President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The announcement came just hours after Giuliani had a brush with death in Manchester, New Hampshire.

According to New Hampshire State Police, Giuliani and his driver, Theodore Goodman, were traveling southbound Saturday evening on the Interstate 93 when they were flagged down by a woman on the roadside who indicated that she had been involved in a domestic violence incident.

‘This was not a targeted attack.’

The 81-year-old former mayor and his driver stopped to provide assistance, called police, then waited with the woman until troopers arrived to investigate.

After speaking with the troopers and disclosing what they witnessed, the mayor and Goodman got back into their rental Ford Bronco and pulled onto the interstate. Police indicated, however, that just moments later, a woman driving a Honda HR-V rammed into the rear of the vehicle “almost directly across from the scene of the reported domestic violence incident on the southbound side.”

The driver of the Honda, identified as 19-year-old Lauren Kemp of Concord, is not believed to have any connection to the domestic violence incident. As of Sunday evening, no charges had been filed.

RELATED: Trump to DC: Crime is a choice

Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images

Fortunately, the troopers who were still at the scene were able to provide immediate first aid.

Goodman and Kemp both sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security, indicated in a statement that Giuliani was transported to a nearby trauma center, where he was diagnosed with a fractured spine, multiple lacerations and contusions, and injuries to his left arm and lower leg.

Ragusa noted further that “this was not a targeted attack” and asked “everyone to respect Mayor Giuliani’s privacy and recovery, and refrain from spreading unfounded conspiracy theories.”

Arthur Aidala, a friend of Giuliani, told the New York Times that the former mayor’s spirits were high after leaving the hospital on Monday afternoon.

“I have some healing to do, but I’m otherwise in great shape,” said Giuliani, according to Aidala.

“As President of the United States of America, I am pleased to announced that Rudy Giuliani, the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot, will receive THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM, our Country’s highest civilian honor,” Trump noted in a Monday afternoon post on Truth Social.

Giuliani served as New York City mayor from 1994 through 2001. In addition to overseeing a radical drop in crime and implementing policies that helped transform the city for the better, Giuliani stalwartly led his city through the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Trump added, “Details as to time and place to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

The Medal of Freedom was established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

While it is supposed to be awarded to individuals like Giuliani — those “who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors” — former President Joe Biden awarded it in his final months in office to a woman who made millions of dollars helping snuff out millions of American lives; to accused sex creep and former Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd; Democrat megadonor George Soros; failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; and former members of the Jan. 6 committee.

Giuliani has in years past been recognized for his leadership with various honors, including a knighthood from the late Queen Elizabeth II and with Person of the Year for 2001 from Time magazine.

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​Crash, Rudolph giuliani, Giuliani, New york city, Mayor, Donald trump, Medal of freedom, Nyc, Trump, Politics 

Tennis player Jelena Ostapenko was labeled “racist” by fans after she insulted opponent Taylor Townsend following a match at the 2025 U.S. Open.

Townsend hammered Ostapenko, winning in straight sets — 7-5, 6-1 — before the two shook hands at the end of play. Immediately after, and with Townsend saying “good match,” the opponents got into an argument about tennis etiquette.

Etiquette, however, was not the actual problem. Rather, it was Ostapenko’s alleged insults toward Townsend that some viewers believed were “racist.”

‘People get upset when they lose, and some people say bad things.’

“You have to say sorry,” No. 26-ranked Ostapenko is heard saying on video. The rest of her rant toward 139-ranked Townsend remained a mystery until a subsequent on-court interview.

“Can you fill us in on the conversation you were having with Jelena,” an ESPN reporter asked Townsend.

“Yeah, I mean, you know, it’s competition. People get upset when they lose, and some people say bad things,” the American began. “She told me I have no class. I have no education and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S.”

Ostapenko is Latvian.

Townsend continued, strangely stating, “I’m looking forward to it. I mean, I beat her in Canada, outside the U.S. I beat her in New York, outside the U.S. So let’s see what else she has to say.”

Later at a press conference, Townsend was asked directly if she felt the Latvian’s remarks had racial undertones.

RELATED: Tennis star stops match to make absurd demand about a baby in the crowd

“That’s something that you’re going to have to ask her,” Townsend replied.

The 29-year-old then admitted that she did not feel the remarks were actually racist.

