US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countries

 

'Dumbest thing I've read in 14 years': Dem Rep. blasts Trump admin report detailing Cuban threat

On Monday, the State Department released a 100-page report titled "Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism", which blames the country for the rise of Democratic socialism and warns that it is a threat to the United States. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), who just returned from a trip to Cuba, joins Antonia Hylton with his reaction to the report.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Xnp6EPiS4

 

State Department to release limited edition ‘America250’ passports with Trump’s face - POLITICO

Previews of the commemorative passport show Trump’s portrait overlaid on the Declaration of Independence on the inside cover with his signature in gold, as well as a page with an image of the founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/28/trump-passports-state-department-00896221

 

Trump's reckless cuts come back to bite him

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AoS5RzPMMwk

How State Department cuts of Middle East experts affect U.S.'s handling of Iran war | PBS News

The Trump administration has left the assistant secretary position in charge of Near Eastern Affairs vacant, along with key ambassadorships in the Middle East. Four of the five supervisors in the bureau have temporary titles. 

The current and former officials, some of whom asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters during an active conflict, paint a portrait of an understaffed government workforce struggling to execute the president's agenda. Those who remain tell colleagues that their analysis, recommendations and advice go unheeded...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-state-department-cuts-of-middle-east-experts-affect-u-s-s-handling-of-iran-war 

 

Weekly Roundup: A Battle of Fonts and Freedoms: Analyzing Trump’s Authoritarianism and Growing Unpopularity (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

Brad and Dan return to unpack another week of chaos, contradictions, and creeping authoritarianism in American politics. They open with what seems like a small story but carries outsized symbolic weight: the State Department’s decision to ditch Calibri and return to Times New Roman. It’s a font change driven not by aesthetics but by politics, revealing how the Trump administration is using even bureaucratic details to signal exclusion, target accessibility, and roll back DEI efforts. What looks trivial becomes a window into the deeper logic of authoritarian control.

From there, the conversation widens to the issues shaping the country’s political landscape. Brad and Dan examine ICE’s ever expanding budget, the ongoing manipulation of the election system through voter roll purges and gerrymandering, and a string of contentious congressional hearings, including Kristi Noem’s abrupt walkout and the FBI’s admission that it cannot define Antifa as a coherent organizational threat. They also discuss Trump’s increasingly explicit racist and misogynistic rhetoric and the striking silence from GOP leaders who once claimed to stand for democratic norms.

Despite the bleak headlines, Brad and Dan highlight signs that Trump’s influence may be eroding. They point to GOP resistance emerging in places like Indiana, rumblings of discontent within the Heritage Foundation, and encouraging gains for Democrats in state legislatures and mayoral races. But they also wrestle with the central tension of the moment: does Trump’s declining popularity matter if structural control continues to consolidate beneath him. Can the MAGA movement build enduring institutions, or is it fundamentally a brittle coalition held together by grievance and spectacle.
Interview: 

https://straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/weekly-roundup-a-battle-of-fonts-and-freedoms-analyzing-trumps-authoritarianism-and-growing-unpopularity/

Font of ‘wasteful’ diversity: Trump’s state department orders return to Times New Roman

The change to Calibri in 2023 was recommended by diversity and disability groups in the US government, according to US media reports. Some studies have suggested that sans-serif fonts, such as Calibri, are easier to read for those with certain visual disabilities...

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/trump-times-new-roman-font-return-state-department

 

State Department to refocus global rights report on those ‘given by God’ - The Washington Post

"The State Department's emphasis on so-called natural rights and de-emphasis on rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and other legally binding instruments suggest an intentional effort to limit rights," said Uzra Zeya, a top official for human rights at the State Department during the Biden administration who now leads the Human Rights First nonprofit…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/20/trump-rubio-human-rights-report/

Stephen Miller directing state department bureaus like ‘fiefdom’ as he shifts its focus to immigration

Each morning, usually at 10am, a small circle of conservative diplomats allied with Miller, including those who have assumed control of the state department's consular and refugee operations, dial in for what some have termed the "Stephen Miller call", an interagency discussion of immigration measures led by Miller, the White House's homeland security adviser. 

In the calls, Miller is said to drill the diplomats on visa and immigration issues – pressing officials to hasten negotiations with third countries to accept deportees who can not or should not be sent back to their countries of origin, and lobbying for individual visa revocations for critics of Israel's war in Gaza or of Charlie Kirk, the conservative pundit who was assassinated in September...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/31/stephen-miller-immigration-trump

 

Democrats blast state department for lack of ‘basic oversight’ of controversial Gaza food organization

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group's apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/03/us-democrats-gaza-humanitarian-foundation-letter

 

State Department halts visas for people from Gaza : NPR

The U.S. State Department says it's halting visas for visitors from Gaza as it reviews its process for granting visas for medical evacuees…

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504634/state-department-halts-gaza-visas 

 

Trump admin to burn nearly $10 million in contraceptives for poorer nations

The supplies set to be destroyed include contraceptive implants, pills, and intrauterine devices, Reuters reported. 

A spokesperson for the State Department cited multiple policies that prohibit the government from providing abortion-related assistance to foreign organizations as rationale for declining to give the supplies away…

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/24/state-department-burn-contraceptives-poor-countries

 

The State Department Guts Its Office Combating Human Trafficking – Mother Jones

Politically, the timing of these cuts is ironic...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/human-trafficking-state-department-jeffrey-epstein/ 

 

Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

Known as the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/Fimi) hub, the closure represents a huge victory for rightwing critics who had alleged that the office, despite only looking at foreign state-level disinformation attacks on other countries, was involved in censoring American conservative speech. It comes as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle what it describes as government overreach in monitoring speech...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/16/trump-state-department-foreign-disinformation

 

US plans to close European consulates and cut state department workforce | US foreign policy | The Guardian

Critics say the potential cuts in the US diplomatic footprint coupled with the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAid) that provided billions of dollars worth of aid globally risk undermining American leadership and leaves a dangerous vacuum for adversaries like China and Russia to fill...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/us-european-consulates-state-department

A new document undercuts Trump admin’s denials about Tesla deal : NPR

The State Department claimed a plan to buy thousands of armored Teslas was left over from the Biden administration. A document obtained by NPR shows the Biden plan was far smaller...

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5305269/tesla-state-department-elon-musk-trump 

 

State department fires security and personal services contractors

Personal services contractors provide duties such as housekeeping and maintenance at overseas embassies. But they also supplement diplomatic security. Three of the four people killed in a 2012 raid on the Libyan diplomatic mission in Benghazi – Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty – were civilian security contractors...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/06/state-department-fires-contractors

Brian Schatz places blanket hold on Trump’s State Department picks over USAID

"Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration's State Department nominees. This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world," Schatz said in a statement...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5123870-schatz-trump-state-department-hold-usaid/

 

State Department terminates U.S. support of Ukraine energy grid restoration

The USAID initiative had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in helping Ukraine's energy grid recover from attacks from Russia...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/state-department-terminates-us-support-ukraine-energy-grid-restoration-rcna194259

GOP still claims, without evidence, the State Department is "promoting atheism

Republican leaders are literally putting atheists’ lives in danger, in what is likely a desperate attempt to excite their base over culture war issues before November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq8Ehmdys-M