☕ Daily Brief: Trump Cuts Climate Panic
Also, supporters raise thousands for a teen killer
Editorial Team
April 16, 2025
See you tomorrow? You’re on the preview plan, so you won’t get tomorrow’s newsletter. Members get all 7 days, including exclusive deep dives and weekend briefings. Unlock full access here →
AD
Raise Informed Kids with Strong Values
Want your kids to grow up with truth—not trends?
The FREE PragerU app offers educational videos that you can stand behind. Watch videos on American history, economics, and character-building values. They have fun, engaging content for every age. Plus, it’s 100% free, with no ads, and no woke agenda.
WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
🔪 Teen murder suspect receives thousands in donations. Karmelo Anthony, the 17-year-old accused of stabbing Texas track star Austin Metcalf to death, was released after his bond was reduced, and his supporters donated $415,000 to his family on GiveSendGo. Anthony is being charged with first-degree murder, while his attorney claimed the action was taken in self-defense. The case has exploded into a racial narrative as the truth over self-defense claims is still being explored.
🔎 Pentagon adviser removed in leak investigation. Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was escorted from the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave for "an unauthorized disclosure of national security information involving sensitive communications." The Marine Corps veteran was recently identified by Hegseth as a top point of contact for high-level military action. This comes as the Trump administration aggressively pursues leaks within the defense establishment.
⚖️ Judge blocks Trump from ending migrant parole program. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot terminate Biden's CHNV immigration program without case-by-case reviews for its 500,000+ recipients from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, claimed the administration hadn't considered humanitarian factors. The administration is facing endless attempts from lower judges to halt and delay their immigration agenda.
🐕 GOP lawmakers target torturous animal research in China. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced legislation to ban taxpayer funding for animal research in labs controlled by China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. The Wuhan lab and EcoHealth have since lost US funding, but the NIH still faces backlash for funding "horrific and barbaric experiments” on animals, as described by GOP lawmakers. Despite previous funding cuts to the Wuhan lab, approximately 20 Chinese institutions remain eligible for US research dollars.
INSIDER RADAR
Tucker Carlson on the Pentagon leaker
Insiders behind the paywall: Tucker Carlson, Dan Caldwell, JD Vance, Steve Witkoff, Josh Hawley, Chuck Grassley, and Mark Zuckerberg.
QUICK AND IMPORTANT
A Georgia man was charged with threatening to kill Tulsi Gabbard and her family.
A Washington State professor was arrested for assaulting a student wearing a MAGA hat.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) raised a massive $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2025.
The View’s Whoopi Goldberg defended President Trump’s decision to eliminate the Department of Education.
The most clicked link in our last newsletter was our insider exclusive article: “Europe Attacks Elon Musk for Free Speech.”
THE MAIN STORY
Trump bulldozes climate hysteria
WHAT’S HAPPENING_
President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the climate change industry. Since taking office, the administration has frozen research grants, dismantled federal climate programs, cut off funding to elite universities that research climate issues, and launched legal challenges against state-level climate laws. At the same time, Trump ordered a rollback of federal environmental regulations and influenced billionaire donors like Jeff Bezos to stop funding what the White House now calls “climate alarmism.”
Trump’s goal? End the weaponization of climate science, restore American energy, and stop public institutions from using taxpayer dollars to push an ideologically driven environmental panic.
_THE FACTS_
Upon taking office in January, President Trump re-exited the Paris Agreement and reopened 625 million acres for oil and gas drilling.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos subsequently pulled funding from a key group enforcing Paris Agreement climate targets.
Offshore wind projects are on hold as the White House reconsiders their environmental and economic impacts.
The White House froze nearly $4 million in climate research grants to Princeton, citing its role in promoting “implausible” climate threats and fostering fear.
They also pulled the plug on the US Global Change Research Program, the agency behind the government’s top climate report.
Under Biden, the government outsourced the production of the report to ICF International, an international consulting company, to the tune of $34 million.
An executive order signed by President Trump empowers the Justice Department to challenge state climate laws and carbon tax schemes that “weaken national security and energy dominance.”
The Trump administration is proposing to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) budget by 27 percent, including a 74 percent cut to its Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Office.
The plan would eliminate all funding for climate, ocean, and regional data labs while preserving only tornado and basic weather research.
_OUR INSIGHTS _
Insights and analysis are for members only.
Insights behind the paywall: The Inflation Reduction Act and “environmental justice.”
MEDIA BIAS SPOTTER
How left and right outlets frame teen killer Karmelo Anthony
Mentioned behind the paywall: Slate, ABC, Fox News, and The New York Post.
THE DAILY DEBATE
📊 Which Trump climate rollback do you see as most important?Results will be in tomorrow's newsletter |
POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY
Should the US re-institutionalize the mentally ill?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👍 Yes (1,219)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👎 No (59)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (148)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Other (47)
👍 Yes: “Rehouse the homeless in a clean safe place.” — J.J.W.
👎 No: “…the system is deeply flawed and corrupt. What is needed is a system that promotes behavioral changes within a “family-style” setting…”— Anonymous
🤔 Unsure: “A lot of abuse went on in the old institutions. There would need to be some kind of oversight.” — G.N.
💬 Other: In these times, all it takes is one corrupt judge with a personal bias and you’re off to the funny farm.” — S.J.
POP QUIZ
Whoopi Goldberg agreed with which Trump administration policy? |
Today’s newsletter was written by Brandon Goldman, Anthony Constantini, and Ari David. We scoured 100s of sources to bring you stories and insights you won’t find in the mainstream media.
Unlock full access
Get everything members love — complete daily news, expert analysis, and premium coverage on geopolitics, D.C., and the conservative movement.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.