“I didn’t take it in that way. But also, you know, that has been a stigma in our community of, you know, being non-educated and all the things when it’s the furthest thing from the truth. And the thing that I’m the most proud of is that I let my racket talk,” she said.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Ostapenko said on her social media account that she felt it was “very disrespectful” of Townsend when she “had a net ball in a very deciding momen[t] and didn’t say sorry, but her answer was that she doesn’t have to say sorry at all.”

“It was first time ever that this happened to me on tour … if she plays in her homeland it doesn’t mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants,” the 28-year-old Latvian stated.

Ostapenko’s social media has been flooded with claims that her on-court remarks were racist, with comments appearing on her Instagram page, such as: “Not only is your racism showing but so was your lack of class. You don’t like the calls take it up with the ref.”

Another user wrote, “I pray you learn how to take your losses and get rid of your racist thoughts and behavior. It’s not a good look.”

The athlete later responded to the claims on her page.

RELATED: Coco Gauff: ‘I’m proud to represent the Americans that LOOK like me’

Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (L) argues with Taylor Townsend of the United States (R) following their Women’s Singles Second Round match on Day Four of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 27, 2025, in New York City. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

“Wow how many messages I received that I am a racist,” Ostapenko wrote on Instagram. “I was NEVER racist in my life and I respect all nations of people in the world, for me it doesn’t matter where you come from.”

“There are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you you can’t use it in disrespectful way to your opponent,” she continued.

“Unfortunately for me coming from such a small country I don’t have that huge support and a chance to play in homeland,” she added. “I always loved to play in the US and US OPEN, but this is the first time someone is approaching the match this disrespectful way.”

Despite Townsend remarking that Ostapenko was not being racist at the time, she felt it necessary to declare she is representing black people when competing.

“Whether it had racial undertones or not, that’s something she can speak on,” the Illinois native stated.

“[I’m] very proud as a black woman being out here representing myself and representing us and our culture,” she said. “I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time that I step on the court and even off the court.”

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​Fearless, Tennis, Racism, Racist, Woke, Latvia, Us open, Women’s sports, Sports 

A grim pattern plays out every time a mass shooting happens in America. Before the victims are buried, before the facts are in, Democrats rush to the microphones to cast blame.

The pattern always goes one of two ways. If the killer can be tied to any semblance of a right-wing ideology, it’s a Republican problem. If the ideology runs the other way — or worse — touches one of the left’s sacred identity groups, then it’s a gun problem. Never their own movement. Never their own rhetoric. Never their own political tribe.

When the killer looks like someone Democrats already despise, it’s open season. When the killer looks like one of their own, the ideology vanishes, and the weapon is to blame.

The Annunciation Catholic School shooting in Minneapolis last week makes this pattern undeniable. The killer — a former student, a biological male identifying as a trans woman — wrote “Kill Trump” and “6 million wasn’t enough” (a nod to the Holocaust) on his rifle before the attack.

This wasn’t a generic outburst of violence; it was laced with the same extremist left-wing, anti-Christian, anti-conservative hatred that Democrats wink at every single day. Yet no Democratic leader stood up and said, “This is what our rhetoric creates.” Instead, they changed the subject — to guns.

Democrats’ hypocrisy

The hypocrisy is as predictable as it is insulting. When a white extremist commits murder, the left shouts that Republicans have “blood on their hands.” They blame Trump rallies, Fox News, Christian nationalism, you name it. But when a mass murderer hates Christians, embraces the transgender ideology, and openly calls for President Donald Trump’s death … crickets.

Cue the same refrain: gun bans, universal background checks, confiscation. They exploit tragedy to seize power.

Let’s not forget the attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump. Thomas Crooks, who shot at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, wasn’t a right-winger. He was a registered Democrat who donated to a progressive group.

Ryan Routh, who was arrested outside Trump’s Florida golf course with an AK-style rifle, described himself as a Biden voter who celebrated January 6 prosecutions online.

Where were the breathless op-eds blaming Joe Biden’s rhetoric? Where were the lectures about “dangerous political climates”? The media memory-holed their affiliations as soon as they didn’t fit the narrative.

An evil pattern

This isn’t new. In 2017, James Hodgkinson opened fire on a congressional baseball practice, nearly killing Steve Scalise. Hodgkinson was a Bernie Sanders volunteer, a man who posted constantly about his hatred of Republicans. Did Democrats take ownership? Did they tone down their language about “Republicans killing people” over health care? Not at all. They shrugged, called him a lone wolf, and moved on.

In 2019, Connor Betts murdered nine people in Dayton, Ohio. He described himself as a pro-Satan leftist, a gun-control supporter, and a backer of Elizabeth Warren. Did Democrats connect his politics to his crime? No. They blamed Trump for fostering a “culture of hate.”

