The president of the conservative American Principles Project aimed at women's rights supporters in an eyebrow-raising rant Wednesday where he complained their goal is “to destroy gender.”
Terry Schilling, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, delivered his theory on why “feminists on the left” have been “so egregious” on trans issues in a Wednesday appearance on the right-wing "War Room" podcast.
The comments came as he praised Trump’s executive order barring trans athletes from women’s sports just moments earlier.
“Their goal is like this disgusting, unappealing androgynous world where there are no more men, there are no more women, it’s just androgyny,” Schilling told host Steve Bannon. He then revealed what he believed to be the feminists’ main goal.
“And reproduction is controlled by the states because we can’t handle it, we produce too many people, we cause climate change, we create all types of social problems – they want all of this to be controlled and mandated by the state – that is the real goal of at least the third or second wave feminists," Schilling said.
He continued: "They want to destroy gender – they don’t like that men exist, they don’t like that women exist, they want something in-between that they can control.”
Schilling added, “Today is a great day, it’s a great day of victory.”
During a Thursday interview on Real America's Voice, Greene defended her legislation to defund America's federal education agency.
"This is a very simple concept," Greene insisted. "Ending the Department of Education transfers the power back to the states and allows the states to have all the money, keep it themselves, to fund education in their state."
"This is one of the most important things we can do to shrink the size of the federal government, rein in the out-of-control policies, practices, and spending of the federal government," she continued. "Take it out of the hands of crazy, insane women like Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers union, and put it back in the states where parents can have more control over their children's education."
"We feel like this is the right thing to do and so does President Trump, who is definitely looking," she said.
However, Weingarten was not a federal employee but president of the American Federation of Teachers, founded 64 years before the Department of Education was created.
Although the Department of Education does not provide much funding for local schools, it does fund Title 1, which helps lower-income communities, and those covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The department collects data on higher education and student achievements to provide transparency and analysis to taxpayers. It also manages $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt and federal student aid applications.
CNN host Brianna Keilar forced Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) to admit that some government employees should be allowed to work remotely as President Donald Trump's administration pushed to end the practice.
During a Wednesday interview on CNN, Keilar pointed out that many military spouses working from home were impacted by Trump's executive order pushing agencies to end telework.
"There are service members who cannot stay because they have, you know, multiple children and a spouse, and they can't stay and serve if their spouse cannot have a job," the CNN host told Fallon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "Many of them are gainfully employed in the federal government. It is a huge employer of military spouses."
"They have three children, and they are being told that they need to drive 40 miles — an hour and a half each way — to work and back when telework was allowing them to work before their kids got up, get their kids to school, or to daycare, work after their kids went to bed so that they could do," she continued.
"These are military spouses who are viewing their federal work as service the way their service members in all of these service branches view their service."
"Are you aware of this? It doesn't sound like it."
Fallon suggested that the ability to work from home "was born out of COVID." But Keilar informed him that he was mistaken.
"OK, they could telework," he conceded. "And so what you're saying now is they're not being allowed to telework, or is somebody just telling you that? Because it sounds anecdotal."
"It's not anecdotal, sir," Keilar insisted.
"So Brianna, what I'm asking you is, did somebody tell you this?" Fallon wondered.
"Sir, I'm talking to dozens of military spouses," the CNN host said. "They had telework before COVID. They are in a position where they will not be able to maintain their work because of this return to work [executive order]."
"Well, we're going to have to take a look at that," Fallon admitted. "I haven't seen that... I haven't heard that, but I'm certainly welcoming to look into it."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt did not take kindly on Wednesday when a reporter asked her about Donald Trump's plans to occupy the Gaza Strip and spend billions remaking it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
In a clip shown on CNN, Leavitt was asked how Trump's Gaza vision squares with the "America First" policies he rode to re-election.
Leavitt immediately dismissed the question and claimed Trump's comments were part of the "out of the box" thinking his supporters admire.
"I would reject the premise of your question that this forces the United States to be entangled in conflicts abroad," she snapped. "The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza."
"His administration is going to work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region. and let me just take a step back here, because this is an out-of-the-box idea," she lectured. "That's who President Trump is, that's why the American people elected him and his goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people in the region."
James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Wednesday that many Muslim voters are regretting the decisions they made in the 2024 presidential election.
As Keilar noted while interviewing Zogby, Trump received a major boost from Muslim voters in 2024 due to anger against the Biden administration for its role in helping the Israeli government's war in Gaza that has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and that Zogby described to CNN as a "genocide."
