Trump Finally Nominates Someone to Run NASA: A Climate Change Denying Anti-Gay GOP Congressman
NASA Is a Federal Government Agency Whose Administrator Should Be a Nonpartisan Science-Based Executive, Not a Political Extremist
President Donald Trump has taken more time to fill the hundreds of key federal government positions necessary for a fully-functioning government than any other president in modern history. To give you an idea of just how badly he is doing in this critical job responsibility, let’s look to The Washington Post, which is tracking all of Trump’s nominees for 591 key positions that require Senate confirmation. (There are actually more that require Senate confirmation, and thousands that do not, but we’ll keep our focus on the most important roles.)
As of Wednesday, for those 591 key positions, Trump has had only 117 nominees confirmed. He has formally nominated another 106, which the Senate must act on. There are 2 people he has said he was going to nominate but has yet to do so formally. And, there are 366 key positions for which he has not bothered to nominate anyone.
Again, that’s as of Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. Trump did nominate several dozen candidates late Friday to various positions, so these numbers are a bit off, but overall they give you an excellent idea of just how bad a job Trump is doing.
One of the people Trump nominated late Friday is his candidate to run NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA is a federal government agency whose administrator should be a nonpartisan science-based executive.Â
NASA is not just about putting people into space. It’s a vital federal government agency that is responsible for many of the modern-day technology we use in our everyday lives. NASA in 2008 produced a 215 page document detailing all of the commercial products and technologies that it has contributed to.
NASA is also a big part of America’s research into climate change, which, contrary to the Commander-in-Chief and almost every Republican in Congress, is real. The U.S. Dept. of Defense says climate change is a major threat to national security.
So naturally, President Trump has just nominated a climate change denier to run NASA.
U.S. Congressman Jim Bridenstine, Republican of Oklahoma, is 42 years old. He sits on the House Committee on Armed Services and on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. And because the Speaker of the House is also a climate change denier, Rep. Bridenstine is the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Environment.
Bridenstine is also, unsurprisingly, an anti-gay extremist.
“Jim Bridenstine is a Hard-Core Conservative,” says OnTheIssues, a nonpartisan site that tracks politicians’ votes and statements.
When the Boy Scouts voted to remove its own ban on gay Scouts, Rep. Bridenstine took to the House floor to attack LGBT people.
“Some of us in America still believe in the concept of sexual morality, that sex is intended for one man and one woman within the institution of marriage,” Bridenstine said in 2013, as Towleroad reported. “Organizations that hold this philosophy and promote it among our youth should be commended, or at least you would think, tolerated. Unfortunately, the intolerant Left bullies and browbeats private organizations like the Boy Scouts into accepting their philosophy.”
Bridenstine argued that LGBT activists “didn’t start their own organization,” but rather, “went after the Boy Scouts of America.”
Remember, it was the Boy Scouts that voted to remove their ban.Â
“The Left’s agenda is not about tolerance, and it’s not about diversity of thought. It’s about presenting a worldview of relativism, where there is no right and wrong. Then using the full force of the government to silence opposition and reshape organizations like the Boy Scouts into instruments for social change.”
He concluded with a reference to Jesus.
“To my friends on the Left, this is not tolerance. but here’s the good news about true tolerance. the most tolerant one of all has the ability to redeem us all.”
One year later, when a federal judge ruled Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, Bridenstine made clear his thoughts.
“Marriage is not a ‘governmental benefit.’ Marriage is the foundational institution in our culture which recognizes the very unique and complimentary contributions men and women make in the raising of children.”
And after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage, Bridenstine bristled. At a Christian anti-gay, anti-abortion rally Bridenstine told supporters, “five unelected lawyers changed the definition of marriage in this country.â€
Bridenstine is everything you’d expect of a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma. He’s anti-gay, opposes same-sex marriage, opposes ObamaCare, opposes a woman’s right to choose, denies climate change is real and even opposes supporting alternative energy, he “pals around” with far right wing extremists like Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, wants fetuses to have the same civil rights as people who have been born, wants a federal law banning same-sex marriage and thinks states should have the right to ban it. Bridenstine also wants special protections for people of faith who oppose same-sex marriage, wants no federal standards for education, supports abstinence-only “education,” opposes restrictions on gun purchases, supports privatizing social security, wants to get rid of the IRS, and more.
You get the picture.
Bridenstine does not belong at the head of what is a nonpartisan vital U.S. government agency. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) agree.
Let’s hope more Senators do, and vote this abominable nomination down.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
