Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump reposted a video shaming Muslim kindergarteners for wearing hijabs at their graduation. The White House published a 162-page report accusing the Smithsonian of a “radical, activist ideology.” Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner is “reflecting on the best path forward” after a former girlfriend accused him of assaulting her in 2021. And Florida sent two detectives to a 77-year-old Army veteran’s home over a postcard that read “You lack values.”
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Now, let’s get into it.
Trump Attacked Kindergartners for Wearing Hijabs
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Truth Social has different rules.
Trump reshared a video showing kindergarten graduates at Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. The children wore caps and gowns and sang a song on stage. Most of the girls wore hijabs under their graduation caps.
The clip originally came from the right-wing account End Wokeness, which posted it in June with the caption, “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab ... in kindergarten.” Trump, 80, reshared it without comment.
This is not the first time. In December, Trump called Rep. Ilhan Omar and Somali immigrants “garbage” during a televised Cabinet meeting. “I don’t want them in our country,” he said. “Their country stinks.”
In February, he shared a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” A White House official later said a staffer “erroneously made the post.”
The five-year-olds in hijabs, however, were posted on purpose.
Trump Admin. Accuses Smithsonian of Anti-White Racism
Because there’s no better way to celebrate 250 years of American independence than by issuing a 162-page report telling a museum what it is allowed to remember.
That is what the White House Domestic Policy Council did on Saturday, publishing a document accusing Smithsonian leadership of a “radical, activist ideology” that erases American heritage.
The report says the world’s largest museum institution has moved “away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.” It singles out the National Museum of American History for a lack of attention to the founders, educational materials on gender fluidity, and a “crusade against whiteness.”
The Smithsonian is not an executive agency. It operates as a public-private trust and has for more than 180 years. A spokesperson said it remains committed to “nonpartisan and independent scholarship.”
The report follows a March 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which set off changes to national parks and monuments across the country. The White House ordered a comprehensive internal review last August, with emphasis on “alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism.”
Somewhere in the National Museum of American History, there is an exhibit about governments that did this. It does not end well.
ABC covered this story by calling it a “scathing report.” Outlets like the Washington Post parroted the White House’s claims of “extreme political activism” without scrutiny. AlterNet America doesn’t repeat press releases. If that matters to you, upgrade your subscription to paid.
Graham Platner Considering Future After New Allegations Surface
Maine Democrats finally found a candidate who could win a Senate seat and he immediately became the reason they might not.
Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner is denying a new allegation of sexual assault while simultaneously saying he is taking “time to reflect on the best path forward” for his candidacy. Politico reported that a former girlfriend accused him of forcing himself on her in 2021, when she says he showed up at her home unannounced and drunk.
Jenny Racicot, 41, told the publication that he grabbed her forcefully. She said she reached a moment where “this is no longer my choice.” Politico reviewed messages she sent friends and her therapist describing a non-consensual experience at the time.
Platner called the account “categorically false” and his campaign called it a coordinated smear by “out of state establishment operatives.”
The timing is doing a lot of work in the campaign’s defense. The report landed a week before July 13, the deadline under Maine law for a nominee to withdraw. Platner won the June 9 primary with more than 70% support.
This is not the only scandal following Platner. He was revealed to have a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, which he said he didn’t recognize and later covered up. He deleted old Reddit posts in which he dismissed sexual assault in the military and said women should avoid being raped by not drinking so much. And in June, the New York Times published accounts from Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican operative, who described his behavior as physically threatening. Her account was not independently verified.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, support is available through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or online at rainn.org.
Florida Investigates a 77-Year-Old For Sending a Postcard
James O’Gara, a 77-year-old Army veteran in Largo, Florida, mailed a postcard to state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia’s office. It read, in full, “You lack values.”
That postcard triggered a threat investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services.
The order started September 15, 2025, when the former head of the Criminal Investigations Division forwarded the postcard and asked staff to “do a threat assessment.” The request filtered down the chain of command until two detectives arrived at O’Gara’s house on October 1.
The detectives told O’Gara he wasn’t in any trouble. They told him he didn’t do anything wrong. They said it several times. “I looked at your postcard and was like, you didn’t do anything wrong,” one said. They also interviewed two of his neighbors.
O’Gara was unimpressed. “I’m pissed that they sent you here,” he said. He told them he’d sent 200 similar postcards to other politicians and never had a problem before. He then mailed Ingoglia another note that same day: “Your intimidation failed!”
Ingoglia later told News 6 he had “no idea” about the postcard and did not order the investigation. After the coverage, Ingoglia’s office was flooded with dozens of postcards from Florida, California, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, all repeating the same three words.
The agency’s response was to update its “threat assessment processes.” So, the detectives found no credible threat, but at least the taxpayers found a new hobby.
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Every one of these stories has one thing in common: somebody powerful would prefer you not read it. A White House rewriting a museum’s history. A campaign calling a woman’s account a smear. A state agency that sent detectives over a postcard.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Trump’s Jan. 6 Pardons Don’t Cover the Pipe Bomb Suspect, Judge Rules. A federal judge on Monday refused to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., the Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national headquarters the night before the Jan. 6 riot. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s blanket clemency applied only to people convicted of or indicted for Capitol riot crimes, and Cole hadn’t even been charged when the pardons were issued in January 2025. Cole was arrested nearly a year later and, prosecutors say, confessed to FBI agents that “something just snapped.” His attorneys argued his actions were “inextricably tethered” to Jan. 6. The devices never detonated, and neither did the defense.
Judge Rules Against Trump, Citing His “Preference for White People.” A federal judge in Ohio ordered the White House on Monday to unfreeze immigrants’ benefit applications, including work authorization and green card filings from people from Burma, Canada, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania, and Venezuela. U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, a Clinton appointee, cited Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s “outright hostility towards immigrants,” quoting Trump’s “shithole countries” remark, his claim that Haitians are “poisoning the blood” of the country, and the fabricated Springfield pet-eating story. Marbley also quoted Vance’s 2024 admission that “if I have to create stories … then that’s what I’m going to do.” The judge found the freeze contrasted with an “apparent interest in and preference for the migration of white people.”
Federal Judge Blocks the Administration’s Bid for Trans Kids’ Medical Records. The Trump administration has been subpoenaing children’s hospitals across the country for the private medical records of trans minors, and a federal judge in California just told them no. Judge P. Casey Pitts blocked the DOJ’s subpoena of Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, writing that the administration has spent the past year trying “to identify, to demonize, and ultimately to eradicate an entire population of transgender people” and that handing over kids’ medical files to that same government would be dangerous. The DOJ obtained its subpoena through a grand jury in Northern Texas because the judges there are friendlier to anti-trans arguments, in what several states describe as a “fishing expedition.”
California Returns 136 Acres of Coast to Indigenous Tribes. State transportation officials have approved the transfer of Blues Beach and the surrounding Mendocino County bluffs to Kai Poma, a nonprofit founded by the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. The 136-acre parcel just south of Westport marks the first time land managed by Caltrans has ever been returned to Indigenous tribes. California bought the shoreline in the 1960s to expand Highway 1, and the effort to return it required a 2021 state law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, that finally gave Caltrans the ability to transfer land to tribal governments. Tribal chairman J. Carlos Rivera called it “beyond huge,” describing the entire property as a sacred site used for seaweed and abalone gathering.