In fact, Trump in 2024 became the first Republican presidential candidate in more than two decades to win in Dearborn, Michigan, which has the largest Muslim American population of any city in the United States.
When asked by Keilar if he'd spoken with any of these voters since the election, he replied that he had and they were firmly against Trump's recently stated desire to ethnically cleanse Gaza by removing all Palestinians from their land.
"Many of [the voters] stayed home, and some of them voted for Donald Trump," he said. "But they are now feeling very clearly that they made a big mistake. And, you know, sort of like the kid who gets in trouble and his parents send him to his room and he goes out there and starts throwing stuff around... in a pique of anger. All he's got is a mess and that's what we've got here.
"People didn't vote for Kamala Harris. They voted for Donald Trump. They had their tantrum. And now look what we got. We got a crazy man in the White House who's doing and projecting things that are really, really problematic."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted that President Donald Trump had a "humanitarian heart" when he proposed taking over the Gaza Strip and relocating Palestinians — which has been called "ethnic cleansing" by experts.
During Wednesday's White House press briefing, NBC's Garrett Haake asked Leavitt about Trump's plan to take ownership of Gaza. The day before, Trump had said the U.S. aims to "own' Gaza, and that Palestinians needed to leave their homes.
"On Gaza, the president has spent basically his entire public career criticizing foreign entanglements, nation-building, sending American troops to fight abroad, particularly in the Middle East," Haake noted. "Can you explain this reversal and how building and owning Gaza squares with America first foreign policy?"
"I would reject the premise of your question that this forces the United States to be entangled in conflicts abroad," Leavitt insisted. "The President has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza."
"Can I follow up?" Haake pressed. "Because he did not rule out American troops in Gaza last night. Are you doing that now?"
The press secretary, however, refused to rule out the use of U.S. troops.
"I am saying that the president has not committed to that just yet," Leavitt confirmed. "He's been thinking about this. He said in his remarks last night this was not a decision or an announcement that he takes lightly."
"This is an uninhabitable place for human beings," she added. "Do you really think that families can live their dream in a region that looks like this, with no running water, no electricity?"
"And the president made this decision with a humanitarian heart for all people in the region."
He went on: "We're going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of.
“... I envision the world people living there, the world’s people. You’ll make that into an international unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable."
He concluded that it could be “the riviera of the Middle East.”
CNN's normally stoic Dana Bash made fun of the Republican leadership on Wednesday morning as they stammered and fled reporters seeking a comment on Donald Trump's plan to occupy Gaza by moving 2 million Palestinians out.
To the delight of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters, "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, we'll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site … level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area," before adding, "I do see a long-term ownership position."
Late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Trump's proposal had Republicans scrambling.
On CNN, "Inside Politics" host Bash showed a clip of House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-LA) searching for words as he told reporters, "A — look, there'll be more details forthcoming on that, of course. The initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted by surprise by many, but cheered by, I think, people all around the world."
In a subsequent clip, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) didn't fare much better as he fled into a room while using his aides as human shields to keep reporters away. Thune could be heard saying, "... a more peaceful and secure Middle East ––put some ideas out there," as he threw his hands up.
"Homina, homina, I think is another way to say it," Bash smirked as the clip ended. and her panel laughed.
Prior to the clips running Bash pepped her audience, by explaining, "Well, it's a good thing that John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, is a runner, so he does stretch every morning. I'm not sure about Mike Johnson, but he's definitely more of a yoga guy."
A CNN anchor repeatedly pressed a Republican congressman to explain why lawmakers were not holding Elon Musk accountable for his growing influence over Donald Trump's presidency.
The tech billionaire has placed inexperienced allies in key roles throughout the government and called for the mass firings of federal employees, including the CIA's entire workforce, and CNN's Pamela Brown asked Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), who currently sits on the House Oversight Committee but was pushed out last month as chair of the intelligence panel.
"There's still this big question of accountability, right?" Brown said. "I think that Americans are looking at this and wondering, 'What is going on here – we didn't put this guy in charge, right, and he has a massive amount of power as the richest man in the world with all of this conflict of interest in front of the federal government, and we don't really have insight and a clear view of what is going on, and when you take a step back, I know you say that Congress is reviewing, but there are a lot of lawsuits because there's a lot of lawyers who are out there watching this saying laws are being broken and there is a disregard for this, agencies like USAID, money appropriated by Congress just being, you know, wiped away against the law, and as you well know, the framers created this system of government to have checks and balances. Article 1 of the Constitution makes the legislative branch a co-equal branch of government to the executive branch. Is the legislative branch ceding power here to the executive branch right now?"
