IU's future depends on academic freedom, not luck
James Briggs' column, 'IU is lucky to have Pamela Whitten weathering the MAGA storm,' misrepresents the serious concerns of many IU faculty, students and the broader academic community.Briggs suggests faculty should feel 'lucky' to have President Whitten at the helm. There's nothing lucky about leadership that aligns with political pressures at the expense of academic values. What IU needs is leadership that upholds academic freedom, transparency and shared governance.
IU faculty have raised justified concerns about governance, budget transparency and administrative overreach. These concerns were repeatedly ignored, prompting an overwhelming no-confidence vote in the president and Provost Rahul Shrivastav. Speaking out, protesting and voting are not overreacting —they are a sign of commitment to the values of higher education.
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Battle to define ‘America First' intensifies as Israel strikes Iran
The Movement is a weekly newsletter tracking the influence and debates steering politics on the right. or in the box below. The ideological battle over what 'America First' means in the Trump era is intensifying in wake of Israel's strikes on Iran, splitting the MAGA right and testing its relationships with the president. On one side, noninterventionist doves insist the Trumpian tagline means the president must avoid U.S. troops, resources or dollars going toward the conflict, for fear of getting dragged into an endless war. 'Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted Sunday on the social platform X. But on the other end, foreign policy hawks and supporters of Israel are appealing to President Trump's position that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, and encouraging him to leave all options — including direct military intervention — on the table. 'How is it not AMERICA FIRST to congratulate those who just made sure Islamists who chant 'DEATH TO AMERICA' and who openly plotted to assassinate President @realDonaldTrump never have an opportunity to have a nuke?' right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer posted on X over the weekend. In a Saturday phone interview with Trump responded to criticism from former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — who said in a newsletter that 'politicians purporting to be America First can't now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with' the strikes — by saying he is the one that will ultimately write the definition. 'Well, considering that I'm the one that developed 'America First,' and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, I think I'm the one that decides that,' Trump said. And Monday, Trump offered one part of his definition: 'AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' he posted on Truth Social. Trump beat back the dove side somewhat in another post calling Carlson 'kooky' — prompting Greene, who almost never criticizes the president, to make the stunning move to come to Carlson's defense. 'Foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction. That's not kooky. That's what millions of Americans voted for,' Greene said. Despite Trump claiming ownership of the tagline, different wings of Trump supporters spent much of the last few days warring about the 'America First' response to the conflict. Conservative radio host Mark Levin, who is on the hawkish side of the debate, made a lengthy post Monday about 'Real MAGA and Fake MAGA,' saying 'Real MAGA is not isolationist or antisemitic. In another post, Levin took aim at Greene, calling her 'a little known politician from Georgia.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed in on the 'America First' debate in a Monday interview with ABC News. 'Today, it's Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it's New York. Look, I understand 'America First'. I don't understand 'America Dead,'' Netanyahu said. 'That's what these people want.' As Trump takes responsibility for defining the America First response, he is being vague and open enough to give both the hawks and the doves reason to believe they are right about their own versions of America First. The initial response from the administration to the strikes, in the form of a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, notably distanced the U.S. from the attacks — saying 'Israel took unilateral action against Iran' and that the U.S. was 'not involved in strikes against Iran.' But the U.S. did assist in intercepting missiles that Iran shot into Israel in response — and NBC News reported the U.S. had been 'quietly moving some pieces into place to prepare for the Israeli attack.' Trump slammed Iran for failing to make a deal after 60 days of negotiation on its nuclear program — referencing his warnings that there would be bombing if it did not do so. But even as the recent conflict derailed a round of peace talks that were supposed to take place Sunday with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — in part because Iranians with whom the U.S. was dealing are now dead, as Trump said — the president has not taken negotiation off the table. 'They should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it's too late,' Trump said Monday at the G7 Summit in Canada. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Iran is seeking negotiations in order to end the hostilities — a development cheered by noninterventionists such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). 'Iran's move to reenter negotiations isn't a coincidence. It's the result of a foreign policy that rejects endless wars and puts American priorities first,' Paul said. But Trump has declined to wholly rule out using U.S. force in Iran. Asked Monday in Canada what it would take for the U.S. to get involved in the conflict, Trump demurred: 'I don't want to talk about that.' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is among those urging Trump to use U.S. military might to help Israel in Iran if talks are not possible. 