Sundowning? Trump Needed 22 Specialists at Last Checkup

The Pentagon locked down over a false Anthrax alarm, ICE tried to deport a Palestinian grandpa to Israel, and Republicans keep posting doctored images of James Talarico

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

The White House said 22 specialists assessed Trump in his latest physical, nearly double his own past exams and the most for any president. The Pentagon locked down floors two through five on Thursday after a malfunctioning sensor falsely detected anthrax. ICE re-detained a 77-year-old Palestinian grandfather and tried to fly him to Israel ten days after a federal judge ordered his release. And Republicans keep posting doctored images of James Talarico’s face on women’s bodies.

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Trump Saw 22 Specialists at His Latest Checkup

It takes a certain confidence to declare a man in excellent health and then assign nearly two dozen doctors to make sure.

According to a medical report recently released by the White House, 22 medical specialists assessed Donald Trump as part of his latest checkup. That is nearly double the number who saw him for his past presidential exams, and the most specialists to assess a single president on record.

For perspective: George H.W. Bush saw five specialists for his first presidential checkup in 1989. His son George W. Bush saw 12 in 2001. Trump saw 11 in 2019 and 14 last year. Now it’s 22.

The number was “commensurate with the need to perform a ‘complete and preventive evaluation,’” the White House said. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said Trump was in “excellent health.”

The White House has a history of declining specifics here. It did not explain what prompted a second physical at Walter Reed last year, took nearly three months to clarify that the president had received a CT scan rather than the MRI it first claimed, and has gone quiet on whether Trump still takes the hair-loss drug his doctors once said he used.

“We have nothing to hide,” a White House official said. They just have 22 specialists looking for it.

Faulty Sensor Detects Anthrax, Shuts Down Pentagon

The Pentagon was locked down and partially evacuated on Thursday after a hazardous materials sensor cried wolf.

The evacuation was triggered when a Pentagon sensor system detected the possible presence of anthrax, according to first responder radio traffic and a source familiar with the incident. The sensor was malfunctioning. There was no anthrax.

Floors two through five in corridors four through seven were locked down. That zone includes the Navy’s main public affairs office and the Secretary of the Army’s office. Police inside wore gas masks and full chemical protective gear.

The Arlington County Fire Department dispatched its hazardous materials team to assist. Internal guidance warned occupants that testing could take “one to two hours” and that they might observe “response personnel from multiple agencies.”

At 1:31 p.m., spokesman Sean Parnell announced that “normal operations have resumed” and that “subsequent testing confirmed no hazard exists.”

Anthrax detection has a history of false alarms, and taking each one seriously is the right call. Updating the sensors would also be the right call.

So is subscribing. Good journalism, like good hazmat sensors, requires constant investment and upkeep. If you’d like to keep reading work that cuts through the noise and doesn’t fearmonger over false alarms, consider supporting us with a paid subscription. Unlike the Pentagon’s sensor system, we promise to only alert you when something is worth your attention.

ICE Tried to Deport a 77-Year-Old Palestinian Grandpa to Israel

When a federal judge tells you to release a sick elderly man, the recommended response is not to grab him ten days later and race him onto a plane. ICE did anyway.

Akram Mahmoud Omar, 77, lived in the United States for 50 years as a lawful permanent resident. He moved here from Palestine in 1975. Last October, ICE seized him during a routine check-in and sent him to “Camp 57,” the detention camp inside Louisiana’s Angola state prison, where the stress contributed to a heart attack.

On May 29, Judge Brian Jackson found that ICE had violated Omar’s constitutional rights and ordered his immediate release. Then on Monday, just 10 days later, ICE seized Omar again and tried to whisk him onto a deportation flight to Israel the next morning.

Agents showed up at his home claiming it was only a routine check-in. They lied to his family, who had told the arresting officer they were planning to take him to a cardiologist that very day. Omar was still recovering from April open-heart surgery.

A doctor was prepared to testify that the roughly 14-hour flight without medical clearance raised serious concerns about whether Omar would survive it. Those are the words in the filing: “if in fact he survives the flight.”

Jackson ordered ICE to release him again and to stop trying. ICE returned Omar to his home around 7 p.m. Monday, ten days after they should have left him there in the first place.

Republicans Keep Using AI to Depict James Talarico as a Woman

If you ask the modern GOP, the most insulting thing you can call someone is a woman.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted on Facebook attacking Democratic Senate candidate and state Rep. James Talarico for authoring a climate bill, pairing it with a doctored image of Talarico’s face superimposed on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s official portrait. He shared a screenshot of the bill but never described what it actually did.

The bill, introduced in 2021, sought to address the state’s power shortages that year by reducing reliance on fossil fuels, setting emissions targets, and raising energy efficiency standards. It did not pass.

This is not a one-off. Texas Republicans have made gender and sexuality the central issue of the Senate race between Talarico and Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing Talarico of being secretly gay and feminine. A Paxton-aligned PAC spent millions airing an AI-generated video of Talarico in a dress singing about children transitioning.

Stephen Miller called him Texas’s “first transgender senate candidate.” RNC Chair Joe Gruters called him “Tala-freako.” Fox News’ Jesse Watters, podcaster Benny Johnson, and the president himself have mocked Talarico’s masculinity as “Low T,” as in low testosterone.

Dressing a man as a woman and laughing is a very old joke. It has never been about the man.

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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