Then came the 2023 Nashville Covenant School shooting. A transgender shooter targeted a Christian school. Rather than mourn the victims, the Biden White House declared a “Trans Day of Visibility.” They stonewalled the shooter’s manifesto for months — because it revealed too much about motive and ideology.

This pattern is too obvious to ignore. When the killer looks like someone Democrats already despise, it’s open season. When the killer looks like one of their own, the ideology vanishes, and the weapon is to blame.

Guns don’t vote Democrat or Republican — but shooters do. And the record shows plenty of killers in recent years have aligned with the Democratic left.

The ugly truth

The ugly truth is that Democrats care more about using mass shootings for their political advantage than stopping them. They use them to smear Republicans as extremists and push gun control. It’s why Biden could call half the country “semi-fascists” in one breath and then act shocked when his supporters try to take Trump’s life in the next. It’s why the same party that insists words are violence refuses to acknowledge that their own words — calling Trump a dictator, Christians bigots, Republicans Nazis — might radicalize someone to pick up a gun.

And their rhetoric has been shameless. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) once told a crowd, “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gas station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasn’t far behind, declaring, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.”

These aren’t just slips of the tongue. This is licensed hostility — leaders telling their base that Republicans are illegitimate, dangerous, even deserving of harassment. And then Democrats act surprised when that rhetoric finds its way onto the barrel of a gun.

Meanwhile, conservatives say the obvious: Murderers are responsible for their murders. But we can also recognize that culture, rhetoric, and ideology matter. We should confront the roots of violence wherever they grow — whether in white supremacy or in radical gender ideology, whether on the right or the left. Democrats refuse to do this because it would mean admitting that their own movement produces violence too.

Instead, they hide behind platitudes. “Thoughts and prayers don’t work,” they sneer, mocking faith communities while proposing policies that wouldn’t have stopped the crime in the first place. They will never admit that the shooter who targets Republicans, who targets Christians, who scrawls “Kill Trump” on his weapons, is soaked in the very rhetoric their side promotes daily.

RELATED: Tone-deaf Democrats lash out over prayers for Christians murdered in devastating Minnesota shooting

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Democrats had 12 years at the highest levels of power to do something meaningful about this. Eight years of President Barack Obama, four years of President Joe Biden. They promised “commonsense gun reform.” They promised unity. They promised safety.

Yet what did we get? Nothing but more division, more pandering to activist groups, and more empty speeches. No progress, because their goal has never been real solutions. Their goal has always been to weaponize tragedy to advance their ideology.

Enough is enough

As a father, I can’t sit quietly anymore. All of my kids attend Catholic school. They go to weekly Mass. When I read about a shooter storming into a Catholic parish school with “Kill Trump” written on his gun, I don’t just see headlines. I see my children. I see my wife. I see my parish family.

I want real solutions. I’m tired of the empty suits across the Republican aisle and the cynical blame-shifting of Democrats. Enough is enough. If they won’t protect us, if they won’t be honest about the problem, then we, the people, need to take matters into our own hands.

We need bold leadership at the local level — parents, parishes, and communities willing to protect our children, defend our faith, and confront the truth. Because the politicians won’t do it. And our families can’t wait any longer.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Annunciation, Annunciation catholic school, Annunciation church and catholic school, Annunciation shooting, School shooting, Transgender, Thoughts and prayers, Violence, Rhetoric, Democrats, Media bias 

In season 4, episode 21 of “Parks and Recreation,” three of the main characters are attempting to secure van rentals to help with their city council campaign. However, the well-funded opposition has offered to pay the owner of the vans, Bill, a massive amount of money to not rent them out. After trying to reason with him, appealing to his sense of honor, and offering to let him in on the ground floor of an alcoholic yogurt investment scheme, the trio return to their car (a Mercedes owned by Donna Meagle) and sit dejectedly in the driveway. Bill attempts to leave in his truck, but they are blocking the driveway. He honks. They do not move. He becomes angry and gently taps his car into their rear bumper. Donna becomes incensed, pulls forward, then puts the car in reverse and stomps on the gas, ramming into Bill’s truck and causing a good amount of damage to both vehicles.

Bill is, understandably, rather upset. But Donna informs him that she did not hit his car, he just slammed into the back of her car, and she has witnesses to back it up. Bill realizes they fully intend to back up this fake story. He has no evidence, no way to prove that Donna deliberately backed into him. Instead of getting sued, he agrees to let them use the vans for free.