'If diplomacy fails, Mr. President, President Trump, you've been great, help Israel finish the job. Give them bombs. Fly with them if necessary,' Graham said Sunday on CBS's 'Face the Nation.', a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I'm , House leadership reporter at The Hill. Tell me what's on your radar: ebrooks@ Not already on the list? President Trump is pumping the brakes, shifting gears, and speeding up on the kind of migrants he is targeting as he aims to fulfill his promise of mass deportations. The president is clearly sensitive about negatively impacting key industries that rely on migrants who entered the country without permission for labor — but seems to have reversed himself on pausing enforcement on such industries. Let's review. Thursday morning: Trump posted recognition of concerns from those in the agricultural and hotel industries about his 'very aggressive policy on immigration' taking away workers who are 'almost impossible to replace' — promising that 'changes are coming.' It was a notable shift in tone from the kind of hard-line stances and messaging from the immigration hard-liners in Trump's administration such as Stephen Miller — particularly in wake of anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests in Los Angeles that prompted Trump to activate the National Guard. Thursday afternoon: Trump made another post appealing to the immigration hard-line side. 'I campaigned on, and received a Historic Mandate for, the largest Mass Deportation Program in American History,' he said, adding that migrants in the U.S. illegally should self-deport 'or, ICE will find you and remove you.' But directives to soften enforcement on certain industries as the president had first espoused still came. ICE was directed to 'largely pause raids and arrests on American farms and in hotels and restaurants,' NewsNation reported, citing Department of Homeland Security sources. Sunday: Trump made another long social media post giving further guidance on deportation targets: Democratic-run cities. 'ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH,' Trump said, to expand detention and deportation efforts in the nation's largest cities that 'are the core of the Democrat Power Center.' Monday: 'Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told leaders at the agency in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting workforce site immigration raids on agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants, according to two people familiar with the call,' The Washington Post reported. The whiplash is exposing some divisions within the Trump administration. The New York Times reported over the weekend that the initial post about agriculture workers came after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had told the president about worries about the effect of the immigration raids on the agricultural industry. Rollins appeared to respond to the reporting in a post on X saying to 'ignore the noise from the fake news media.' 'The President and I have consistently advanced a 'Farmers First' approach, recognizing that American households depend upon a stable and LEGAL agricultural workforce. Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans. It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out,' Rollins shocking shootings of Minnesota Democratic lawmakers in the early hours of Saturday morning — killing Minnesota House Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband — set off an ugly ideological blame game on social media. Right-wing posters did not want to believe the now-detained suspect in the shootings, Vance Boelter, was on their 'side.' And despite evidence piling up that Boelter shared right-wing beliefs, some still don't want to believe it. The first misdirection came after a number of accounts posted videos of Hortman earlier in the week getting emotional while talking her vote in favor of a bill vote that cut access to health care for immigrants in the country illegally — insinuating her assassination was a result of progressive left anger about that vote. She was the only House Democrat to vote for the bill, averting a potential government shutdown. Other emerging details fueled the belief the shootings were left-on-left violence. Law enforcement confirmed Boelter had flyers in his car that said, 'No Kings,' an apparent reference to the anti-Trump protests that occurred across the country Saturday. And Boelter was in 2019 appointed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to a workforce development board. But Boelter's friend and roommate told CBS News that the suspect was very conservative, listened to the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's 'Infowars,' and had voted for Trump. Reporting in the Minnesota Star Tribune said Boelter did not know Walz; that the 60-member member board includes people appointed by the governor who do not agree with his political views; and that he voted in the 2024 primary election, but not in the Democratic primary. That has not stopped the narrative from taking hold, though. Donald Trump Jr. had this to say on right-wing influencer Benny Johnson's YouTube show Monday: 'They're sitting there, 'Oh, please be a MAGA guy.' Oh, it happens to be a Tim Walz appointee in his own state. He happened to go after a Democrat legislator, but it seems like he went after a Democratic legislator because she voted against Democrat Party policy, which was the unabashed, unlimited health care funding for illegal immigrants.' Among those who pushed the left-on-left violence narrative: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who posted a photo of the masked suspect Sunday with the commentary: 'This is what happens When Marxists don't get their way.' Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) confronted Lee about the post in the Senate Monday night, my colleague Al Weaver reports. Lee refused to answer questions from reporters about the encounter. Minnesota state Sen. Julia Coleman (R) posted on X on Saturday that she found the race to figure out of Boelter was a Republican or Democrat 'absolutely shameful.' 