Trump Orders New Census to Help Republicans Maintain Control Forever

President Donald Trump announced his plan to conduct a new U.S. census that excludes undocumented immigrants on Thursday.

“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

“People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he continued.

The census is counted every 10 years and is the gold standard for population tallying. It’s used to determine how many House seats each state has and allocate federal funding. The census counts everyone living in the U.S., including “foreign-born” residents like naturalized citizens, people with green cards, undocumented immigrants, refugees, and students here on visas. 

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration lawyer with the American Immigration Council, called Trump’s proposal  “wildly unconstitutional.”

“The Constitution makes clear that all people must be counted. Not all citizens. People,” he wrote. 

Trump has attempted to alter the census before: In his first term, he tried to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census and was blocked by the Supreme Court. 

The president’s hope to conduct the census sooner also aligns with his gerrymandering scheme, as redistricting is only meant to take place once every decade, after the census is completed. 

Detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” are being kept in a “human-sized kennel,” according to a former corrections officer at Donald Trump’s wetland-themed concentration camp.

In an exclusive interview with NBC6, Lindsey, who was identified by only her first name, said that people being held at the hastily constructed immigrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades were being treated like animals. 

“It’s inhumane the way that they’re keeping their residents,” she told NBC6. 

Lindsey described each tent at the facility as having eight large cages, housing 35 to 38 inmates, so around 300 per tent. “They have no sunlight. There’s no clock in there. They don’t even know what time of the day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days,” she said. 

Detainees have previously alleged identical horrific conditions, claiming that they had no access to water and had not been allowed to bathe.  

Lindsey said that rain had been a problem, sending water pouring into the tents. Last month, there were reports of extensive flooding at the facility. 

She also reported that there had been similar problems with the employee housing, which was a shared trailer. “We had to use the porta-johns. We didn’t have hot water half the time. Our bathrooms were backed up,” Lindsey said.

Human Rights Watch reported nearly 72 percent of people detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement had no criminal history. Lindsey similarly told NBC6 that “not everybody there is a criminal.”

Lindsey said she’d worked at the facility for about a week before contracting Covid-19, after which she was fired, having been accused of “altering medical paperwork” submitted to Gardaworld, the private security company responsible for staffing “Alligator Alcatraz.” She said she was “pissed off” about being fired. 

“But more so than ever, like, they’re doing wrong,” she added.

Judges overseeing lawsuits against the facility are still attempting to determine who has actual authority over it, as the federal government has failed to produce an official agreement between Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and the Department of Homeland Security. 

The FBI has agreed to help hunt down Texas Democratic lawmakers, according to Republican Senator John Cornyn, who made the request.

“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a statement Thursday. “I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable.”

The Texan Democrats fled their state in an attempt to prevent Republicans from drawing new districts to help their own party gain more seats in the House. Many Democrats are currently sheltering in New York and Illinois, and they’ve advertised their whereabouts.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker doesn’t believe that the FBI has any grounds to arrest the state lawmakers—they’re not doing anything illegal under federal law—but figures the federal law enforcement agents may attempt to intimidate the representatives.

“The FBI agents might show up just to, I don’t know, again, to put a show on,” he said Wednesday.

There have been no criminal warrants filed against the Texan Democrats, though the speaker of the Texas House has issued civil warrants in an attempt to force the lawmakers to return. Cornyn requested assistance from the FBI in a letter on Tuesday, asking for federal assistance in the enforcement of a state issue rather than alleging a federal crime had been committed.

“Governor Abbott and Texas state law enforcement officers are doing what they can within the confines of the law, but federal help may be necessary,” Cornyn wrote.

So far, it’s not clear whether the FBI has taken action in the case. But it could spark a conflict between the Trump administration and Illinois electeds, as the redistricting war grows into a larger battle between Democratic state leaders and the Republican administration.

At least one Republican doesn’t believe in a free market, and he’s in the White House.

Donald Trump took to Truth Social Thursday to demand the immediate resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump wrote. “Thank you for your attention to this problem!”