Why did I just recount a scene from a random episode of “Parks and Rec”? Besides being funny (you can check it out here), it’s relevant to real life. Think about it for a second. What if you are behind someone, and they reverse into you? Instead of apologizing, they refuse to admit fault, claiming you rear-ended them. If there are no cameras around, good luck convincing the insurance company.

Incidents like this are more common than you might think. There has been an increase in recent years of people staging vehicle accidents to claim insurance. Here is just one example. What saved the person in this video from being framed was the presence of a dashcam. Our society is increasingly low-trust, and we should be prepared for more and more dishonest behavior. The days when we could assume that a random person we encounter probably shares our sense of right and wrong are over. Your innocence is not important unless you can prove it. That’s where dashcams come in.

RELATED: Choose wisely to win the radar detector arms race

Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan / Contributor via Getty Images

A dashcam is a fairly simple device. It’s really just a camera that attaches either to your dashboard (hence the name) or to the inside of your windshield. It records what happens while you are out on the road. Simple, right? Well, buckle up.

There’s a wide variation in pricing, depending mostly on how good the camera is and how much storage it has, as well as other minor factors. You can have just one camera recording out the front of your car, or two so you can have one in the back. The trend is toward ensuring your camera is recording what happens inside your car (popular with Uber or other rideshare drivers), although coverage outside the vehicle is not just helpful for law enforcement.

As for installation, that’s a world of its own. You can plug the cameras into your console charger or wire them into your fuse box. There is an entire niche industry around the wiring, mounting, and general setup of these systems.

The cameras themselves come in many different versions. You can pick up the Car and Driver 1080p HD Dash Cam (yes, the Car and Driver magazine makes a dashcam) at Walmart for around $60. You can also pay $338 for the PC Magazine Editors’ Choice Garmin Dash Cam Live if you want features like 180-degree field of vision, 1440p resolution, driver assist features, voice command, and remote viewing. You can go more expensive (the Escort MAXcam 360c will run you about $900, although it’s also a radar detector so it’s actually not that bad of a deal). And of course, you can also find options at the other end of the price point spectrum. The 70mai Smart Dash Cam 1S can be found for $40, and there are lots of even cheaper generics — yes, the quality is certainly more dubious.

It all really depends on how thoroughly you want to record your surroundings and what your priorities for the system are. Do you just want a camera in the front to record any potential accidents, or are you one of those people who aspires to become a regular contributor to Dashcam Nation, a YouTube channel where you can watch such masterpieces as Idiots in Cars 327. (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.)

Whatever your budget or specific priorities, having a dashcam is a good idea. Leaving aside deliberate fraud, there are many situations in which having evidence comes in handy. In my state, there are so many uninsured drivers — many of them illegal immigrants — that the state requires me to purchase uninsured motorist protections as a part of my auto insurance plan. If you are in an accident involving one of these uninsured drivers, video evidence is going to make your life a lot easier. In the event of a hit-and-run accident, capturing the license plate of the car at fault means you don’t have to rely on your memory for the police statement.

In short: Dashcams can afford you some peace of mind while out on the road, and that’s something we could all use a little more of these days.

​Dashcam, Tech 

In June, with four months left in fiscal year 2025, the Army announced that it had surpassed its goal of enlisting 61,000 recruits. Female recruitment surged in particular across every branch, a shift many credit to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s return to a “warfighter” ethos.

Yet Republicans in Congress still haven’t done their part to cement this new direction in law.

Congressional Republicans must seek a permanent end to the regime that has so disastrously compromised the military’s lethality.

The misguided and weak leadership of the previous administration allowed the ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion to run rampant at the Pentagon, strangling recruiting efforts and sidelining the military’s true mission.

Under Joe Biden, the Army fell nearly 30,000 recruits short. Misguided priorities drained confidence in the service and hollowed out the ranks. If the “Trump bump” holds, it could reverse those losses and begin restoring the military’s strength and credibility after years of neglect and ideological tinkering.

Lingering progressive activism

Racial and gender identity politics defined the Biden administration so deeply that simple executive orders cannot uproot them — especially in the military. Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s 2022-26 Strategic Management Plan spelled it out, imposing race-based quotas on every service member and civilian across the force.

The Trump administration must insist that Congress make it impossible to return to this decades-long embrace of race and gender essentialism. Such action is necessary for Secretary Hegseth to continue sharpening the edge of American military power with confidence.

