What Happened Today - 24 December 2025
What Happened Today – 24 December 2025
Sloppy Epstein File Release….
Greenland takeover talk
Heritage Foundation defections to Pence
Loomer saying “the Dems were right”
Supreme Court smacks down Trump’s Guard gambit
Trump at the Kennedy Center Honors
White House grabbing DOJ social media
ICE’s warehouse plan and the deranged Santa video
Jack Smith and GOP regret
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Sloppy Epstein File Release….
So yeah, the talk about the DOJ botching the Epstein file redactions isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s exactly what happened. They pushed out tens of thousands of pages, and on some of those “redacted” PDFs, you could literally just highlight the blacked‑out sections, copy, paste, and boom — the supposedly hidden text pops right out. Multiple outlets tested it and confirmed the redactions were done wrong, which is basic‑level incompetence for a department that lives and dies on documents.
The fallout isn’t abstract either — survivors are saying their names and identifying details appeared unredacted in places they were promised would be scrubbed, and at least one woman told CNN she was “mortified” to see her name show up multiple times in the DOJ’s public release. Lawyers for Epstein victims have already accused DOJ of either not knowing who all the victims are or just being flat‑out negligent with their privacy, and earlier rounds of releases have already exposed dozens of victims’ names in material Congress handled. This isn’t just “technical glitches”; it’s people who’ve already been traumatized getting dragged back into the spotlight against their will.
DOJ’s response has basically been triage: they’ve pulled a batch of files back down, including photos and documents, after complaints from victims and said they’re re‑reviewing them for “further redactions” and then reposting. A Justice Department official has admitted they yanked over a dozen files, reviewed them, and then re‑released some, and DOJ is spinning this as them acting “out of an abundance of caution” — which sounds nice until you realize the “caution” came after the damage was already done. They’re still working through missing documents, over‑redacted ones, and now these under‑redacted screwups, so the so‑called “release” is very much a moving target.
On Trump specifically, his name absolutely shows up in this batch — there are multiple references to him in emails and memos, and coverage is very clear that Trump is a recurring figure in the documents. But so far, reporters going through this material say it’s more about associations, mentions, and context than some brand‑new, smoking‑gun allegation that he personally participated in Epstein’s crimes. One major wire report even emphasized that the files are “full of famous names, but not Trump’s” in the truly incriminating sections, which is infuriating but also exactly how this stuff usually works for powerful people. Politically, though, it still piles more mud on Trump’s already gross history of knowing and socializing with Epstein, and it keeps his name tied to a scandal involving child abuse every time a new story drops.
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Greenland takeover talk
Trump has fully revived his obsession with grabbing Greenland, now dressing it up as a “national security” necessity and even appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a special envoy whose job is basically to “lead the charge” toward U.S. control of the island. Denmark and Greenland’s leaders are furious, summoning the U.S. ambassador and flatly rejecting any sale or annexation, warning that this tramples sovereignty and ramps up tensions in the Arctic.
The danger here is huge: Trump is openly floating that the U.S. may need to “take over” territory where Russia and China are active, which is exactly how you stumble into great‑power confrontation, and it normalizes the idea that the U.S. can just absorb other countries if Trump decides it’s “vital.” The rest of the world is already signaling that if he keeps pushing, this becomes a full‑blown diplomatic crisis in NATO and the Arctic, not some quirky real‑estate story.
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Heritage Foundation defections to Pence
More than a dozen senior Heritage Foundation staffers — including major legal, economic, and data people tied directly into Project 2025 — have walked out and gone to Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom. Heritage is trying to spin it as “disloyalty” and insist Project 2025 is still on track, but when your top rule‑of‑law and economic architects bail, that’s a real crack in the machine behind Trump’s second‑term blueprint.
Pence’s group is not “safe” or moderate; it’s a different flavor of hard‑right authoritarianism — heavily Christian nationalist, anti‑abortion, and eager to roll back civil rights — just less cozy with open antisemites and neo‑Nazi‑adjacent influencers that Heritage has been flirting with. What this split really means is the right is now running two overlapping policy shops for dismantling democracy instead of one: Project 2025 still feeds Trump’s agenda, while Pence’s outfit positions itself as the “respectable” alternative if MAGA crashes and burns.