'The state needs unity. Not blame. Now more than ever we should come together and put partisan politics aside,' Coleman June 17: Unleash Prosperity hosts a policy forum on 'The Impact of Immigration on the 21st Century American Workforce' at the Conservative Partnership Institute, 12:30 p.m. EDT. Livestream here. Tuesday, June 17: The Federalist Society's DC Young Lawyers Chapter hosts a reception with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), America's Square at 5:45 p.m. EDT. Details here. Tuesday, June 24: Heritage Foundation Launch of 'American Founders' & Presentation of America's 250th Anniversary Innovation Prizes, with keynote by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), 4 p.m. EDT. Details here. Riley Gaines, a prominent activist against transgender athletes in women's sports, announced at Turning Point USA's Young Women Leadership Summit over the weekend that she is pregnant with her first child. She did so while taking a jab at Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles, who had gotten into an online tiff with Gaines over transgender athletes and told Gaines to 'Bully someone your own size, who would ironically be a male.' Gaines, revealing her baby bump, said: 'How many men do you know who have this?' The Trump Organization commemorated the 10th anniversary of the now-president gliding down the escalator to announce his presidential campaign by announcing it is starting a mobile phone service company. Trump Mobile will not only provide service but plans to manufacture phones in America and will have its customer service call centers based in America, executives said at the announcement. The plan will also come with telemedicine and roadside assistance features. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump helped roll out the announcement. Big Beautiful Bill update: The Senate Finance Committee released its portion of President Trump's tax cut and spending priorities bill Monday, making some changes to the version passed in the House that will be controversial. It reverts the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap to $10,000, after blue-state lawmakers had pushed to raise the cap to $40,000. It lowers health care provider taxes — a mechanism states use to extract more federal Medicaid provider taxes — to 3.5 percent, stricter than the House version. But it significantly slows down the repeal of some green energy incentives compared to the House version. Jewish Insider's Gabby Deutch and Emily Jacobs: DNI Tulsi Gabbard draws friendly fire from Republicans for video warning of nuclear war Politico's Rachael Bade and Felicia Schwartz: Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran The New York Times's Tyler Pager, Miriam Jordan, Hamed Aleaziz, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Inside Trump's Extraordinary Turnaround on Immigration Raids Thanks for reading. Check out more newsletters from The Hill here. See you next time! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Trump floats regime change in Iran, muddying the administration's message
President Donald Trump's top national security officials spent much of Sunday insisting his administration doesn't want to bring about the end of Iran's government, only its nuclear program. Then Trump left the door open for exactly that. 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. While Trump did not call for the ouster of the regime, or say that the U.S. would play any role in overthrowing the Iranian government, his words undercut what had appeared to be a coordinated message from his top advisers. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth each insisted Sunday that the U.S. was only interested in dismantling Iran's nuclear capabilities. 'We don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program,' Vance told ABC. 'That's what the president set us out to do.' The others also focused their statements around the idea that the strikes were limited and focused solely on Iran's nuclear program. The conflicting tones highlight the difficulty the Trump administration faces as it tries to navigate the fallout — both domestically and abroad — of its massive strike on Iran. Officials want to convince Tehran to keep its response limited, and mollify the factions of the MAGA base that didn't want the U.S. to launch the strikes. But Trump's post makes clear the sense inside the administration that this all may end with the Iranian government toppled. Rubio was the first to flag the possibility on Sunday. While he reiterated that toppling Iran's theocratic republic was not the goal of the strikes, he said that if the country remained committed to becoming a nuclear power, it could imperil the survival of the regime. 'I think it would be the end of the regime if they tried to do that,' Rubio said, speaking on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. Trump's willingness to consider regime change is likely to stoke divisions inside his party. So far, many of Trump's supporters, many of whom had opposed attacking Iran, have rallied around him, cheering the strike as a limited action, but there were already signs of dissension before his social media post. In a lengthy post on X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she is 'sick of' American participation in foreign wars and feared the knock on effects. 'American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits,' she said. Vance was seen as the leader of the GOP's anti-war faction before he endorsed Trump's approach this week. Vance said in a separate interview Sunday that the U.S. sees a path toward speaking with Iran's current government and integrating it into the international community if it pledges to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.. 'We want to end their nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here,' he said on NBC's Meet the Press. Though it will take days to assess the full effect of American strikes, Iran has already vowed to retaliate. The country's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that the U.S. 'crossed a very big red line' and that it was not the time for diplomacy. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long publicly flirted with Iranian regime change, saying that changing Iran's government is not the goal of Israeli operations but could be an effect as the country is weakened. Inside the administration, Trump and his team still feel confident they can keep the response from spilling into something larger. 'Trump believes he can do this without regime change, and if anyone can, it's going to be him,' a U.S. official said before Trump's social media post, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking. Victoria Coates, former deputy national security adviser in Trump's first term and vice president at the Heritage Foundation, said 'the big question' will be whether he can keep the party together but that the initial signs are positive — including Vance's support. 'He is taking the role of asking some tough questions that need to be asked, but if he's satisfied — as clearly he was about the Iran operation — he's going to get on board and support the president, because that's what his job is,' she said. 