Congress has started moving in the right direction. The Senate Armed Services Committee recently advanced the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act with two measures aimed at curbing DEI. Section 547 blocks race and identity from influencing service academy admissions. Section 920 repeals several provisions that embedded DEI in the Defense Department.

These changes, though welcome, fall short. Congress must go farther if it wants real impact. Identity politics must be banned not just in admissions, but throughout the military. And for Section 920 to matter, DEI cannot simply be buried — its presence should disqualify applicants from future government service.

Ending DEI-based admissions

Another urgent target for repeal is the 2021 DEI selection board mandate, which forces military boards to “represent the diverse population of the armed force concerned.” That order undermines their core mission: choosing the most capable leaders to win wars.

Early signals from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees show they recognize the problem, but they have yet to commit to locking in Trump-era reforms. America’s depleted readiness should be evidence enough. Lawmakers must act decisively — restore the military’s lethality and bury DEI for good.

RELATED: How DEI took a sledgehammer to the US military’s war ethos

Photo by Ivan Cholakov via Getty Images

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) has pushed consistently to root DEI out of the military. But he works with razor-thin majorities in both chambers, where entrenched Armed Services Committee staff — Republicans in name only — resist meaningful reform.

Trump’s political resurgence leaves no excuse. Republicans in Congress must break this pattern and confront the bureaucrats blocking change.

Republicans have their chance

Lawmakers now face their moment. The current Senate and House drafts of the NDAA fall short. Republicans must seize this chance to codify President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s reforms and restore warfighting as the military’s sole organizing principle.

To end the tyranny of DEI and race quotas, Congress cannot stop at praising executive action. It must legislate a permanent end to the ideology that has gutted readiness and crippled lethality.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Military readiness, Dei military, Dei in military, House armed services committee, Diveristy equity inclusion, Pentagon, Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, War, National defense, National defense authorization act 

A secretive dark money group with ties to the Democrat Party is shelling out up to $8,000 a month to influencers to parrot left-leaning talking points.

The Chorus Creator Incubator Program is said to be funded by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has funneled money to dozens of left-leaning influencers, according to a report from WIRED magazine.

Those paid through the program include Olivia Julianna, a Gen Z activist who spoke at the DNC; Loren Piretra, an Occupy Democrats YouTuber who worked as a Playboy executive in the past; and Barrett Adair, who runs an American Girl Doll meme account.

Other influencers include Suzanne Lambert, also known as “Regina George liberal”; Arielle Fodor, an education creator with 1.4 million followers on TikTok; and Sander Jennings, the older brother of trans influencer Jazz Jennings.

In the Wired magazine expose written by Taylor Lorenz, she explains that the only rules the influencers must abide by in order to get their money is they must keep it a secret, and they must agree to restrictions on their content.

“Creators told Wired that the contract stipulated they’d be kicked out and essentially cut off financially if they even so much as acknowledged that they were part of the program. Some creators also raised concerns about a slew of restrictive clauses in the contract,” the article reads.

“It’s a lot of money,” BlazeTV host Alex Stein comments on “Prime Time with Alex Stein.” “It’s not like ridiculous money, but it just shows you how easily somebody can be bought. I guess we could all use $8,000 a month though.”

“So basically $100,000 a year, that’s a pretty good gig,” he adds.

Want more from Alex Stein?

To enjoy more of Alex’s culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sharing, Free, Upload, Video, Camera phone, Video phone, Youtube.com, Prime time with alex stein, Alex stein, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Democrats, Liberals, Leftism, Democrat influencers, Dark money, Dark money politics, Taylor lorenz 

While the mainstream media amplifies and obsesses over conspiratorial voices on the right in order to smear conservatives, the left is not without its own crazed hallucinations.

One of the more entertaining but maddening theories being spread by those on the left on social media and other platforms is the idea that the first assassination attempt against President Donald Trump was staged to garner support from his followers.

‘This gets me SO F’king ANGRY!! ***100% STAGED***’

After the incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, many on the left immediately began claiming that the entire affair had been staged. Some even said that the ear injury was faked because the president healed so quickly.

“That shooting so f***ing staged dawg they clipped Trump’s ear with a damn rubber bullet,” said one account on the day of the attempt: “omfg he just won the election.”

That tweet got more than 230,000 likes and millions of impressions on the X platform.

“When asked about his ear yesterday, trump said ‘I heal quickly,'” said another account only a month later. “… This gets me SO F’king ANGRY!! ***100% STAGED***”

This bizarre conspiracy theory still persists on the X platform, with tens of thousands of people liking and retweeting messages for more than a year.

