Trump USDA chief made employees feel they're 'going to hell' in emails: lawsuit

Trump USDA chief made employees feel they're 'going to hell' in emails: lawsuit
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks during a press conference to address the plan to deal with a New World screwworm problem, in Austin, Texas, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Sergio Flores/File Photo

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is inappropriately injecting religion into the federal workplace, according to a new lawsuit, and pressuring employees to follow her faith.

According to ABC News, the National Federation of Federal Employees "filed the lawsuit in California, accusing Rollins of violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment," stating that "Secretary Rollins's practice and policy of subjecting agency employees to proselytizing messages conveys the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary's religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee's own beliefs."

Rollins is accused of repeatedly invoking Jesus Christ in her emails to staff and creating an uncomfortable environment for employees who do not agree with her beliefs.

"The complaint listed a series of emails sent by Rollins to commemorate recent holidays, including crediting 'gratitude towards a loving God' in her Thanksgiving email, writing that 'God gave us the greatest gift possible' in her Christmas email, and describing the story of Jesus' resurrection as the 'greatest story ever told' in her Easter email," said the report. "Rollins only acknowledged Christian holidays, according to the complaint."

One employee said nobody dared ask to remove themselves from the email list for fear it would "create trouble," while another said he "feels that the Secretary is conveying to him that he is unwelcome and 'going to hell' because he does not share the Secretary's beliefs."

Rollins has frequently created controversy with her remarks about food inflation, suggesting that people who were pressured by higher egg prices should just raise backyard chickens, and insisting that her department ran "simulations" proving Americans can create a meal for just $3.

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A judge appointed by President Donald Trump just put the president's immigration regime on ice with a major rebuke, according to one lawyer.

Recently, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that the Trump administration's policy of detaining suspected illegal immigrants without bond is illegal. The judge in the case, Joseph F. Bianco, who was appointed to the bench by Trump during his first administration, ruled that the administration's "government’s novel interpretation of the immigration statute defies their plain text" and ordered the administration to provide bond hearings for the detainees.

Shant Karnikian, a lawyer and host of the "Civil Action" podcast on the Legal AF Network, said in a new episode that the ruling is a "major loss" for the administration.

"When your own nominee writes the majority opinion rejecting your policy as the broadest mass deportation without bond mandate in American history, that's not just a legal setback. It's a major, major loss for the Trump administration," Karnikian said.

The Trump administration has faced mounting legal challenges over its immigration detention practices, including holding U.S. citizens and legal residents without due process, deporting individuals to third countries without notice, and circumventing habeas corpus protections.

Federal courts have repeatedly ruled against the administration, which has defied or slow-walked several judicial orders.

The case in New York stemmed from a Trump administration policy that reclassified long-term residents who entered without being screened as being eligible for deportation. In turn, they were detained without a bond hearing.

However, that plan relied on what Karnikian described as "legal fiction" that long-term residents are still "seeking admission" to the country. That ruling could be used to squash future detentions of a similar kind.

"It's a fiction," he said. "I mean, you can't do that. You can't have it like kind of retroactively treat them, look at their history, and go, 'Well, he was seeking admission at one point.'"

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The full breadth of President Donald Trump's entourage of American business leaders and dignitaries was unveiled during a welcoming ceremony in China early Thursday morning, which included an appearance of one individual who incensed a political analyst.

Ana Navarro, a CNN commentator, noted that Brett Ratner, who directed Melania Trump's eponymous documentary on Amazon, was among those selected by Trump to travel with his delegation. Ratner's travel to China on the U.S. taxpayers' dime incensed Navarro because of his sordid history in Hollywood and the harm he's caused to some women.

"There is also another person who is in this official delegation, and that was on Air Force One, and that's Brett Ratner, who was the director and producer of the 'Melania' movie," Navarro said on CNN's "NewsNight." "But let us remember, Brett Ratner had been basically banished from Hollywood in 2017 because there were very serious sexual predatory allegations against him."

"His name is all over the Epstein file because of his association with Epstein," she continued. And so, because he volunteered to do that documentary on Melania, that Amazon allegedly paid $40 million for, he is now being brought back and rehabilitated by Donald Trump."

"I find it appalling, appalling, and I urge people to go look up the women," she added. "Some of the biggest names in Hollywood who spoke up against the sexual harassment and sexual acts of Brett Ratner, which included things like masturbating in front of them. And there he is as part of the official U.S. delegation flying on Air Force One on our dime. I find that appalling."

A hypothetical plot to remove President Donald Trump from office stunned a political analyst on Wednesday.

The plot, concocted by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, involved Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio teaming up to push Trump out of office under the 25th Amendment. Reich hypothesized in a recent op-ed for Alternet that Vance would approach Rubio and offer him the vice presidency after Trump leaves office. Then the two men would go to Capitol Hill to get the blessings of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). The two men would also enlist the help of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "make the 25th Amendment stick," Reich argued.

The plan stunned David Pakman, a liberal political commentator and host of "The David Pakman Show" on YouTube, who reacted to it in a new video.

"There are a lot of ways that this can go wrong, and there are people who would be very afraid of how they will suffer if it doesn't go well after they say 'I'm involved and I'm interested,'" Pakman said.

For instance, Pakman noted that Reich gave the hypothetical a 30% chance of success. He also noted that Vance and Rubio have a lot to lose if the plan doesn't work out, and would likely face the wrath of Trump's base in the meantime.

There are also questions about whether Vance or Rubio would be willing to go through with the plan in the first place, since both men are seen as the frontrunners for the 2028 presidential nomination, Pakman added.

One factor working in the plan's favor is that Americans are still unhappy with how the war in Iran is playing out, and its related economic impacts, Pakman said.

"The odds continue to rise as Americans are increasingly unhappy with Trump and MAGA, and the current Republican leadership," he said.

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