'It indicates to me that the vast majority of the party is going to come together here — there's always going to be some outliers.' Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca.), said the U.S. has learned lessons from past entanglements and like others in his party tried to differentiate Trump's decision from other American wars in the Middle East. 'All of us understand that…you do not go into a country of nearly 90 million people and think that you're going to get out quickly,' Issa said on Fox News. 'The president is not trying to do regime change and made that clear. He is trying to change the regime's way of doing business.' Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally, said the president is trying to frame the strikes on Iran as similar to his move in his first term to direct the killing of the then top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, 'which wasn't about regime change.' 'Israel wants regime change,' he wrote on X. 'The only off-ramp now is that Trump might have to (once again) restrain Israel.' Few within the Republican party have publicly come out in favor of overthrowing Iran's government or backing Israel in doing so. Still, Trump last week mused publicly about killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And there are Republican hawks pushing to seize the opportunity to topple the government in Tehran. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a hawkish voice in the party, said on Meet the Press Sunday that Israel should have tried to topple Iran's government 'a long time ago.' Graham said he spoke Sunday with Netanyahu, who told Graham, 'this regime is not going to be tolerated by Israel.' After Trump's post, Graham said on X, 'President Trump is spot on with his desire to make Iran great again by changing the regime either through their behavior or new leadership.' Hegseth said on Sunday that the U.S. had delivered messages publicly and privately to Iran, adding that the regime understands 'precisely' the administration's position. In hailing the operation as a success at a Pentagon press conference, Hegseth underscored that the goal of the attack 'has not been about regime change' and pledged that the U.S. effort in Iran would not be 'open-ended,' batting away any comparisons to the long running American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that Trump campaigned against. 'Anything can happen in conflict, we acknowledge that,' Hegseth told reporters. 'But the scope of this was intentionally limited. That's the message that we're sending.' Another longtime GOP national security official with ties to some of the party's more hawkish figures suggested that Iran's military options are 'severely degraded' and that escalation should concern Tehran far more than it would the White House. 'The idea should terrify Khamenei,' said the official, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. But if Iran were to retaliate, Trump, as he first teased in his remarks from the White House Saturday evening, could go further. Eli Stokols, Connor O'Brien and Joe Gould contributed to this report.
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Trump's team launches group to unseat GOP Rep. Thomas Massie
Two key advisers to President Donald Trump are launching a group to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican with a pattern of opposing Trump who most recently lambasted his decision Saturday to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities. Chris LaCivita, a senior political adviser to Trump, confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that he and Tony Fabrizio, another Trump adviser, will run the anti-Massie super PAC. Axios first reported the super PAC was being formed. Follow along for live coverage Trump and Massie, a libertarian who has represented Kentucky's 4th Congressional District since 2012, have long been at odds, with Trump saying he wanted Massie thrown out of the GOP in 2020. Still, Massie has retained his seat, winning multiple primary challenges and even Trump's endorsement in 2022. But Massie has continued to be a thorn in Trump's side during his second term. In addition to opposing Trump's strikes against Iran, he has consistently voted against his "big, beautiful bill" throughout the process. Massie also partnered with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., last week to introduce a war powers resolution meant to 'prohibit involvement in Iran.' 'The Constitution does not permit the executive branch to unilaterally commit an act of war against a sovereign nation that hasn't attacked the United States,' Massie said of the resolution in a statement at the time. After the strikes in Iran on Saturday, Massie dug into Trump's decision, writing on social media, 'This is not Constitutional.' Trump called Massie 'not MAGA' and a 'simple minded 'grandstander'' Sunday on Truth Social. 'Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes 'NO' on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul, Jr.), no matter how good something may be,' Trump wrote in his post, which referred to another Kentucky Republican, Sen. Rand Paul. 'The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard. MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one,' he added. So far, only one Republican — Niki Lee Ethington — has filed to run in the primary for Kentucky's 4th District. According to her campaign website, Ethington is a registered nurse who graduated in 2021 and has not held public office. Massie responded to Trump's attacks by posting a fundraising appeal and a screenshot of Trump's social media post, along with a photo of a TV appearance Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' During that appearance, he advocated for not getting involved in a war in Iran. Later in the day, Massie also wrote on X that Trump "declared so much War on me today it should require an Act of Congress." On Sunday afternoon, Massie also blasted Trump for his post on Truth Social earlier in the day that asked, 'why wouldn't there be regime change' in Iran and calling to 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.' Massie wrote, 'This is not America First folks.' Trump has taken out Republicans in primaries before — most memorably in the 2022 election cycle, when his political operation targeted GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. Eight of the 10 lost their primaries or chose not to stand for re-election. This article was originally published on