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Loomer saying “the Dems were right”
Laura Loomer — who has been one of Trump’s loudest attack dogs — is now publicly admitting that Democrats “were right” about Nazis on the right, saying flat‑out that there is a neo‑Nazi problem in conservative circles. She’s warning that if Republicans don’t show “moral clarity” and clean this up, they’re going to get wiped in 2026 and 2028, which is a pretty direct shot at the MAGA ecosystem Trump has tolerated and encouraged.
For Trump, this is dangerous not because he’ll change, but because it signals a small but growing faction of MAGA‑adjacent people are willing to say out loud that the rot is real instead of just screaming “smear” at every Nazi expose. Most of the hardcore base isn’t “following Loomer out of the lies” yet, but every time someone in his inner orbit admits the Democrats had a point, it chips away at the myth that the only extremists in the story are on the left.
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Supreme Court smacks down Trump’s Guard gambit
The Supreme Court just handed Trump a big loss by blocking his attempt to federalize and deploy the Illinois National Guard into Chicago over the objections of state and local leaders. In a 6–3 decision, the Court let lower‑court orders stand, saying the administration hasn’t shown any lawful basis under Title 10 or related militia statutes to send in troops just because Chicago is resisting his immigration crackdown.
The ruling makes it clear that “political opposition” and protests around ICE are not a “rebellion” and that the military cannot be used to execute domestic law in Illinois on Trump’s say‑so, which undercuts his whole “I can send forces wherever I want” posture. Kavanaugh joined the conservatives in dissent, arguing the president should have wider latitude in emergencies and invoking Insurrection‑Act‑style logic, which is a red flag that Trump’s team will now look for new legal hooks or manufactured “rebellion” narratives to expand his use of force elsewhere.
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Trump at the Kennedy Center Honors
The Kennedy Center Honors under Trump played like a ratings win wrapped around a cult‑of‑personality rally, with solid TV numbers, a packed house, and a reaction that was equal parts star‑struck, uncomfortable, and furious at how blatantly he made it about himself.
TV ratings and crowd
CBS pulled in around 5.1 million viewers for the broadcast, enough to win the night and reverse a few years of ratings decline for the Honors, which Trump will absolutely spin as “proof” that he saved the show. Inside the Kennedy Center Opera House, the place was full and glitzy as always — honorees like Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Crawford got big ovations — but the energy shifted every time Trump veered into grievance or self‑promotion.
Critics and arts reporters are basically saying the same thing: the performances and tributes were strong, but Trump hogged the spotlight and turned an arts celebration into yet another stage for his ego and culture‑war branding. Even some former Kennedy Center insiders are publicly warning that his politicization and control over the institution are poisoning its finances and reputation long‑term.
Overall response
Mainstream reviews focused on how Trump couldn’t stop making it about himself, calling it the “Trump Kennedy Center” era and noting that the institution has effectively bent to his will after he blew out the old leadership and installed loyalists. Arts people and a lot of viewers hated seeing a supposedly bipartisan, “above politics” event turned into a stage for his fake ratings boasts, digs at critics, and dominance branding.
At the same time, his base and right‑wing media are hyping the show as a triumph, treating the higher ratings and the star lineup as validation for his takeover of the board, the renovations, and his brag that the Kennedy Center is “back” because he’s in charge.
Lies and inflated claims
Here’s the kind of nonsense he pushed during the Honors and the surrounding events:
• He bragged that this was “the greatest night in the history of the Kennedy Center” and that “nothing like this has ever occurred,” which is pure hyperbole meant to credit himself for a 40‑plus‑year tradition that existed long before him.
• He claimed the show was “already receiving rave reviews” and promised massive ratings before it even aired, framing any future criticism as “fake news” attacks in advance.
• He boasted that “we raised over $100 million in the last month, they’ve never come close,” which goes far beyond normal fundraising reality and reads like his standard made‑up big number to sell himself as the ultimate closer.
• He implied he’s been a long‑time Kennedy Center guy while previous reporting has him admitting he hadn’t even attended a show there before becoming chairman, which is classic revisionist “I’ve always loved this place” Trump.
• He suggested he personally picked the honorees and “turned down plenty who were too woke,” dressing the whole arts award process up as his ideological filter rather than the institution’s own selection process.
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Ridiculous and out‑of‑pocket remarks
On top of the lies, he layered in the petty and the absurd:
• He repeatedly joked about renaming it the “Trump Kennedy Center,” at one point calling it that outright on stage before fake‑apologizing, which is exactly his standard way of floating something he clearly wants.
