'Mentally ill lunacy': Matt Gaetz thinks NSA is spying on him because of his 'whiteness'

'Mentally ill lunacy': Matt Gaetz thinks NSA is spying on him because of his 'whiteness'
Rep. Matt Gaetz. (Facebook photo)

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) suggested the NSA could be targeting people like him for being white.

During his Thursday Firebrand podcast, Gaetz expressed outrage after conservative media outlet The Daily Wire claimed to have obtained a leaked NSA glossary of terms, including "whiteness" and "white supremacy."

"This glossary and its definitions provide a starting point for engaging in open and honest conversation, and is a tool meant to build a shared language of understanding," the document states.

"Wow," Gaetz said. "No group of humans in all of human history has ever been without a series of pretty bad actions, right? You get a group of humans together for long enough, we do bad things to one another. That goes back to biblical times."

"But white people have built some of the most durable and inclusive civilizations that have ever existed," he continued. "And, of course, mistakes have been made along the way."

ALSO READ: What is Trump planning if he gets a second term? Be worried. Be really worried.

Gaetz wondered why the NSA would be "cataloging and promoting any of this hysterical, mentally ill lunacy."

"Imagine the NSA intercepting your text messages and flagging any material deemed to support extremist beliefs like, there are only two genders, or men can't be misogynist to other men, or I'm not sorry that my ancestors created Western civilization," he remarked.

Watch the video from Firebrand below or at this link.

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A former Kennedy Center official flagged a "very unusual" omission in a newly surfaced federal tax filing as President Donald Trump threatens it.

A Friday article by The Atlantic dug into the 990 form for the Kennedy Center that covered the fiscal year that began in October 2024 and ended last September, spanning the final months of the arts complex's previous leadership and roughly seven months after Trump seized control.

The 990 noted, however, that the institution's annual audit had not been completed by the time of filing. Experts pointed the gap out to The Atlantic.

An anonymous former official with knowledge of the center's governance and financial practices told The Atlantic that the lapse stood out. Such audits are normally released to the public by January or February, the official noted, adding that it was "very unusual" for it to still be missing.

At a glance, the filing points to a strong year. The center logged more than $516 million in total revenue, a jump of nearly $210 million, or about 68 percent, from the year before. Experts who reviewed the numbers, however, said the increase leaned largely on a single federal appropriation rather than ticket sales or donations.

Most of that money traces to $257 million in renovation funds that Trump urged Congress to bundle into his One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Without that appropriation, the center appears to have spent close to $47 million more than it collected, which The Atlantic noted is a steep swing from the roughly $40 million surplus it reported a year earlier under former president Deborah Rutter.

Other entries added to the concern. The document records a $48 million bad debt expense, a write-down of revenue the organization no longer expects to receive, while program revenue tied to ticket sales fell from nearly $105 million to about $89 million.

Analysts also warned that a 990 form mixes day-to-day operating money with capital funding, making the center's true financial footing hard to gauge from the headline totals. The filing was signed by chief financial officer Donna Arduin Kauranen, who resigned the same day Trump issued his most recent demand over the building.

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The push to shut down the Kennedy Center is a cover story meant to hide financial mismanagement tied to President Donald Trump, an attorney said.

In a Friday episode of Bulwark Takes, Nathaniel Zelinsky argued that Trump's demanded renaming and shutdown are a tell for a greater problem the president caused. Zelinsky is the lead counsel for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) in her legal fight over the future of the Kennedy Center.

"We think that the real reason they need to shut down or want to shut down is to hide the financial mismanagement that is the direct result of his name going on the Kennedy Center," Zelinsky said. "So we think these two things, the renaming and the shutdown, are intimately linked."

The claim now has a deadline attached. This week, Judge Christopher "Casey" Cooper granted Beatty's team expedited discovery into the shutdown and any demolition plans, meaning the internal records behind the closure are set to become evidence.

Cooper also rejected Trump's latest workaround for putting his name on the building, which would have branded it as "endowed by Donald Trump" or "restored and renovated by Donald Trump." The judge, Zelinsky said, called it "linguistic gymnastics" that "doesn't get around his opinion and it doesn't get around the law."

The fight escalated after Trump was photographed aboard Air Force One studying a poster reading "Kennedy Center demolished," and after he told pool reporters, "If my name doesn't go up there, we might have to demolish this thing."

Cooper responded by ordering 30 days' notice before any demolition or change in the project's scope.

"It means that at least as a legal matter, Donald Trump can't do what he did to the East Wing," Zelinsky said. "He can't just show up, wreck the thing, and move on."

Zelinsky described Trump as "just grotesquely fixated on putting his name on a memorial to a slain president who gave the last full measure of devotion in the line of duty."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried bragging about how productive Congress has been under GOP leadership, only for X's community notes to call him out.

In a Friday post, the account for the MeidasTouch political news network pointed out a "brutal community note" that appeared below one of Johnson's posts.

In Johnson's post, he boasted that "House Republicans passed over 70 bills this week alone," and touted that the number "adds to our total of over 900 bills passed through the House so far this Congress."

He continued, "We DELIVERED for Americans," and then went on the attack, writing, "By contrast, the Democrat agenda is very simple: grievance, politics, bigger government, higher taxes, open borders, and zero security."

However, the community note pointed out that "the 119th Congress was the least productive in history," referring to the current Congress.

"No Congress has enacted less legislation or laws," the note went on, and even called out the House Speaker himself. "Johnson has cancelled a total 63 scheduled voting days in the House, granting members an extra 2 months PTO, with no House votes scheduled until after the election."

Johnson called an early recess for the House earlier this week amid efforts by Democrats to address AI and a vote put forward by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

MeidasTouch wasn't the only account to laugh at the community note hanging off Johnson's post. Former tennis pro turned political commentator Martina Navratilova responded to MeidasTouch by posting, "Mike is #1-the worst majority leader ever."

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) also called it a "brutal community note." Florida Democratic congressional candidate Jennifer Jenkins pointed out the community note with an emoji covering its face. "Oof," reacted The Lincoln Project.

"The community note on this post is example #500 why the American people have zero trust in their own government," wrote Michael Flynn Jr., the son of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser.

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