Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
And if you’re looking for something to watch, check out the recent update on my ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s finances,“The OTHER Epstein Files You've Not Heard About” — and make sure to subscribe to COURIER’s YouTube channel for future updates!
Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.
What Happened
Two weeks after President Donald Trump admitted that he knew his golf course was where Jeffrey Epstein groomed teenagers, his administration announced that it now wants to lower the age at which people are considered adults.
The announcement was sparked by an alleged carjacking that took place in DC’s Logan Circle. Two 15-year-olds were arrested and taken in as suspects, according to police reports obtained by Wired, which prompted Trump to fixate on one of his few long-held convictions: that teenagers are adults, and should be considered as such in the eyes of the law.
“Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”
Trump used the incident as a launchpad to achieve another one of his long-held desires: taking military control of Washington, DC. But, while something like an attempted car theft is usually more than enough of an anecdote to justify his actions, Trump has insisted on pointing out that the suspects were teenagers, and wants them tried as adults. And his marching orders are for everyone in his administration to hammer that point down.
“We’ve got to lower the age of responsibility to 14. I’m tired of these kids committing crimes,” said Trump-appointed DC US Attorney and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. “Youth violence is on the rise — not just in DC, but across the country. And you think these kids need to be coddled, and they need to be hugged? The need to have consequences. They need to understand that enough is enough, and we’re going to put them in jail.”
The obsession with criminal charges for minors is best illustrated by the infamous full-page New York Times ad that Trump purchased in 1989, demanding that a group of five teenagers who had been (wrongfully) accused of rape be given the death sentence. He has never apologized, and in July, a judge ruled that a defamation suit against Trump filed by the exonerated “Central Park Five” could proceed.
The White House's recent crusade to lower the age of adulthood isn’t just about crime. It is part of a larger conservative movement to redefine adulthood entirely, and spread through every legal definition of what age is considered old enough to make one's own decisions. The notion saw recent success when Republicans made changes to the federal budget, lowering the age at which children are considered adults — from 18 to 14 years old — in order for their parents to qualify for SNAP benefits.
This ideology has spread even faster at the local level; nearly 30 states have loosened child labor laws since 2021. The long-term goal, as outlined in Project 2025, is to remove state child labor laws altogether and let employers hire kids as young as 14. In North Carolina, where children can be criminally prosecuted at 10, get a job at 14, and get married at 16, former judge and current Democratic State Rep. Marcia Morey told NPR that she saw firsthand the psychological impact being treated as an adult has on teenagers.
“These kids are too young to have any concept of what's going on in a courtroom,” said Morey. “Plus the fact, to label them delinquent, has a profound effect on their psyche — on who they are.”
Then there’s the matter of the age of consent. The anti-abortion crowd has repeatedly blocked child marriage bans because they think it’s better for kids to have kids than to get an abortion. Tennessee legislators tried and failed — though an effort was made — to remove the age requirement for marriage altogether, and Utah just lessened the penalties for adults who have sex with teens.
Trump has made it no secret that, as far as he’s concerned, when someone hits puberty, they’re an adult in every sense of the word. When he was 46, he hit on some 14-year-old choir girls; when he was 60, he said he wouldn’t have sex with anyone younger than 13, and when his daughter Ivanka was 17, she made him promise that he wouldn’t date anyone younger than her.
When discussing Epstein’s practice of grooming Mar-a-Lago employees — including one of Epstein’s most vocal victims, Virginia Guiffre — Trump’s anger focused on the transactional nature of his friend poaching his staff, not the moral depravity that came with it.
“I think she worked at the spa, I think so, I think that was one of the people. Yeah, he stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, none whatsoever," Trump said. “He took people that work for me, and I told him, 'don't do it anymore.' And he did it. I said, 'stay the hell out of here.'"
Although sex scandals such as Epstein’s, which involve prominent clientele, have been uncovered and prosecuted in the past, what has made Epstein’s such a fixation of the general public is his practice of trafficking teenagers internationally. But if the effort to legally change the categorization of teens from minors to adults is successful — branded by the Trump administration as raising the “age of responsibility” — it could soften the blow, and potentially remove some legal consequences of being associated with Epstein, something we all know Trump has been desperately trying to dodge for months.
Attempts to Sanewash
Manager of DC store trashed by teens says Trump gives him hope
Pirro on ‘Big Balls’ attack: ‘We’ve got to lower the age of responsibility to 14’
Trump threatens to end Home Rule, calls on DC to prosecute minors as adults
Far-Right Spin
Join my Substack Live discussion with American Freakshow author Nina Burleigh
What’s the government really got on Epstein and Trump?
This Wednesday at 1pm ET, prolific writer and veteran journalist Nina Burleigh and I will discuss that question in light of our investigations into the Trump administration’s “nothing to see here” cover-up of the Epstein files.
After manipulating millions of Americans into believing that he would expose “Deep State” pedophiles, Trump was elected and installed a cabal of corrupt and previously personal lawyers to run the Department of Justice.
These lawyers –- at least one of whom actually hired Epstein’s lifelong personal lawyer at his private firm –- are now engaged in unprecedented weaponized government to protect Trump from political embarrassment and possibly criminal exposure.
They have ordered a thousand FBI agents to work in 24-hour shifts to scour Epstein case files for mentions of Trump, and moved Epstein’s convicted sex-trafficking partner to a low-security prison after an off-the-record interview.
Join the conversation, this Wednesday at 1pm ET.
The latest Virginia workplace to unionize might surprise you
The following is from Dogwood / COURIER reporter Michael O’Connor’s new economic policy newsletter, Virginia Capital.
Workers at the Norfolk Botanical Garden scored a victory last month when a majority of them voted to form a union.
Now, the hard work of negotiating a union contract begins for these 70 or so workers who are part of the bargaining unit at the Norfolk garden.
It took months to get to this place where they can sit across the negotiating table from their managers to push for better wages and working conditions. Among other things, Norfolk garden workers aim to negotiate for a guaranteed inclement-weather policy and clear attendance practices.
It was the bravery of workers in the same line of work that helped workers in Norfolk stick their necks out to fight for a better tomorrow. Last year, workers at Henrico County’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden voted to form a union with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM Union.
Interested Norfolk garden workers linked up with the Lewis Ginter workers over social media to learn more about how to form a union, and they eventually got in touch with an organizer from IAM Union.
The union push in Norfolk started by word of mouth before culminating in the union election victory last month. One worker, Sage, told me that a key reason for their success was that many of the Norfolk workers had personal connections with each other and valued each other’s opinions. In other words, the key to winning support for a union was broad mutual respect for one another.
Wages are obviously important for every worker, especially when so many jobs pay poverty wages. But when I asked Sage why they wanted to form a union, they didn’t mention winning higher pay.
“My personal motivation for joining the union is just a sense of unity with everyone around the garden mainly,” Sage told me. “This entire process brought us all together as one unified voice.”
Read the full article here, and please consider subscribing to Virginia Capital for more inspirational stories about labor and building solidarity among the working class.
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