• He rambled that this was “the greatest evening in the history of the Center, maybe of the country,” and turned his hosting role into a long, self‑pitying monologue about “fake news” critics and how they’d trash his performance.
• He told the crowd “this place is hot” and lavished praise on “gorgeous” renovations that just so happen to align with his developer taste — marble, gold columns, and branding‑friendly visuals — like he’s showing off a new hotel lobby.
• He took a swing at the audience itself, calling some people there “miserable, horrible people” while pretending it was a joke tied to “persistence,” which is perfectly on brand: insult them to their faces and then smirk.
• He joked about hosting the Honors “full time,” even after leaving the White House, which fits his whole project of turning what was a national cultural institution into a recurring Trump‑branded spectacle.
Finally, there were the rumors that he’d literally soiled himself at the Honors — which blew up online — but fact‑checkers haven’t found any evidence for that beyond memes and anonymous trolling. The reality is bad enough without the bathroom folklore: he took an arts institution, stapled his ego to it, and used the biggest stage of the night to lie about his impact and settle scores.
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White House grabbing DOJ social media
The White House has now taken control of the Department of Justice’s social media accounts after DOJ badly mishandled the initial release of the Epstein files, including highly selective and politically loaded material. DOJ had already been under fire for releasing only a fraction of the Epstein documents and promoting images that conveniently highlight Trump’s opponents while redacting others, and now the White House comms operation is essentially steering the messaging directly.
That’s dangerous because DOJ is supposed to at least pretend to be an independent law‑enforcement body, not a propaganda arm blasting out curated Epstein content timed to help Trump and smear his enemies. Once the White House is holding the keys to DOJ’s public narrative, it becomes even easier to weaponize “transparency” laws, leak timing, and cherry‑picked evidence to attack critics and shield Trump’s circle.
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ICE’s warehouse plan and the deranged Santa video
Internal ICE documents and new reporting show Trump’s team is moving ahead with a plan to convert massive industrial warehouses into detention hubs that could ultimately hold around 80,000 people at a time, with some single facilities holding 5,000–10,000 detainees. They’re aiming to build at least seven of these mega‑centers plus additional smaller hubs and processing warehouses across states like Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Georgia, Virginia, and parts of the Northeast, explicitly to speed up mass deportations and “maximize efficiency.”
There is no way to warehouse tens of thousands of human beings in repurposed industrial spaces without sliding directly into systemic abuse — overcrowding, thin medical care, no privacy, constant surveillance, and a logistics‑driven mindset that treats people like packages flowing through an Amazon fulfillment center. Advocates and even some local officials are already calling the concept dehumanizing, warning that once you normalize these mega‑cages, “temporary” conditions become the new baseline, just like earlier expansions of detention quietly turned into permanent mass incarceration for migrants.
On top of that, ICE and DHS just pushed out a grotesque AI‑generated “holiday” video showing a jacked‑up Santa in a red bulletproof ICE vest rounding up migrants, cuffing them, and loading them on planes while pitching a $3,000 “self‑deport” bonus if they use a CBP app. The Trump administration is literally branding the campaign “YOU’RE GOING HO HO Home,” turning state violence and forced displacement into a Christmas marketing gimmick while bragging that 1.9 million people have self‑deported under these programs.
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Jack Smith and GOP regret
Jack Smith appeared behind closed doors with House Republicans and told them his team had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump criminally conspired to overturn the 2020 election and unlawfully kept classified documents. He made it very clear he would bring the same case again on the same facts today, against any president, which undercuts the GOP’s whole narrative that this was just a partisan witch hunt.
Reports from members and staff suggest some Republicans came away rattled, saying privately that Smith’s evidence was more extensive and damning than the Fox‑news‑ified version they’ve been selling, and that the deposition “did not go the way they hoped.” That doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly grow spines in public, but you can see the regret peeking through: they handed Smith a microphone inside their own committee, and he used it to remind them how much they all know Trump actually did on January 6 and with those documents.
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Wow – wanted to make today’s short – but there was a lot I wanted to cover and document. This has felt to me more like keeping track of history while hopefully trying to inform anyone who read these – but I’m glad I have been doing it. To be able to put this all together years down the road…will be pretty amazing to have and look back on.
Happy Holidays to all. I hope that each of you have and spend time with those you love.
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.