Turner insisted that reporting on Musk's allies gaining access to sensitive data and possibly the authority to make changes to government computer codes were unfounded, but he seemed uninterested in conducting a congressional investigation to confirm.
"Well, you said a lot there, none of which yet has been has been determined," Turner said, and Brown asked specifically what he meant.
"There are there are laws that Congress made, at least four lawsuits have been filed alleging that laws have been broken," Brown interjected.
Turner, who missed a surprise vote on a subpoena of Musk during his CNN appearance, defended the unelected billionaire's wholesale cuts to programs and agencies that lawmakers had approved, saying they should be uncontroversial.
"Regardless of where you are on all these issues, everyone understands that one, financially, we cannot keep going in the direction that we are," Turner said. "Two, that this system is massive and enormous and is out of control. Three, we have to move quickly to make certain that we do the triage, the assessment, to be able to find ways to be able to get this system under control so that we can protect the American public and get this back on track for both our economy, to stop these deficits and to protect our country. This is going to be messy and sloppy and and not pretty, but it's not going to be illegal, and it's not going to be, and it's going to be, in the end, the process that everyone wants, and that is let's get this country back on track where we're we're living within our means and that we have a system that financially protects our economy."
Brown wouldn't let him off the hook just yet.
"I know we have to go, but can Congress move quickly enough to do the checks and balances that you were given that the power to do and hold the certain people accountable?" Brown said. "Can you move quickly, because this is happening very fast? Can you do your job, your checks and balances job, as quickly as it is moving?"
Turner assured her that Republican majorities could move quickly enough, and he suggested the media wasn't accurately covering Musk's activities.
"We need the media to help us and make certain that you use those commas and explain actually what's happening," Turner said, as Brown defended her work. "People believe that that people are running amok in a ways that they're not."
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) repeatedly shouted a slur for transgender people after a Democratic member of Congress cautioned her against it.
At a Wednesday House Oversight hearing on government efficiency, Mace asked witnesses about funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"USAID awarded $2 million to strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming healthcare in Guatemala," Mace said. "Does this advance the interests of American citizens, paying for trannies in Guatemala to the tune of $2 million?"
"I have no position," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) stated.
"Of course you don't," Mace snapped.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) responded with a parliamentary inquiry about Mace's slur.
"The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the transgender community," he noted.
"Tranny! Tranny! Tranny!" Mace shouted. "I don't really care! You want penises in women's bathrooms, and I'm not going to have it!"
"To me, a slur is a slur, and here in the committee, a level of decorum requires us to try consciously to avoid slurs," Connolly stated. "You just heard the gentlelady actually actively, robustly repeat it, and I would just ask the chairman that she be counseled that we ought not to be engaged."
"We can have debate and policy discussion without offending human beings who are our fellow citizens, and so I would ask as a parliamentary inquiry whether the use of that phrase is not, in fact, a violation of the decorum rules," he added.
"Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to be counseled by a man over men in women's spaces or men who have mental health issues dressing as women," Mace replied.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) pleaded ignorant on the topic of LGBTQ+ slurs.
"I will be honest with the ranking member," he said. "I'm not up to date on my politically correct LGBTQ terminology. We'll look into that and get back with you on that. I don't know what's offensive and what's not. I don't know much about pronouns or offensive terms."
"I thank the chair for his willingness to further engage in this matter," Connolly said as Mace left the hearing.
"The View's" Alyssa Farah Griffin confessed that she didn't actually believe that President Donald Trump's pitch for ethnically cleansing Gaza was real when it was first reported.
On Wednesday's panel, Griffin said that she was making dinner when her husband came in and asked her about the report. She told him he needed to be better about fact-checking such things, only to then find out it was true.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump told the media that he wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza and begin the forced relocation of Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan. Then, he proposed turning Gaza into the "French Riviera of the Middle East."
"I said, hon, you're reading fake news. Sure enough! It was real!" she said.
She also pointed out that it doesn't represent "America First" or "Ending endless wars," both Trump's campaign promises in 2024.
"He was the anti-George Bush, the anti-we're going to be in the Middle East indefinitely," Griffin continued. "It's a horrible idea, and I agree with everyone we played. But I kind of look at Trump bluster from three lenses: is he just saying it to distract from other things so we all go crazy, very possible. Is he just always a real estate developer who sees things as dollar signs? And third—"
"He's too old for this job," said Whoopi Goldberg, cutting in.
