Author name: moderat ereport

On Thursday, specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth calling the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are going dark.  The 988 hotline, which was federally established by President Donald Trump during his first term, will still exist, but it will no longer offer a specific dial option for LGBTQ+ youth to feel safe and understood in a time of crisis.  “Our country’s federal government—including the very agency in charge of protecting our mental health—cut a literal lifeline that has provided 1.5 million LGBTQ+ youth with suicide prevention services,” Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement released Thursday. “I am heartbroken that this administration has decided to say, loudly and clearly, that they believe some young people’s lives are not worth saving.” A protester outside the Kansas Statehouse holds a sign after a rally for transgender rights in March 2023, in Topeka, Kansas. LGBTQ+ youth are at a significantly increased suicide risk, according to a 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that 41% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous 12 months, and 20% attempted it. In April, the Trump administration’s budget proposed cutting all funding to 988’s specialized service for LGBTQ+ youth. And last month, the administration followed through on this. The Trevor Project, which worked with the government on the specialized service, operates its own separate hotline. Since taking office in January, Trump and his underlings have worked overtime in their assault on the LGBTQ+ community. Government websites were scrubbed of LGBTQ+ terms. And transgender members of the military were pushed out of their positions on the argument that they were not mentally fit to serve.  And despite Trump being the one who signed the 2020 law acknowledging that LGBTQ+ youth face a disproportionately high suicide rate, the president’s efforts toward erasure and pain have been successful.  For LGBTQ+ youth seeking help, they are still able to call into The Trevor Project’s 24/7 hotline at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.

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President Donald Trump’s recent handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files marks one of the few times where his MAGA base is not marching in lockstep with him. Trump and the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, continue to stonewall efforts to release documents related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was also charged with trafficking underaged girls. While most congressional Republicans have resisted Democratic attempts to make the information public, a few have broken ranks. However, among conservative pundits, some prominent figures are more openly criticizing Trump. White supremacist and former Mar-a-Lago dinner guest Nick Fuentes complained on a recent episode of his podcast that Trump’s actions regarding the Epstein case proves he is a “scam artist.” “This entire thing has been a scam,” Fuentes said. “We are going to look back on the MAGA movement as the biggest scam in American history. And the liberals were right—the MAGA supporters were had.” Nick Fuentes to Trump: “Fúck you. You suck. You’re fat, you’re a joke, you’re stupid, you’re not funny… This entire thing has been a scam. We’re gonna look back at MAGA movement as the biggest scam in history. The liberals were right… we will see Trump as a scam artist.” pic.twitter.com/yEEYZmzM8r — Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) July 17, 2025 Longtime Trump supporter and notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also complained about Trump’s actions and rhetoric chastising conservatives for their concern about the Epstein cover-up. “Trump, if this continues down this line, if he starts saying ‘I’ll excommunicate people,’ well—you’re not allowed, unless it’s a cult, to say to people, ‘You either agree with everything I do and don’t question things, or you’re not in our club. I don’t want you.’ Well, that kinda sounds like a thoroughbred cult to me,” Jones said on his show on Wednesday. Mediamatters Content Right-wing pundit Matt Walsh, who is most notorious for his attacks on transgender rights, conceded on his Monday show that Trump had mishandled the issue.  “Pam Bondi needs to go, at a minimum,” he said, and accused her of lying to the public about Epstein’s purported client list, which she claimed to have during a Fox News interview in February. Despite the protests of his true believers, Trump has always used his position to hype conspiracy theories without delivering on them. Before he became president, Trump claimed that private investigators were set to expose former President Barack Obama for purportedly not being a U.S. citizen. That never happened—but figures like Jones and Walsh continued to back him. Now that they are on the other end of Trump’s lies, they are newly critical. Trump is continuing his efforts to spin the story, including firing federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, who put Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars. But the anger at Trump is real from all sides, and his old technique for dodging blame doesn’t seem like it will work this time.