The post was most likely influenced by Senator Tom Cotton’s appearance on Fox Business, which aired minutes before Trump hit send.

Tan, a Malayan-born American business executive, has investments in hundreds of Chinese tech firms, including eight that are connected to the Chinese military, reported Reuters. One source told the newswire in April that Tan had divested from those positions, though the extent of his divestment was not made known.

Tan was appointed to run the chip manufacturer in March.

Cotton wrote a letter Wednesday to Intel board chair Frank Yeary, raising concerns about Tan’s various ties to China and some $8 billion that Intel received from the U.S. federal government by way of the CHIPS and Science Act.

“Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,” the Arkansas senator wrote. “Mr. Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”

Intel’s stock fell by 4 percent in after-hours trading after Trump made his post.

But having a U.S. president intervene in the business decisions of an independent company would set a “very unfortunate precedent,” according to analysts.

“You don’t want American presidents dictating who runs companies, but certainly his opinion has merit and weight,” Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, told Reuters.

Alan Dershowitz was once again denied pierogies at a farmers market.

After being turned away by the vendors of the Good Pierogi stand at the West Tisbury Farmer’s Market in Martha’s Vineyard last week, Donald Trump’s former lawyer once again left the market empty-handed Wednesday.

“I’m here in an effort to try to restore community and to ask you to sell me pierogi in the interest of keeping the island together so we don’t have to have two pierogi stands: one for anti-Zionists and one for people who will sell to anybody,” Dershowitz said, according to a video from the MV Times.

Last week, Dershowitz claimed that the vendors had refused to sell to him because of his staunch support for Israel’s catastrophic military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 60,000 people and caused widespread famine. He’d threatened to sue the supposedly bigoted owners for refusing sale.

But despite Dershowitz’s complaints, the Good Pierogi stand boasted the largest line at the farmer’s market Wednesday. When Dershowitz finally reached the front of the line, he attempted to hand vendors a copy of his book The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: and How to Refute Them With Truth, which the vendors refused.

“I am very surprised that you’re here because of the things that you’ve been saying about us and the business online,” replied Krem Miskevich, the chef who co-runs Good Pierogi. “I really do not appreciate what you’ve been sharing in the last week.”

Dershowitz interrupted, “It’s true.”

“Is it true? You have proof that I am an antisemite?” the vendor shot back.

Dershowitz accused the vendor of being part of a group that protested the island’s Jewish Cultural Festival earlier this year. A group of about 10 demonstrators from Ceasefire MV appeared at the July event to protest speakers and funders who supported Israel’s military onslaught against the Palestinians.

Dershowtz tried to argue with the vendors. “This is not a cross-examination, it’s a conversation,” said one of the people behind the stall, eliciting cheers from the crowd that had formed around them. Dershowitz called the cheering crowd bigots.

“Hey, don’t call us bigots! Don’t call us bigots! My grandparents died in the Holocaust! Don’t you call me an antisemite!” snapped a marketgoer.

“Time to go! Time to go,” the crowd chanted.

“There are other people who want pierogies!” shouted one person, and another cried, “Go home, Alan!” He eventually sauntered off sans small dumplings.

In a statement Wednesday, Miskevich said that the reason they’d originally refused Dershowitz had nothing to do with Zionism at all. “When he came to our booth, I experienced a surge of emotion,” the post about the initial reaction with Dershowitz reads. “In this case, what was in the forefront of my mind was in fact that this was the high-profile attorney who represented several sexual predators and abusers, including Jeffrey Epstein.”

Dershowitz, who has been shunned from the island community for years, helped negotiate a “non-prosecution agreement” for the alleged sex trafficker with ties to Trump. Two women have alleged that they were directed to have sex with Dershowitz while he was in Epstein’s orbit, which he has denied.

Epstein has been at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds after the Justice Department clawed back the release of the convicted sex offender’s so-called “client list,” claiming that—contrary to prior statements—such a thing didn’t exist.