What Happened Today - 22 Dec 2025
What Happened Today – 22 December 2025
Epstein mess and the redacted files
Trump’s fusion money machine
Paramount / CBS folding on the CECOT story and ICE abuse
Greenland “envoy” stunt and colonial vibes
J.D. Vance at Turning Point and the white grievance circus
Trump’s approval and mood
ICE camps, private prisons, and local pushback
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epstein mess and the redacted files
The new “Epstein files” drop was a joke and people know it – hundreds of pages were literally just black boxes, then DOJ quietly tried to slip in a “less redacted” version of at least one major document the next day after the outrage started. Survivors and their lawyers are straight up saying DOJ is violating the law that forced this release by over‑redacting and slow‑walking, and members of Congress from both parties are now openly talking about a cover‑up and White House interference.
Online, the MAGA base is pretending this is all about Bill Clinton and a couple of other convenient enemies, acting like the only takeaway is “Democrats bad,” even as the documents and prior records clearly show Trump in Epstein’s orbit for years via photos, flight logs, and social connections. The broader public is pissed at the redactions and the selective outrage – people see the double standard in how MAGA is obsessing over Clinton while ignoring how deep Trump’s own ties run in this whole mess, and that disconnect is fueling even more suspicion that the administration is trying to control what actually gets exposed.
As for Trump’s weekend behavior, he’s been conspicuously quiet about the specifics of the redactions and more focused on his usual social media posturing, which only makes it look like he’s hiding behind DOJ while they do the dirty work of scrubbing anything that could really damage him and his people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trump’s fusion money machine
On the money front, Trump is setting himself and his family up for obscene levels of cash with this new fusion deal: his Trump Media & Technology Group is merging with TAE Technologies in an all‑stock transaction valued at more than 6 billion dollars. The two sides expect to split ownership roughly 50/50 once it closes, and they’re openly pitching it as building one of the first big fusion power players and a future utility‑scale fusion plant, with a 50‑megawatt facility targeted to start construction in 2026 if regulators play ball.
On top of the paper valuation, Trump’s outfit is pledging hundreds of millions in cash to TAE – up to 200 million at signing and another 100 million at a later filing milestone – which tells you how much they expect this thing to be a long‑term money and power machine for him, his family, and his loyalists if they can ride the hype and government energy policy at the same time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paramount / CBS folding on the CECOT story and ICE abuse
Over at Paramount and CBS, it’s straight up capitulation: CBS News yanked a 60 Minutes segment that was supposed to air last night, built around Trump’s deportation machine sending migrants – including about 250 Venezuelans – to Bukele’s massive CECOT super‑prison in El Salvador, where detainees are shackled and paraded for the cameras. This wasn’t some half‑baked piece; the correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, says it had been screened multiple times, cleared by lawyers and standards, and still got pulled just hours before airing, with a vague public line about it “not being ready” while higher‑ups insisted they needed someone explicitly defending Trump’s authority on air.
The context makes it look even worse: Paramount Skydance is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, and CBS leadership – led by Bari Weiss – is getting hammered internally and externally for making an obviously political decision that just happens to bury a deeply ugly story about Trump‑era deportation policy and ICE‑adjacent abuses in a foreign prison instead of letting the public see what’s actually being done in their name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greenland “envoy” stunt and colonial vibes
Trump also decided this is the moment to dust off his weird Greenland obsession and crank it to eleven by appointing Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as a special envoy to Greenland, a first‑of‑its‑kind post aimed squarely at that territory instead of the broader Arctic. Denmark and Greenland are furious – Denmark’s foreign minister called the move “totally unacceptable,” said he’s “deeply angry,” and is summoning the U.S. ambassador, while Danish and Greenlandic leaders are putting out joint statements reminding Trump that you don’t just annex other people’s land and that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, not Washington.
Trump, meanwhile, is dressing this up as a national security and strategic resource play, talking about how crucial Greenland is and signaling through this envoy that he still wants some version of “getting” the island, whether that’s through pressure, deals, or just trying to normalize the idea of U.S. control. Experts in Denmark are calling it a “major escalation” and another sign that Trump’s foreign policy instinct is stuck on 19th‑century empire mode instead of any kind of actual partnership.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J.D. Vance at Turning Point and the white grievance circus
At Turning Point this weekend, J.D. Vance went full culture‑war arsonist in front of an overwhelmingly white crowd, dropping the line: “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore,” which was clearly designed to feed that white grievance high and it landed exactly the way he wanted with that room. That line sat inside a bigger speech hyping mass deportations, negative net migration, the dismantling of diversity programs, and the end of any policy that even pretends to account for race or gender inequity, all packaged as “colorblindness” while he was literally comforting white fear about losing dominance.
The broader commentary around it is pointing out the obvious: nobody was actually asking white people to “apologize for being white,” this is about giving them permission to feel like victims while backing policies that are openly exclusionary and punitive, and Turning Point is a perfect snapshot of that – a space full of in‑fighting, ego trips, and factions, but completely unified around the idea that demographic panic is a valid political program.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trump’s approval and mood
Trump’s numbers are ugly and getting shaky. One major national poll has him at about 41% approve and 50% disapprove, flipped from where he started this term, and other aggregates have him bouncing in the low‑40s with disapproval solidly in the mid‑50s. Some polling outfits show a tiny “rebound” back toward ~45%, but the trend line on the economy and affordability is bad for him, with people blaming him for high costs and tariffs even as his base stays locked in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ICE camps, private prisons, and local pushback
Members of Congress are starting to scream about specific facilities, like Camp East Montana in Texas, where a Guatemalan man recently died and DHS/ICE are stonewalling oversight visits and basic transparency. Nearly all of ICE’s detention centers are run by private prison companies that are already notorious for overcrowding, filthy conditions, botched medical care, and rising suicide attempts – and 2025 is now officially one of the deadliest years for people locked up in that system. Local reps, immigrant‑rights groups, and civil‑rights lawyers are treating these places less like “civil detention” and more like a network of black‑box prisons operating under Trump’s political orders.
CE is in full horror‑show mode: at least four people died in ICE custody in just four days this month, pushing 2025 deaths in detention to the highest level in roughly 20 years. We’re talking around 30–32 people dead this year in ICE hands, with watchdogs and the ACLU calling it a clear breakdown in medical care and conditions while Trump simultaneously ramps up mass raids, large‑scale detentions, and deportations as his core policy flex.
On top of that, there are reports of U.S. citizens being swept up in ICE dragnets – more than 170 cases this year, including people held without being able to call family or a lawyer – which tells you this thing isn’t “targeted,” it’s an out‑of‑control enforcement machine with a political mandate to show “toughness” at any cost.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s pretty simple at this point: if you’re still refusing to see the nonstop grift, the systemic abuse, and the open cruelty on display, you’re choosing to stand with it. The way Trump and his goons are dragging this country’s name through the mud while tearing down the very laws that were supposed to back up “land of the free” is beyond reckless – it’s deliberate. All of this chaos, all of this damage, just to puff up one man’s ego and keep his little cult satisfied. Do better America. BE Better.
Speak Truth! Keep speaking TRUTH!
Don’t Give up the Ship!
Go Cause Good Trouble, with Your Elbows Up!
These are facts that I researched and verified – AI helped put together some sentence structure, but the words and tone are mine. These are my views based upon facts, research and thoughtful consideration using logic. I own the copyright to any images used. I’m comfortable to stand alone to uphold truth. Feel free to check me, but do not attack me. I am only causing good trouble.