harrisburg. “We’re checking with experts to see if Head Start becomes gravely harmed.”
Advocates say initial readings of the new rule justify their concerns.
Beyond altering teacher-child ratios, the administration would lower the cap on Head Start administrative program costs from 15% to 5%, which means local programs could spend only up to 5% of their total budget on operational overhead like management, human resources, IT, and administrative salaries.
That would be “devastating,” McFalls said, making it harder for programs to pay staff working in these departments.
An Early Head Start student plays with a doll at KenCrest in Southwest Philadelphia.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Additionally, the administration would require instruction to be conducted in English only — which could hit several Head Start programs across the city that offer bilingual education.
“That policy would be ridiculous and biased,” said Rachel Sanders, executive director of Your Child’s World Learning Center, which includes Head Start programs in Southwest and Northeast Philadelphia, as well as in West Oak Lane. “Our children speak multiple languages.”
While all primary instruction is in English, Sanders said, children who speak Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, or another language are taught the lessons either by teachers fluent in those languages or by translators brought in to help.She added that 50% of the students in the Northeast location do not speak English on the first day of instruction, but that the additional support helps them eventually learnthe language.
“No way would we ever discontinue translating,” she said.
Under the Trump administration plan, requirements for math and literacy curricula would be removed. Also gone would be stipulations that programs check on whether families have provided their children with immunizations, dental visits, wellness checks, and mental health consultations.
And hygiene training — including the Head Start tradition that children brush their teeth in class — would end.
The proposed changes “left me stunned and sad,” said Chandell Craig-Cromwell, 39, of West Philadelphia, a mother of two Head Start graduates who works in human resources in a city agency.
“This isn’t just education, or babysitting. It’s developmental support,” she said. “I’m upset for all the moms who’ll get this new version of Head Start.”
If the administration alters Head Start so profoundly, said Sharon Wolf, an early education expert at the University of Pennsylvania, she questioned whether the program should still keep its name.
“I fear we could be moving to weakened, ordinary childcare,” she said.“Then, is it Head Start anymore?”
Madison Marino Doan, a policy analyst in the Center for Education Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, disputed the notion that the administration’s proposal represented an effort to eliminate Head Start.
“The current proposal under consideration is an effort to deregulate the program and give states greater flexibility to design programs that reflect the needs of their communities while maintaining current funding,” she said.
Doan added that Congress should simply end the program — a recommendation made in the foundation’s Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration.
Some advocates warn the administration’s push to change the program has more to do with ideology than concerns about efficiency.
Tyrone Scott, a director at First Up, a Philadelphia-based early education nonprofit, said he often runs into people who self-identify as conservatives at public forums who say that part of Head Start’s true mission is to “indoctrinate kids with a political ideology that includes ideas like racial justice.”
But, he said, the mission of Head Start is a lot simpler than that.
“It teaches kindness,” he said. “That isn’t a political philosophy.”
Philadelphia is one of three finalist cities to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention, the party announced Thursday.
In addition to Philadelphia, the Democratic National Committee said it is also considering Denver and Boston on its narrowed short list of cities to hold the next presidential nominating convention. The announcement means that Atlanta and Chicago, which were on a previous list of five potential host cities, have been eliminated from contention.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that the three finalist cities put forward “incredibly strong bids.” He did not say why the party is no longer considering Atlanta or Chicago.
If Philadelphia is picked, the convention would take place from Aug. 7 to 10, 2028, at Xfinity Mobile Arena in the South Philadelphia stadium complex. The Republican Party’s 2028 convention will be held in Houston.
Democrats in 2028 will choose from an array of potential candidates to succeed President Donald Trump. No major candidate has formally launched a campaign, but Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is widely considered to be a contender.
The announcement comes as Martin has faced criticism for his leadership of the party, especially as it relates to fundraising. Democrats trail Republicans ahead of this year’s midterm elections when it comes to money in the bank.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is joined by city leaders and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and his team for a “One City” salute group photo Thursday, April 30, 2026, after they toured the Xfinity Mobile Arena facilities as the city makes its bid to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The party’s decision to narrow its 2028 convention short list comes after Martin and other top officials traveled to the five finalist cities in the spring to assess logistical readiness, including arena capacity, technological capabilities, transportation and security infrastructure, and more.
In April, local Democratic officials and some of the city’s biggest boosters wooed Martin over the course of a three-day trip and presented the city as an improved tourist destination since 2016, the last time the party hosted its major convention in the city. That year, Democrats nominated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the general election to Trump.
The events draw thousands of party members and journalists from around the world, putting the host region in the spotlight for several days. Proponents of hosting the convention also argue that it will generate business as visitors eat, shop, and play; the true economic impact of conventions, however, is up for debate.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who has led the city’s effort to bid for the 2028 convention, said in a news release that Philadelphia this year has “proven that we can do big things better than any other city in the country.”
She cited this summer’s litany of big events in the city, including FIFA World Cup games, the MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and events associated with America’s 250th birthday.
“We are ready to welcome the Democratic Party and the nation back to our city,” she said.
David L. Cohen, the longtime Democratic Party stalwart and president of Pick Pennsylvania, the city’s host committee, said in a statement that Philadelphia’s selection as a finalist “is a testament to the ongoing strength of our bid and our record of success.”
“We have presented an unmatched case,” he said, “built on experience, preparation, strong partnerships, and a proven ability to deliver major national and international events.”
I was in the ballroom of the Marriott Marquis hotel in Atlanta Saturday night when sports talk show host and political commentator Stephen A. Smith was named a recipient of the National Association of Black Journalists’ 2026 Thumbs Down Award.
Talk about a fork-drop moment.
People gasped. Others groaned. There were cheers and boos as the realization of what had just happened registered. Smith — whose smiling face was plastered up on a giant screen — had gotten an award nobody ever wants to get. A voice-over announcer explained that he had been selected because of his “recurring public pattern of disparaging commentary directed at prominent Black women across politics, sports, and media.”
