Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night time was riddled with fascist pink flags and nauseating insights into his ongoing assault on democracy. Not precisely new, given how the previous few months have gone, however there have been some unfamiliar faces sitting entrance row with First Woman Melania Trump and Second Woman Usha Vance. The place we would have anticipated to see Barron or Ivanka, there was as a substitute a group of political-prop company, seemingly invited to help Trump’s dangerous insurance policies.
On Melania’s left sat Elliston Berry, who seems to be a spokesperson for Melania’s bipartisan Take It Down Act, which criminalizes the publication of “nonconsensual, sexually exploitative photos, together with AI-generated deepfakes.” Berry, who has spoken publicly about her expertise as a sufferer of sexually specific AI-generated-deepfake photos at 14 years previous, joined Melania on the joint tackle after showing together with her at a roundtable on Monday.
Additionally on Melania’s left, additional down, was Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was discovered lifeless in June. Two undocumented migrants have been charged together with her homicide. Nungaray has beforehand testified earlier than Congress in help of the Justice for Jocelyn Act, which proposes to maintain detained migrants in custody whereas their circumstances are continuing. On Tuesday, she was joined by Lauren and Allyson Phillips, the sister and mom of Laken Riley, one other homicide sufferer whose case grew to become gas for the appropriate’s virulent anti-immigration stance after an undocumented immigrant was charged. To Melania’s proper was Haley Ferguson, a recipient of her anti-cyberbullying Be Finest group’s Fostering the Future scholarship.
In the meantime, a couple of seats down from Melania, Usha Vance was located between Payton McNabb, an anti-trans activist who claims to have been injured by a trans opponent throughout a high-school sports activities sport, and January Littlejohn, one other anti-trans mouthpiece for the administration who believes her little one’s faculty “socially transitioned” them with out her consent. A lot of Trump’s ongoing assaults on trans rights, together with taking purpose at gender-affirming care, Title IX protections, and participation in sports activities, have been veiled beneath the guise of “defending” women and girls.
If this all feels a bit icky, properly, sure. We’re solely two months into this administration’s reign and Trump is signing govt orders pulled straight from Challenge 2025, whereas Melania continues to placed on menswear and hang around together with his political props.
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