President Joe Biden said he “strongly opposes” a section of a bill that would strip funding for gender care for trans kids in military families, but signed it anyway.

The National Defense Authorization Act gives $895 billion to the Department of Defense, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies, as well as national security programs at the Department of Energy. The bill was passed with bipartisan support in the House and Senate.

Normally, this would be a straightforward funding bill, but earlier this month, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) added a provision blocking TRICARE, which funds health care for service members, from paying for gender-affirming care for children. This will affect approximately 2,500 trans kids, according to Newsweek.

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Biden signed the bill on Monday, although called out that section in a statement.

“My Administration strongly opposes Division A, title VII, subtitle A, section 708 of the Act, which inhibits the Department of Defense’s ability to treat all persons equally under the law, no matter their gender identity.  By prohibiting the use of appropriated funds, the Department of Defense will be compelled to contravene clinical practice guidelines and clinical recommendations,” Biden wrote.

“The provision targets a group based on that group’s gender identity and interferes with parents’ roles to determine the best care for their children.  This section undermines our all-volunteer military’s ability to recruit and retain the finest fighting force the world has ever known by denying health care coverage to thousands of our service members’ children.  No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our Nation,” he continued.

The news created quick backlash, with people calling out what they see as hypocrisy and a failure to protect trans kids.

“And just like that, the first anti LGBTQ bill in nearly 3 decades was signed by Biden and passed by a Democratic senate. It included a ban on gender affirming care for trans children of military families. So much for having our back, you god damn liar,” journalist Alejandra Caraballo wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.

And just like that, the first anti LGBTQ bill in nearly 3 decades was signed by Biden and passed by a Democratic senate. It included a ban on gender affirming care for trans children of military families. So much for having our back, you god damn liar. www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo…

— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) 2024-12-24T13:11:07.737Z

Caraballo is referring to the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. While allowing LGBTQ people to serve in the military, it prohibited them from talking about or expressing their queerness, even while off duty. Military officials were, however, also prohibited from asking if a service member was gay. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed by President Barack Obama in 2010.

In the wake of anti-trans ads from Republican candidates in the 2024 election, Democrats have been accused of moving to dump transgender rights from their platform. Some elected Democrats have even called out the party’s prior embrace of LGBTQ rights.

“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) told the New York Times. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.” He then offered some advice to his party: “Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be.”

“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Rep. Seth Moulton, (D-Mass.) said. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

The minimal pushback on the National Defense Authorization Act is just another signal that Democrats are backing down on defending one of the most vulnerable populations in American society.

Image via Shutterstock

Luigi Mangione’s attorney made light of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ legal troubles while slamming him over the “perp walk” photo op from last week.

Mangione is accused of shooting United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4. The shooting took place outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel as Thompson was due to attend an investors’ meeting. Mangione was arrested five days later at an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s, and extradited to New York City.

Mangione appeared in court Monday morning, entering a plea of not guilty to 11 charges, including murder and an act of terrorism, according to NBC News. Last Thursday, he was flown via helicopter from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport into New York City. Armed NYPD officers, accompanied by Mayor Adams, walked Mangione from the helicopter to the van taking him to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, his lawyer, heavily criticized the photo opportunity as “the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career,” according to The Hill. She that it may sabotage Mangione’s right to a fair trial, saying that he had fully cooperated with law enforcement following his arrest.

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“There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles that, frankly, I had no idea was in their arsenal. And to have all of this press there, the media there, it was perfectly choreographed. And what was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference? That just made it utterly political. The mayor should know more than anyone of the presumption of innocence that he too is afforded when dealing with his own issues,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

At the time of the perp walk, Adams shared images to social media, and declared that he was “leading from the front,” according to the New York Times.

“I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city — the city that the people of New York love, and I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that,” Adams said.

Adams is currently facing federal charges of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud and accepting a bribe.

“As alleged, Mayor Adams abused his position as this City’s highest elected official, and before that as Brooklyn Borough President, to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions.  By allegedly taking improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals—including to allow a Manhattan skyscraper to open without a fire inspection—Adams put the interests of his benefactors, including a foreign official, above those of his constituents,” U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.

Adams is not the only one in the mayor’s office to be under investigation. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ chief advisor, resigned on December 15. Nine other members of his administration, including NYPD commissioner Edward Caban, resigned in September and October, according to City and State NY.

Image by Marc A. Hermann / Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, used under a Creative Commons license.

Incoming President Donald Trump is back on his quixotic plan to buy Greenland for the United States. But that’s not the first time the United States has expressed interest in buying the vast expanse of ice and tundra.

Trump’s most recent attempt to get the Denmark-owned self-governing territory is wrapped up in his announcement of Ken Howery as ambassador to Denmark. In 2019, Howery was named Trump’s ambassador to Sweden.

“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said.

READ MORE: ‘America’s Dumbest Senator’: Ron Johnson Dragged for ‘Incredibly Ignorant’ Claim About How Greenland Got Its Name

Trump’s interest in Greenland started during his first term, when billionaire and former Estée Lauder chairman Ronald Lauder suggested the president buy the territory. In August 2018, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) met with Danish ambassador Lars Gert Lose on Trump’s behalf to float the proposal. At the time Cotton said that Greenland was “vital to our national security,” according to TalkBusiness.

Denmark refused offers, with Denmark’s foreign policy chair calling it a “terrible and grotesque thought,” according to the New York Times. Indeed, the proposal was first reported on as one of Trump’s jokes.

The most recent attempt is just as unpopular with the Danes and the Greenlandic people.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede told Reuters.

As strange as it may seem, Trump is not the only president to try to get Greenland. Nor is the idea quite as baffling as it initially sounds. Though the territory is mostly covered in ice—with areas of pure ice—it has lots of mineral resources, including stores of uranium, coal, gold and rare earth metals, not to mention oil and gas.

Greenland is also well positioned politically. There are a number of American military bases in the territory, and it boasts frequent visits from diplomats and military officials. It was even called “the most strategic location in the Arctic and perhaps the world” by Walter Berbrick of the U.S. Naval War College, who has urged the United States to increase ties to Greenland—and even called the purchase of the territory a “strategic option” that “deserves serious consideration.”

The first time the U.S. thought about buying Greenland was in 1867 when Secretary of State William Seward, under President Andrew Johnson, proposed buying it and Iceland from Denmark for $5.5 million in gold, or about $117.2 million in today’s money. The offer was never made to Denmark however. That same year, Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase from Russia for $7.2 million ($129 million today).

In 1946, President Harry Truman’s Secretary of State Owen Brewster tried again. He offered $100 million (or about $1 billion in today’s money) in gold bullion. While the offer was popular in the American government, Denmark balked. The main reason cited was that Danes saw Greenland as part of Denmark’s cultural identity and a connection to the country’s history as Vikings, according to The Conversation.

That refusal appeared to settle things. America was happy to merely work with Denmark and Greenland without actually owning it until Trump stepped in. It remains unlikely that Denmark will ever sell—in fact, Greenlandic independence appears to be a surer bet. But one can only assume that Trump won’t stop trying.

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