Smith, the star and executive producer of ESPN’s First Take, was not in attendance. But he promised a bold response, posting ominously on X that Christmas had arrived early. He wrote: “I’ve shut my mouth for years. Now y’all started something.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity wasted no time in getting Smith on his conservative talk show, and asked if the award had to do with Smith’s criticisms of so-called radical people on the left. Hannity also brought up U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) and former MSNBC host Joy Reid, and accused them both of saying “nutty things.” That was rich coming from him.
Smith should have let him have it for that. But instead of defending these smart, accomplished Black women, Smith made it all about himself. He brought up how he had been raised by a Black woman and has four older sisters, 10 nieces, and two daughters, and called NABJ’s indictment a “flat-out lie.”
“I don’t know what the hell they are talking about,” Smith said about NABJ.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) speaks during a primary election watch party in March in Dallas. Tony Gutierrez
Oh, I think he does.
Smith, a registered independent, publicly apologized last year after catching major heat for criticizing Crockett, saying she used “rhetoric for the streets” and questioning how it served her constituents. Smith has been similarly critical of tennis legend Serena Williams, former Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Reid.
We know this game. Black women make easy targets for provocateurs like Smith who cater to a largely white male audience. Greater energy should go into going after politicians like President Donald Trump, who thinks Smith is “low IQ” and “dumb as a rock.”
In a video released Tuesday, Smith asked: “Where are your facts? You don’t have facts. You have feelings. Everything that I am. Everything that I’ve achieved, that has uplifted me in my life, has been associated with Black women. Black women have been my strength, my source of inspiration, and so much more my entire life.”
Joy Reid photographed during the TIME 100 Summit in 2025 in New York. Mary Altaffer
Other recipients of this year’s Thumbs Down Award include Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, DuJuan McCoy, the owner of Circle City Broadcasting, CBS, and the Washington Post.
This isn’t new. NABJ has been calling out individuals and institutions since its founding in 1975.
The late Daily News columnist Chuck Stone planted the first seeds for the Thumbs Down Award a half century ago when he wentafter Agriculture Secretary Earl L. Butz, who made a racist remark about Black voters, according to former NABJ president DeWayne Wickham during an interview on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. During NABJ’s very first convention in 1976, Stone, who was president, organized a news conference demanding Butz’s ouster.
Kamala Harris, former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate, at the National Action Network Convention in New York in April.Angelina Katsanis
I met Smith years ago when we were both still early in our careers. He worked for The Inquirer; I was at the Daily News.
Like me, he credits NABJ for helping jump-start his journalism career. Last year, he aired his show, First Take, from the convention in Cleveland. He’s also mentored young journalists and recruited at the career fair. Smith refers to members of NABJ’s sports task force as his “brothers.”
There’s no telling what’s next for him. TV and film projects? A run for the presidency?
I don’t rule anything out.
I just hope that instead of being defensive, Smith reflects. He should think about whether his words have uplifted the community of Black women he says have played such a big role in his achievements. He has to ask himself if some of his own rhetoric has been “for the streets.” And he needs to take NABJ president Errin Haines’ advice and view the Thumbs Down Award as a “call to do better.” The door is open. The opportunity for change is there.
Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are pointing to a stunning upset in a special election for a deep-red state House district as proof that the party has momentum while campaigning this fall for a trifecta in Harrisburg.
Butler CountyDemocrat Brandon Dukes said his apparent victory over Republican Scott Timko, by fewer than 100 votes as of Wednesday afternoon, was thanks to his focus on local issues, such as a major corridor perennially under construction to the frustration of residents.
“We kept it local, we kept it practical, and we kept it common sense,” Dukes said in an interview.
The 12th Pennsylvania House District, just north of Pittsburgh, went for President Donald Trump by more than 18 percentage points just two years ago and had been held by Republicans since 1999.
Dukes’ apparent win attracted national attention Wednesday as both a sign of the backlash to the president’s party heading into November and as a north star for centrist Democrats as they seek a path forward.
“We won that district last night with a middle-of-the-road community leader, who I backed, who won this improbable race,” Shapiro told CBS Mornings, contrasting Dukes with the party’s more left-leaning candidates this cycle.
“What we’re seeing are commonsense folk from the community who, I think, reflect a lot more my values and my approach to governing who are winning and are upsetting Republicans in these deeply Republican districts,” said Shapiro, a moderate Democrat widely expected to run for president in 2028.
Shapiro recorded a robocall urging voters to cast ballots in the race, his campaign confirmed.
Recipe for November
Democrats are aiming to flip four congressional districts in Pennsylvania this fall and win control of the state Senate for the first time in 30 years with Shapiro, a popular governor, at the top of the ticket.
Dukes, who will compete to win the seat again in November in a rematch with Timko, shattered previous Democratic runs in the Butler County district.
“The fact we just flipped this seat tonight is a political earthquake,” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, said on X.
The district had been represented for more than two decades by one of the Pennsylvania House’s most conservative members, former State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, who retired in 2023 and was known for his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and actions.
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat, said that the seat is one the party “should not have had a chance to come within sneezing distance of,” but that Dukes’ performance provides a blueprint that can be replicated throughout the state.
“Winning here means there is not a single safe seat for the GOP,” Kenyatta, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on X.
The Associated Press had not called the race as of Wednesday evening, but both parties made statements indicating that they expected Dukes’ lead to hold.
Chantell McCurdy, the director of Butler’s election bureau, said the initial count has been completed and there is a five-day period to challenge the results.
James Markley, a spokesperson the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said in a statement that the race needs to be a “wake up call for Republican voters,” and warned against policies from the Democratic Party’s more leftward flank.
While expressing confidence that the party would win the seat back in November, he also lamented the party’s inability to turn out voters this election.