“In a DESPERATE attempt to win votes, get elected and avoid prison, trump STAGED an assassination attempt in Butler, PA. He is guilty of 2nd degree murder! The TRUTH is a WHISPER away!!!” read one post with more than 21,000 likes from Oct. 2024.

“Donald Trump’s assassination attempt was staged. If it was real, the Secret Service would have rushed him off the stage. Instead, they propped him up & let him stand there out in the open saying ‘Fight!’ three times,” read another post from January with more than 129,000 likes.

RELATED: Hillary makes a new accusation in the election conspiracy theory

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“Trump’s approval rating is tanking so it’s probably time for another staged assassination attempt to goose his numbers,” read another post from April with more than 2,800 likes.

And it still continues. This is from a little more than a week ago: “This was all staged by Trump! Why did he not have blood on his hair???? Cause he wasn’t shot!!!!” read the post with more than 5,300 likes.

Despite the nutty claims on social media, there is no evidence that the attempt was staged. Even some mainstream media outlets have slapped down the bizarre theory.

“The ‘staged’ claims are Pants on Fire. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt. It was witnessed by thousands of rally attendees, including dozens of news photographers and reporters,” read a report in PolitiFact that was republished at PBS News.

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​Trump assassination staged, Left wing conspiracy theories, Liberal conspiracy theories, Butler assassination attempt, Politics 

The horror of a man setting out to murder children at church defies belief. The Minnesota Catholic school shooting last week left the nation stunned, with many grasping for explanations and redirecting grief into attacks on gun policies, school security, and even, outrageously, on prayer itself.

But one factor demands attention: the worsening mental health crisis in America. Our culture increasingly enables, rather than treats, serious psychological disorders. And in this case, one condition in particular — transgenderism — deserves special scrutiny.

The recurring presence of trans-identifying shooters should alarm every lawmaker and every medical professional.

The emerging facts about the shooter reveal a deeply disturbed individual. His writings and grotesque images showed a man in desperate need of psychiatric care, yet he found affirmation instead of help. His delusions were encouraged, not confronted, and the result was catastrophic.

The pattern is becoming familiar. This tragedy mirrors the 2023 Nashville shooting, where a woman identifying as a man killed six students and teachers at her former Christian school. Other recent attacks, from Colorado Springs to Aberdeen, Maryland, also involved trans-identifying shooters.

Meanwhile, a staggering number of young Americans are being swept into this delusion. Surveys suggest that nearly 1 in 3 teenagers now claim some form of trans or “gender-diverse” identity. The trend skews heavily under age 35, a clear sign that cultural indoctrination and medical malpractice are driving young Americans to deny biological reality.

The truth remains unchanged: Humanity has two sexes. Males produce small gametes, females produce large ones. That is the basis of reproduction. That is science. “Follow the science,” we are told — until it points somewhere inconvenient.

Parents are bullied with the claim that failing to “affirm” their child’s identity will cause suicide. Schools push the ideology on children barely old enough to read. Doctors who should offer counseling instead pump minors full of dangerous hormones, mutilate their healthy bodies, and reinforce the lie that society, not their confusion, is the real problem. The result is not relief but deeper misery and hostility.

RELATED: Trans-identifying man with a ‘twisted mind’ said, ‘I want to die,’ before opening fire on Catholic Mass in Minneapolis

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Minnesota shooter himself admitted the betrayal in his final writings, expressing regret over the “brainwashing” he had embraced. His screeds were filled with self-loathing that soon turned outward. When “affirmation” fails, when surgeries and hormones leave the underlying pain untouched, some lash out — against themselves or against others.

The responsibility for the massacre in Minneapolis rests with the man who plotted, armed himself, and carried out this evil act. His hatred was written in loathsome slogans on his weapons and shouted through his crimes. But America ignores the mental health crisis feeding such hatred at its peril.

The recurring presence of trans-identifying shooters should alarm every lawmaker and every medical professional. It is past time to end the malpractice of so-called gender-affirming care. Those struggling with gender dysphoria need real psychiatric help, not a dangerous charade. Until that happens, more atrocities will follow — and more innocents will get hurt.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Annunciation, Annunciation catholic school, Annunciation church and catholic school, School shooting, Transgender, Gender affirming care, Mental illness, Mental health, Delusions, Murder, Mass shooting, Transgenderism, Malpractice