"Third," Griffin continued, "which could be all of the above, is he simply starting with the most extreme version of the deal so that what he ultimately does this Gaza seems less crazy than the U.S. taking it over? I don't know which one it is, but it's a terrible idea."
Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he wants the U.S. to take possession of the Gaza Strip made former "Hardball" host Chris Matthews sputter in outrage and disgust on Wednesday morning.
Appearing on "Morning Joe" as a guest commentator, Matthews pointed to Trump's proposal to redevelop the home of over 2 million Palestinians as a resort was, in a word he repeated multiple time: "crazy."
Speaking with co-host Mika Brzezinski, Matthews made the case that the president seems to want to re-create, in the tinderbox Middle East, another Atlantic City where Trump previously owned a casino that failed.
Getting right to the point, he began, "I think it's the craziest idea I have ever heard in my life. 2 million people living in Gaza, a problem that Israel has, and now we're going to have."
"We want to own Gaza, we want to take those 2 million people and somehow lure them to go to Jordan or to Egypt? Neither of those. countries want them," he exclaimed.
"The idea of bringing an Atlantic City to Gaza is crazy," he later added. " By the way, go to Atlantic City, go to Trump Tower, what's left of it down there. Go look at the gambling houses. Look what happened the last time Trump tried to start a Riviera, a new Riviera, a new Atlantic City. Take a look at the old Atlantic City and where that ended up –– it didn't work. It works in Vegas, it didn't work in Atlantic City and now he wants to create this mecca with Hamas becoming hospitality people as waiters and stuff like that and chambermaids. Are you crazy?"
"This is a crazy idea. I'm sorry to keep saying it, but it is the craziest thing he has ever said," he added.
Republican strategist Susan del Percio said that Donald Trump and his White House are "giddy" because Elon Musk is getting all of the backlash for the mass purge of federal government employees.
Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, del Percio and Columbia Professor Basil Smikle, Ph.D. agreed that this is all part of the goals outlined by Republicans.
Smikel said that this is "Project 2025," as it was outlined, delivering on the promises in the first 180 days of the new Trump administration.
The House Oversight Committee began its Wednesday session by stating that Musk must testify to Congress about what is unfolding.
Del Percio said that Democrats are making a huge mistake by scapegoating Musk when it's Trump at the helm.
"Say Donald Trump is doing this! Donald Trump is purging the FBI," she continued. "Donald Trump is cutting aid. Donald Trump is preventing packages — I know it's reversed — from China to come in."
Musk is the one acting on Trump's orders when he is unelected and unconfirmed, and "he takes all of the fire away from Donald Trump's feet. Stop it! Call it out!" she exclaimed. "Say the president is doing presidential overreach. Then put those Republicans on the line like Vaughn Hillyard did."
She referred to Hillyard interviewing Republicans on Capitol Hill and his phrasing was about "Elon Musk through the administration."
"Hold the White House accountable right now!" del Percio continued. "They're giddy that all the attention is everywhere else."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) struggled to explain President Donald Trump's proposed bid for a U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip as he admitted that the notion came as a "surprise."
During a Republican leadership news conference on Wednesday, Johnson was asked about Trump's suggestion that U.S. troops could be used to take possession of the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians at another location.
"Is that an America-first policy to send American soldiers into one of the most volatile regions in the world and then suggest that the U.S. take control of a region that it has no claim to?" one reporter wondered.
"A — look, there'll be more details forthcoming on that, of course," Johnson replied. "The initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted by surprise by many, but cheered by, I think, people all around the world."
"Why? Because that area is so dangerous, and he's taking bold, decisive action to try to ensure the peace of that region," he continued. "It's a bold move, certainly, far bolder than what's been done before, but I think we've got to stand unequivocally, in an unwavering manner, as the whip said, with Israel, our closest ally and friend in the Middle East, and I think if we could bring control of that situation and bring about a lasting peace there, it would do well for everybody, not just in the region, but around the world."
"I talk to lots of leaders around the world, and they've been very nervous about the instability there, and I think this could be a bold step in that regard. So let's withhold judgment on all of it."
A second reporter noted that Johnson failed to say if he agreed with the proposal.
"Yes or no, do you believe the U.S. should take control of Gaza?" he asked.
"Well, I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu," he said. "So we'll have that discussion."
"I mean, he obviously has much more expertise on the issue than I do, but as I said earlier, we await further details on what exactly that looks like," he added. "This is a bold, decisive move, and I think you have to do something to eradicate the threat to Israel."
"So it just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer. I think that's logical. I think it follows common sense."