“The General Election will come down to which party does a better job getting their voters to participate in the election using any legal means of casting a ballot. Democrats did a better job of this,”he said.
Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Jesse Topper of Bedford County downplayed the significance of the special election, calling the results “disappointing but unsurprising” because of demographic change in the district, the timing of the vote during the summer,and the unpredictable electorate for such contests.
“There is much more yet to unfold in the final months of the 2026 election cycle and we will continue carrying out vision for positive growth in Pennsylvania through November,” he said.
But Democrats noted that Dukes’ victory in the district would not have been possible if he did not work to win over Republican voters.
“You cannot win a deep-red district like this without getting at least a big chunk of independents and at least some Republicans” who are “rejecting the chaos and high prices of Donald Trump,” said Pennsylvania Democratic chair Eugene DePasquale.
“I think this is a recipe for a big November for the Democratic Party,” he said.
Dukes, a loan administrator, said he listed affordability, infrastructure, and education as the key issues for his campaign.
DePasquale said Dukes’ campaign worked because he “focused on issues that mattered in the district,” such as high prices and cuts to Medicaid andfood assistance under Trump.
But DePasquale dismissed the idea that Democrats should run only certain kinds of candidates to win.
“We need to be a big-tent party, and we need to have candidates that reflect their districts,” he said. “We are embracing candidates that spread the ideological spectrum of the Democratic coalition, and you’re going to see that lead to success this November.”
Statehouse campaigns often do not receive as much money or attention as congressional and statewide races, but Dukes received a boost from several major figures in the party.
He also boasted an endorsement from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, another possible Democratic presidential contender, who said Wednesday that Dukes’ win “reflects voters’ readiness for change.”
Rematch ahead
After he is sworn in, Dukes will serve a roughly 2½-month term, following the resignation of former State Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, a Republican.
As an incumbent, he will then face a rematch with Timko in November for a full two-year term.
Dukes said he plans to “stick with what worked best” for his November campaign, which will include maintaining face-to-face contact with voters.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Dukes lives with his wife and daughter in Cranberry Township and describes himself as an “avid Star Wars fan” on his campaign website.
House Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia Democrat, said Dukes’ win builds momentum for the party to make the case to voters about how electing Democrats achieves their goals on issues like codifying abortion protections and raising the minimum wage.
When state lawmakers return to Harrisburg in September, several issues await, including whether to tax and regulate skill games, finding a long-term funding solution to fund mass transit, and the use of cell phones in K-12 schools.
“When he gets started in Harrisburg in September, he’s going to be a part of the larger House Democratic agenda that’s been focused on affordability and on opportunities for all Pennsylvanians,” she said. “Voters were very motivated to make their values and their frustrations known at the ballot box.”
Dukes will provide votes that he can take back to constituents to further his reelection argument.
“It’s important to tell voters what you’re going to do to make their lives easier because that’s what we did, and we spoke about how we were going to do that,” he said. “It resonated pretty well last night.”
He’s become world famous for embracing America’s enemies and backstabbing our allies. Yet, Donald Trump outdid himself Sunday — on the eve of joint military exercises with South Korea — when he announced the U.S. was scaling back participation to avoid offending his great friend, the nuclear-armed North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Perhaps this was just a frantic attempt to shift attention from the quagmire in Iran. Having failed to end Tehran’s nuclear program, the president is offering nuclear talks “without preconditions” to Kim. You will recall the two “fell in love” after Kim wrote Trump “beautiful letters” in 2018, and he responded in kind.
The military exercises, Trump said, would be “inappropriate and hostile” to a country that “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his presidency.
Unthreatening? Respectful? Anything but.
Kim humiliated Trump after meetings in 2018 and 2019 by rejecting nuclear talks and massively increasing his stock of nuclear weapons and missiles. He’s made clear he wants U.S. recognition as a nuclear power, one that threatens South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, as well as U.S. bases and territory.
Yet, Trump’s selective memory — remembering Kim’s love letters, but ignoring his rebuffs and insults — lays bare a terrible truth about our aging, raging president: his unshakeable belief that his “great” relations with Kim (and with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping) will ultimately convince them to do his bidding.
The president’s megalomaniacal belief in his own brilliance blinds him to his repeated failures with all three dictators. He refuses to recognize that far from friendship, Kim, Putin, and Xi are bound together in an axis of adversaries who are helping a fourth member — Iran — stand up to the United States.
Trump’s superman delusions aid all these adversaries, even as he dismisses allies who could help keep them in check.
“To treat Kim Jong Un as a partner of some kind is absolutely illogical and counterproductive,” I was told by retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who served for more than three decades in the U.S. Navy, including in the Pacific.
Montgomery, who is a recognized expert on cyber and technology policy, is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he has coauthored an important book, Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Canceling the South Korea exercises, which Trump said he would have done if it wasn’t too late, decreases U.S. readiness, Montgomery told me, and puts U.S. troops at risk. About 28,500 are based in South Korea.
“Kim is not going to give up his nuclear weapon nor is he going to make some kind of deal that will win a Nobel Prize,” he said.
In fact, Montgomery added, Trump’s touted first term tête-à-têtes with Kim “made no impact whatsoever.” Kim increased his nuclear weapons yearly during Trump’s first and second term, and is now estimated to have around 50 to 60 nuclear warheads ready for use.
Moreover, North Korea is the perfect example of the close ties and fraternal help that the axis powers provide to each other. “Russia has helped North Korea build more accurate intercontinental missiles which can reach much of U.S. territory,” Montgomery said. “This already puts us under threat.”
Russia has also aided Pyongyang with advanced technology to improve its nuclear and missile programs, which decreases Kim’s willingness to negotiate.
For his part, the North Korean leader has repaid Russia by sending artillery shells, missiles, and tens of thousands of troops to help Putin attack Ukraine. They also work in Russian drone factories, freeing up Russian soldiers to go to the front.
Thus, the man Trump so admires contributes daily to Moscow’s slaughter of civilians in hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings in Ukraine.
Moreover, Putin, the president’s other self-professed buddy, joins axis members in helping the Iranian regime survive and continue to threaten American troops. Iran initially provided Russia with deadly Shahed drones, which Moscow now manufactures and upgrades. Those now-upgraded Iranian drones have killed U.S. troops in Kuwait. Putin also shared intelligence with Tehran that helped the regime target U.S. bases.
All this hasn’t even touched on the intensified partnership between Moscow and Beijing in which the two primary axis members share technology and intel to jointly undermine U.S. interests.
“The axis has helped Iran. The conflict with Iran ties up the U.S. military and makes us less ready for China, and the Russian attack on Ukraine distracts Europe. And Trump doesn’t see that the threats from North Korea make us less able to defend Taiwan,” Montgomery said.
Trump is incapable of connecting the dots. Like a sun god at the center of the world, he looks at each adversary through the lens of their relationship to him. He is blind to the links that bind them together.
The president thinks his personal diplomacy and that of close friends, like fellow real estate tycoon Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are superior to normal diplomatic engagement. No expertise is necessary, Montgomery told me.
“His first term didn’t prove that to be true. It hasn’t moved any of the four axis powers, and it hasn’t moved the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” he noted. “It is an integrated task to fight the axis of aggressors. Especially if the president doesn’t recognize who the bad guys are.”
And, I would add, if those who do recognize the bad guys — like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and many GOP senators — are more interested in pacifying POTUS than in the security of the United States.
What a difference three words can make. For weeks, the American body politic has watched the strange relationship between Donald Trump and his ever-present 35-year-old aide Natalie Harp in a state of puzzled silence. Then, Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff spoke at a weekend rally and said that Trump “doesn’t want to do the job” and would rather “build his ballroom and travelwith Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace.” The floodgates opened — on social media and sites like the Drudge Report and in angry retorts from the White House that only threw gasoline on the controversy. It goes to show what Democrats can accomplish when they’re not afraid to speak the truth.
An expert raises questions about Freedom Fuel and Venezuelan oil
The Freedom Fuel Network gas station at 1400 Dreshertown Rd. in Dresher last month.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
For a government that seems to be in your face 24 hours a day, the Trump regime has managed to produce more mysteries than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Where’s Melania? Why was the president’s butt sticking way out at his last event? But here in Philadelphia, one Donald Trump-linked mystery has confounded motorists for weeks.
Why is Trump-promoted Freedom Fuel, a web of 29 service stations that popped up out of nowhere this summer, able to continue to sell gas cheaper than its rivals down the street?
The mostly suburban stations in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey burst onto the scene with prices at $3.47 a gallon — lower than anything since Trump’s disastrous war of choice against Iran launched in late February — and continue to undercut their competitors by about 10-20 cents per gallon. Experts have said that’s not sustainable, unless the stations are somehow getting their gasoline on the cheap.
Now a former high-level State Department official in the Barack Obama administration is trying to connect the dots between the Freedom Fuel conundrum and the ongoing questions about millions of barrels of crude oil Trump has bragged that the United States has taken out of Venezuela.
Jonathan Winer, who recently wrote about Freedom Fuel and Venezuela for the Washington Spectator and discussed his findings on the Court of History podcast, doesn’t connect all the dots, but his research is a reminder of how little the American public knows about the aftermath of the Trump regime’s January assault on Venezuela that captured strongman Nicolás Maduro and installed a friendlier head of state.
The Inquirer and other outlets have reported extensively on Freedom Fuel stations in Greater Philadelphia, including its ties to pro-Trump Republican ex-mayor of Evesham Township, N.J., Randy Brown, who signed Freedom Fuel’s certificate of formation. Former commodities trader Yoni Gontownik — a major donor to GOP causes and a New Jersey-based pro-Israel political action committee — also signed those papers.
Trump promoted the launch of Freedom Fuel on his Truth Social feed, but the White House has denied direct involvement in the flag-themed gas stations, and so has the companyitself. “Freedom Fuel Network is a privately owned and proudly patriotic company — along with its convenience store operators, haulers, sign companies, and operational partners — that answered President Trump’s call to action to lower prices at the pump,” it proclaims on its website.
Veterans in tracking the complicated oil market remain baffled. “People can’t mysteriously get fuel at a lower price and continue to offer that,” Winer said on the podcast. “You could, of course, do a very short promotion, but you basically can’t [sustain]it.”
It may be a total coincidence, but the giant enigma that is Freedom Fuel and its cheap gasoline surfaced at exactly the same time the president boasted about the cheap oil the United States is supposedly getting from the resource-rich South American nation his troops invaded.
“We’re taking their oil,” Trump proclaimed about Venezuela while in Las Vegas earlier this month. “To the victor belong the spoils.” He added that what America has taken has paid for the brief January war “many, many, many times.” But analysts know next to nothing about what is actually happening to as much as one million barrels of oil that Venezuela produces every day.
Winer pointed to a couple of common bonds between the efforts to market low-cost gasoline here in Philly and White House efforts to control the flow of Venezuelan oil.
The first is the role of Jarrod Agen, executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council inside the White House, who posted two photos of himself giving a thumbs-up at a new Freedom Fuel station in Philadelphia whenit opened on the July 4 weekend. Both Agen and the president himself insisted that the new gas retailer is proof of what the Trump regime is doing to lower prices at the pump.
Winer noted that Agen was also a key member of an American team that traveled to Caracas in April, met with the Trump-backed new president, Delcy Rodríguez, and came home bragging of new commodities deals, including in the oil sector.
The second overlap that Winer points to involves a Texas-based global commodities firm, Mercuria, which announced on May 1 that it had reached a major deal with Venezuela under what it called a “White House-supported initiative.” The announcement featured a photo of atop Mercuria official posing with Agen.
Mercuria told the Washington Post, which has also investigated Freedom Fuel, that it has no involvement with Freedom Fuel. Yet Gontownik, the trader listed as a backer of Freedom Fuel, was also listed as recently as March in campaign finance reports as an executive with Mercuria. But he also insists that he no longer works for the Texas firm — which has been linked to other Trump-regime commodities initiatives. (The ex-Philly journalist Maureen Tkacik, investigations editor at American Prospect, also raises a lot of questions about the role of Mercuria, Gontownik, and the firm Blue Owl Capital, which Trump invested in earlier this year.)
It must be stressed again that all of these connections are circumstantial. At the same time, this much cannot be disputed: The American people have not been given the most basic information about the extent of U.S. involvement in the Venezuelan oil trade, how much money is involved, or where all that money is going at a time when the price of crude oil has skyrocketed.
I could not agree more with Winer’s plea that Congress go after the U.S. Treasury, State, and Energy Departments that are sitting on undisclosed records of U.S.-linked oil transactions — even though realistically that might have to wait until Democrats gain a foothold on Capitol Hill next year. He also called on the media to dig deeper, which is why I wanted to amplify Winer’s early-stage reporting.
Look, we all want to pay less for gas, which is why motorists have been lining up at Freedom Fuel pumps since the stations opened last month. But most of us don’t want to live in a dying empire where a strongman’s tin soldiers steal a sovereign nation’s buried treasure so that favored insiders can profit. We still have no idea what’s been done in Venezuela in our name, and we need to find out.
Yo, do this!
It’s great that people — especially younger people — are returning to brick-and-mortar movie theaters in the long, hot summer of 2026, but the quality of the releases hasn’t really matched the boffo box-office numbers. That may change starting this weekend with the release of Tony, a movie that could have been titled “Becoming Anthony Bourdain.” The film stars Dominic Sessa playing the future chef, author, and beloved TV traveler as a lanky, awkward 19-year-old, spending a summer on Cape Cod and learning to embrace his love for the kitchen — and humanity. I’m really looking forward to this one.
There are two must-read articles out this week from Adam Bonica, a Stanford University professor who specializes in money and politics. The first is his lengthy investigation into dodgy fundraising practices by top Democratic Party committees and leaders, in which endless spam fundraising emails have hit home with susceptible elderly donors, some of whom have drained their life savings. The second is the story behind the story of how both the New York Times and the “Never Trumper” website the Bulwark both chickened out on publishing Bonica’s essential journalism. The cowardice of the elite media in America’s authoritarian moment is beyond disheartening.
Ask me anything
Question: Why aren’t more Democrats supporting and campaigning on the 32hour work week? It seems like a policy that would appeal to working people across the political spectrum. — brown cloud (@milehighdsa.bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: Good question. One political leader, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has aggressively pushed the 32-hour workweek without a reduction in pay, noting that this would pass the productivity gains of the computer era back to the workers who are being more productive. So, yeah, what’s not to like? It’s certainly true that a lot of Democrats, especially centrists, are heavily dependent on campaign contributions from corporate types who don’t like the idea of a shorter workweek. But I think ultimately, Democratic cowardice on these pro-worker issues goes all the way back to the Ronald Reagan era, and a fear that they’ll be branded by the GOP as the party of “free stuff.” But this isn’t free stuff. We’ve earned it.
What you’re saying about …
Last week’s question about how Democrats should view the primary success of leftists such as Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed drew a response that was both robust (despite the summer doldrums) and fairly unanimous. Proposals from the progressive movement like Medicare-for-All and taxing the wealthy, you agreed, are long overdue. Tom Lees noted that the GOP is trying to find the most extreme democratic socialists, but that “the [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] branch which supports ideas similar to European Social Democrats is the group that is getting people excited.” Craig Strimel added that leftist candidates have failed in the past, but “I also believe that we are so far deep in the current fiasco, and so damned close to total collapse of democracy, that we really are in an all-or-nothing situation right now.”
📮 This week’s question: Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has caused something of a political earthquake with his blunt criticisms of Donald Trump, including a reference to his ever-present young aide Natalie Harp. Has Ossoff crossed a line of incivility that’s a bad look for Dems, or are his criticisms a breath of fresh air? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Ossoff comments” in the subject line.
Backstory on Jason Arday, casualty in the ‘war on woke’
Torchbearer Jason Arday carries the Olympic flame on the torch relay leg between Sutton and Merton in London in July 2012.Joe Giddens
There are two kinds of people in this world. There are normal folks who maybe get a slight whiff of news from the TV or when they boot up their computer, and never heard of a man named Jason Arday. Then there are people who (like me) spend far too much of their day on social media, and now know all about the charismatic Cambridge professor — the youngest Black man to reach those heights in the university’s long history — who came under fire for alleged plagiarism and biographical exaggerations.
The allegations apparently simmered from the day of Arday’s 2023 appointment, but boiled over in recent weeks. He acknowledged some citation errors in his 2015 doctoral thesis — mistakes that Liverpool John Moores University called “honest and reasonable” — but the allegations kept coming. They were fueled by a Cambridge colleague and self-proclaimed “race realist” who went on British national TV to lambaste Arday as “not smart” and label him as merely a diversity hire.
The famously not-laid-back British press went wild on the controversy, with literally hundreds of articles about Arday — not just the Fleet Street tabloids, but even the august Times of London, which ran 60 stories. The media frenzy over the young, dreadlocked sociology of education professor didn’t stop when Arday resigned his Cambridge post, saying that “the relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.” The media frenzy didn’t even stop when Arday was found dead in his home last Friday. He was 41.
Just one day after Arday’s body was found, Julia Hartley-Brewer, a host on a Rupert Murdoch-owned U.K. TV network, told her audience that Arday “was a liar and a fraud who was rightly exposed for what he really was by academics and journalists who were simply doing their job.”
I’m sorry, but as a lifelong journalist, I never realized that hounding a professor who wasn’t perfect but was loved by his students to his early death is part of the job. To the contrary, I think that good journalism might involve noting that scores of white professors and authors who’ve been caught and admitted to plagiarism or similar issues have been allowed to apologize and go on with their careers. And that bad journalism might be implying that Arday’s middling issues are some kind of commentary on any and every academic with darker skin — as opposed to researching the systemic racism that leaves a supposedly enlightened school like Cambridge with 0.4% Black professors, in an England that’s 4.2% Black.
The ghouls who hounded Arday to his death didn’t work in a vacuum. They tapped intoa disgusting narrative that way too many journalists and self-appointed public intellectuals are spreading not just in the U.K. and the rest of Europe, but here in the United States. They think the righteous COVID-19-era outcry against police brutality and a grossly unequal society was some kind of mania they’ve branded “Woke 1.0.” Never mind that the police were never defunded in 2020, not even close. The nattering nabobs of anti-wokeness won’t rest until every college classroom or airplane cockpit is made safe for white privilege.
Let me do my job as an opinion writer and tell you what I think about these mostly aging, mostly white, mostly male pundits who have so little to say about right-wing fascism that’s in power in America and on the rise in Britain and instead desperately cling to their status from the perceived threat of a few Black intellectuals. With key elections approaching on both sides of the pond, they opportunistically saw Arday as their latest chance to stir up white voters and preserve the status quo, even if that means tolerating an authoritarian police state. Now, a once-promising Black professor is a casualty in their glorious “war on woke.” Have they no shame?
What I wrote on this date in 2020
As I noted in this space a couple of weeks ago, there’s so much about the peak year of the COVID-19 pandemic that we’ve successfully tried to forget. That includes much about the consequential yet somehow anemic showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which included their virtual, prepackaged summer conventions. On this date six years ago, I grumpily covered the Democratic National Convention from my couch in Delco and — stop me if this sounds familiar — complained that the party was ducking progressive issues. “If viewers didn’t notice what the Democrats left out in their tightly scripted telethon so focused on Trump’s coronavirus failings and his paranoid style — such as climate change, gun violence, and the other things that young people across America have been marching for — the history books might.”
I’ve cut back on column writing this month, mainly because I’m working on a long-term investigation that I’m really excited about. In my one piece published this weekend, I took a deeper dive into the stunning reports that winter drone attacks on fishing boats off the coast of Ecuador — with eight sailors missing and presumed dead — were a covert operation by Donald Trump’s CIA. This callous disregard for innocent human life is the latest example of a White House death cult that must be held to account by a new Congress, and eventually by prosecutors.
It’s truly remarkable the extent to which public opposition to the data centers that support artificial intelligence, or AI, has gone from near zero to 60 mph (or maybe 80) in a matter of months — especially here in Pennsylvania. With public unrest over these behemoths around their air and noise pollution and impact on electric bills, as well as growing discomfort with AI itself, becoming a key issue in the fall election, The Inquirer has been all over this story. On Tuesday, veteran business columnist Joseph M. DiStefano looked at how major contractors are hoping that demand for new data centers will get them through an otherwise sluggish economy. That might be a pipe dream if municipalities respond to voters by rejecting these proposals, as happened last week with a massive facility planned for suburban King of Prussia. You’re going to want to read The Inquirer’s in-depth coverage of this debate before you vote in November, which means it’s time to finally subscribe. What have you been waiting for?
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ABC is moving to block President Donald Trump’s administration from the unprecedented step of taking eight local stations off the air, including 6abc in Philadelphia.
On Tuesday, the network filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, which is threatening to take away the stations’ broadcast licenses in a move ABC described as an “existential threat” to its business.
“Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” said the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The FCC has the power to regulate 6abc and the other stations because they broadcast over public airwaves.
ABC also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the FCC’s attempt to force an early renewal.
“Again and again, the administration has attacked ABC’s speech,” the lawsuit states. “Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
6abc’s broadcast license, renewed without controversy in 2023, runs through 2030.
“All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest — even Disney,” an FCC spokesperson said in a statement. “Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC’s proceeding, as evidenced by their ongoing campaign of disinformation as well as their decision to ask a court to stop the FCC from further pursuing matters.”
So far, the FCC has not presented evidence 6abc or the other seven ABC stations have violated public interest requirements.
“We’re very principled on this. We’re going to stand up to what we believe is journalistic integrity,” Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro said during a CNBC interview last week. “And we’re not going to be told how to run that side of our business.”
FCC could move against 6abc and others soon
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr with then President-elect Donald Trump in November 2024. Brandon Bell
The next step would be for the FCC to issue a hearing designation order, which would officially begin a legal process that could end with the stations losing their broadcast licenses.
ABC said in its lawsuit if the FCC issued such an order, an “adverse outcome is all-but-guaranteed.”
A hearing would normally be decided by an administrative law judge, but the Trump-controlled commission could designate itself to to preside over the case. The commission has two Trump appointees and one Biden appointee, Anna Gomez, who praised ABC’s “courage” and willingness to fight back.
“For months, the FCC has waged a campaign of censorship and control against Disney’s ABC stations, using the threat of broadcast license revocations to punish a company for speech this administration doesn’t like,” Gomez said in a statement. “This should be a welcome sign for every broadcaster who has felt the weight of this overreaching government pressure in silence.”
If the FCC moves to revoke 6abc and the other stations’ broadcast licenses, Disney could appeal the case to federal court. The legal process could take years.
“Regardless of the outcome, the adjudication itself would be immensely harmful to ABC and the stations,” the lawsuit states. “The proceedings are likely to be expensive and protracted.”
There is no official timeline, but the FCC’sfinal deadline for public comments was Aug. 5, and respondents were overwhelmingly supportive of 6abc and the network’s other local stations.
“The loss of 6ABC broadcasting would deeply impact the Philadelphia region,” wrote the Philadelphia Police Foundation, ”removing a trusted journalistic voice and a critical pillar of support that local nonprofits and public safety organizations rely upon.”
CAIRO — U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman because he is unhappy the country is close to a deal with Iran to manage ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, two regional officials said Tuesday, a day after Trump leveled the threat.
The officials said the Trump administration has told Oman it is opposed to parts of the yet-to-be-announced deal, including the joint Iranian and Omani management of the exit route out of the passage that’s critical to global supplies of oil and natural gas. The officials were briefed on the U.S. position and how the administration views Oman’s position.
Meanwhile, a projectile hit a ship as it sailed out of the strait, according to the British military’s maritime monitoring agency, and an Iranian official said the waterway would not reopen until the United States meets Iran’s conditions.
U.S. believes Oman has not been tough enough with Iran
The U.S. believes Oman has not been tough enough in its negotiations with Iran and is unhappy with Oman’s agreement to collect voluntary fees from vessels, even if the charges are related to security and maritime environmental protection, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.
Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman as it works with Iran on a deal to open the strait and pave the way for the U.S. and Iran to resume negotiations to end the war.
He posted a map on social media Tuesday depicting the strait as a U.S. territory. The president first mentioned the idea in an offhand comment last week. On Monday, he told reporters in the Oval Office, “I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” without providing details.
The White House on Tuesday referred to Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office and declined to comment further about Oman.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Aug. 17. Manuel Balce Ceneta
Iran refers to Trump’s ‘delusion’ about the strait
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi appeared to respond to Trump’s post on social media depicting the strait as American territory.
“Just as Trump correctly wrote the name of the eternal Persian Gulf, his delusion regarding the Strait of Hormuz will soon either be corrected, or we will correct this deluded man’s delusions for him,” Gharibabadi wrote on X.
Trump’s comment on Monday was not the first time he has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that Oman “will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”
Iran reiterated Tuesday that Tehran plans to maintain its grip on shipping traffic until Washington meets its conditions.
“Until the United States fulfills its commitments under the agreement, including lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, lifting oil sanctions, ending threats and military operations on all fronts, and implementing the other conditions to which it committed, the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen,” said Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and negotiator in previous talks with the U.S.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the Iranian-Omani deal could pave the way for Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations for a “comprehensive and permanent deal that addresses all concerns and enhances regional security and stability.”
The statement came after a meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Omani counterpart Badr al-Busaidi. But it did not address Trump’s latest threat against Oman.
President insists strait is open as more attacks are reported
Trump said Tuesday the U.S. has no planned talks with Iran but insisted the strait is “open and operating,” despite limited traffic, the reported boat strike and the end on Monday of the 60-day negotiating period between the countries.
Trump wrote on social media that a U.S. blockade of the strait remains “in full force and effect,” adding that all water mines have been removed.
As the talks between Iran and Oman continue, more attacks were reported in the region.
An unidentified projectile hit a ship early Tuesday in the strait off the coast of Oman, damaging the engine room and causing a casualty, according to the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center.
The monitoring agency did not release any details about the ship or its cargo, and it was unclear whether the crew member was killed or wounded. The agency said the Omani Coast Guard was assisting other crew members and that authorities were investigating.
And Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they fired drones at an oil refinery in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the latest attack that threatened to reignite Yemen’s civil war and open another front in the Middle East.
The attack targeted a facility run by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, according to a report by the Houthi-run SABA news agency. There were no immediate reports of damage or comment from Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. national debt is likely to surpass $40 trillion this week, months earlier than forecasters previously expected, in part because of billions of dollars in lost revenue from President Donald Trump’s invalidated tariffs.
The lost revenue has forced the U.S. Treasury Department to borrow more rapidly to cover the nation’s bills: Six months ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that total borrowing would top out at $39.4 trillion this fiscal year. But on Monday, Treasury reported that the debt stood at $39.9 trillion and counting.
The faster accumulation of debt means the next deadline for raising the legal limit on borrowing is also likely to arrive ahead of schedule. Just last year, Congress set the debt limit at $41.1 trillion. Budget analysts now say borrowing could hit that threshold by early next year, forcing lawmakers either to suspend it or raise it again to avoid the risk of an economy-shaking default.
Trump is already focused on the debt limit, which has repeatedly plunged Washington into a dangerous game of legislative chicken. Late last month, the president urged the Senate to address “the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster” before leaving town for its August recess.
Senate leaders did not comply, but Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) told reporters at the time that “we’ll have to be dealing with it.” He added: “$40 trillion in debt — seems to me that should get our attention.”
For the past quarter-century, the national debt has grown under both parties, through the tax cuts of the George W. Bush era, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, the 2017 Trump tax cuts and the nearly $2 trillion Biden administration initiative to prop up the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump pledged during his first campaign in 2016 to eliminate the debt within eight years; instead, it has doubled since he first took office.
This year, the gap between spending and revenue was already expected to approach $2 trillion, the CBO reported in February. Days later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, cutting federal revenue by an estimated $250 billion. The Treasury has also increased borrowing lately to build up its cash reserves.
Military spending tied to the conflict with Iran could add more to the debt in the months ahead, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington think tank that tracks federal spending.
“Our current fiscal trajectory is plainly unsustainable, and that’s the best-case scenario,” BPC president and CEO Margaret Spellings said in a statement. “AI disruption, a recession, global war, or any number of other events could quickly push us over the edge from a challenge into a full-blown crisis. Even in the rosiest scenarios, we’re speeding toward a cliff and refusing to turn the wheel.”
In an email, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that “the Trump administration remains focused on slashing waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government while accelerating economic growth, policies that will get America’s debt-to-GDP ratio trending in the right direction.”
So far, Washington lawmakers have raised or suspended the debt limit every time it has been reached, but often after dramatic, deadline-pushing partisan battles. Even these near misses have rattled markets and carried a price: Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s have each downgraded the credit rating of U.S. government debt since 2011, moves tied at least partly to debt ceiling brinkmanship.
Congress last raised the debt limit in quieter fashion, adding $5 trillion to the debt ceiling as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republicans’ marquee tax and spending law. Measures to raise the debt ceiling often include spending cuts aimed at reducing the annual budget deficit. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed in July 2025, did the opposite: That law added $4.7 trillion to projected deficits over the next decade, according to CBO estimates.
According to preliminary projections by the BPC, Washington is on track to next hit the debt limit between late winter and midsummer 2027. Based on the latest borrowing figures, the center’s estimate is “trending toward the earlier end” of that range, Shai Akabas, the center’s vice president of economic policy, said in a statement.
Hitting the debt ceiling would not by itself trigger a default. Once the borrowing limit is reached, Treasury can pay bills by drawing on its cash reserves and using stopgap accounting maneuvers known as “extraordinary measures,” which typically buy another six to nine months, according to the BPC. Only after that runs out does the government reach what’s known as the X-date, when the Treasury risks running out of cash and defaulting on its obligations.
If Republicans lose one or both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, they could attempt to raise the debt limit in the lame-duck period during November and December — before the new Congress is seated in January. Otherwise, they could be forced to make policy concessions to Democrats that Republicans — and the White House — would prefer not to make.
But raising the debt ceiling could prove challenging even under total GOP control. Especially in the House, where the GOP holds a slim majority, party leaders would be forced to win over their fiscal hawks, who have previously revolted when a debt ceiling increase was not accompanied by an agreement to cut spending.
“You have to raise the debt limit just the same way that you have to pay your credit card bill,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group focused on deficit reduction. It reflects spending choices you’ve already made, he said. “But if you keep getting credit card bills that are more than you can afford, it’s probably a good time to reassess how much you’re spending, or to get a second job, right?”
As with many credit cards, interest is itself becoming a bigger part of the problem. Last week, the U.S. government sold 30-year bonds at 5.216 percent, the highest rate in a quarter-century, Bloomberg News reported. Treasury rates ripple into mortgage rates, corporate debt and other borrowing.
Annual interest payments on the debt are projected to top $1 trillion this year, according to CBO — about the size of the Pentagon budget. They now consume about 19 percent of federal revenue, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan group that tracks the debt and advocates for fiscal discipline, and are projected to climb to 26 percent by 2036.
“Interest costs are paying for your past, not paying for your future,” said Peterson Foundation chief executive Michael Peterson, and unfairly burden future generations.
“It’s immoral to, year after year, trillion after trillion, just keep borrowing the money, not paying your bills for immediate consumption and deferring not only the principal balance but the interest costs onto our kids and grandkids,” he said.
Peterson pointed to Social Security as a preview of what happens when Washington puts off big problems: Unless Congress acts, the program’s trust fund is projected to become insolvent in 2032, triggering an automatic 22 percent cut in benefits.
“Can a democracy that’s run by all of us collectively make tough decisions to sacrifice in the short term for long-term benefit?” Peterson said. “The political system hasn’t risen to this challenge in recent decades.”
Theodoric Meyer and Jarrell Dillard contributed to this report.
Once again, Head Start — a program beloved by millions of families and with overwhelming public support — is being threatened by the Trump administration.
I was a Head Start teacher, administrator, and coach for nearly 15 years, and can attest to the transformative power of the program. I saw children thrive thanks to Head Start’s visionary emphasis on the whole child by providing a high-quality education, welcoming classrooms, healthy nutrition, and dental and health screenings. Through home visiting, regular parent communication, and frequent parent participation in the classroom, I saw families become stronger and more resilient.
Research has shown, time and again, that Head Start increases high school, college, and postsecondary graduation rates, leads to higher self-esteem for participants, and has a positive effect on future generations, as examined through parents’ practices exhibited decades later.
Which is why I am astounded by the methodical steps to dismantle a program that is the gold standard when it comes to early childhood programs. Back in 2023, the Heritage Foundation made exaggerated claims of fraud and abuse in its call to eliminate Head Start in the now-infamous Project 2025 plan for the second Trump administration.
A year later, word leaked that President Donald Trump was planning to use the biased Heritage Foundation report to zero out federal funding for Head Start. Widespread public outcry and political pressure thwarted that plan.
Undeterred, the Heritage Foundation developed a new strategy to kill off Head Start through death by a thousand cuts: If Head Start can’t be eliminated outright, deregulate it until it’s a skeleton of itself. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services is proposing changes to Head Start that will do just that.
In May, Health and Human Services put out a proposal to retract wage increases for Head Start teachers. This move would exacerbate the already significant challenges in recruiting and retaining the standard high-caliber staff, resulting in fewer slots and lower enrollment.
Recently, Health and Human Services announced another proposed change to Head Start that would lower staff qualifications while raising the teacher-student ratios. The latest proposal would also eliminate some of the structures that keep lines of communication open between parents and providers, like parent-teacher conferences. And a new English-only mandate in instruction, written materials, and family communications would isolate parents and children who are dual-language learners.
Once again, people-power can successfully defend Head Start. Contact Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick and your representative and tell them to pressure the Trump administration to withdraw these proposed changes.
Members of the public — like you — are able to voice your opinion, life experiences, academic research, or general passion for Head Start in response to the proposed changes. You can submit public comments on the Health and Human Services website — comments Health and Human Services must read and report on before finalizing anything.
Head Start sets up society as we know it for success. We must defend against this tactic of death by a thousand cuts and make sure future generations are able to reap the rewards of this tried-and-true program.
Zaina Cahill is the early childhood education policy director at Children First.
