Trump’s America Refuses to Recognize Slavery as Crime Against Humanity

On Wednesday, the U.S., Israel, and Argentina were the only countries to reject the formal recognition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade—which saw millions of Africans kidnapped, trafficked, brutalized, and dehumanized for centuries—as the “gravest crime against humanity.” The United Nations resolution also called for reparations, and was adopted with 123 votes in favor and 52 abstentions, in addition to the three “no” votes.

“The trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans [was] the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital,” the Ghana-backed resolution read.

The “no” votes are unsurprising. The U.S. used slave labor to develop into a world power, treating Black people as chattel and denying them de facto and de jure basic rights in the process. Israel is currently one of the most genocidal nations on earth. And Argentina—a country that has attempted to erase Black people from its history for centuries—is currently ruled by the far-right regime of President Javier Milei.

Dozens of European countries also abstained, perhaps even more cowardly than an outright “no” given the leading roles that countries like the U.K., Portugal, France, Austria, and Denmark all played in the slave trade, building their wealth off the backs of enslaved African labor. If reparations were to be approved, they’d be the ones paying up.

“Every part of this feels like an Onion meme,” geopolitical content creator Eric Hovagim wrote on X. “Israel + US are pro slavery, EU too chicken to say they also love slavery, AND the resolution isn’t even legally binding. Pathetic.”

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama also criticized the United States for its present role in perpetuating the lasting harms of the slave trade.

“Here in the United States, Black history courses are being removed from school curriculum. Schools have been mandated to stop teaching students about the truth of slavery, segregation, and racism in American history courses. Books about those topics are being banned in public schools and libraries,” Mahama said. “These policies are becoming a template for other governments, as well as some private institutions. At the very least, they are slowly normalizing the erasure.”

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have rendered many of America’s 13 military bases in the Gulf region “all but uninhabitable,” forcing U.S. military service members to work remotely from hotels and office spaces, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Within the first two weeks of the war, Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases caused an estimated $800 million in damage, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a BBC analysis.

When the war began, there were close to 40,000 troops in the region. Now some of them have been removed as far as Europe, while many struggle to prosecute a work-from-home war.

“Yes, we have the ability to set up expedient operation centers, but you’re absolutely going to lose capability,” Master Sgt. Wes J. Bryant, a retired Special Operations targeting specialist in the U.S. Air Force, told the Times. “You can’t just put all that equipment on the top of a hotel, for example. Some of it is unwieldy.”

The mass displacement of thousands of troops raises questions about what preparation, if any, the U.S. made for retaliatory strikes from Iran. By Donald Trump’s own admission, he was caught completely by surprise that Iran struck back against other Gulf nations.

U.S. military bases in Kuwait have suffered the most extensive damage. In Port Shuaiba, a makeshift military operations center was struck, killing six U.S. service members. Iranian drones and missiles have also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base and Camp Buehring.

In Bahrain, a one-way attack drone damaged communications equipment at the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama. In Saudi Arabia, missiles and drones struck five refueling planes at the Prince Sultan Air Base. In Qatar, Iran targeted Al Udeid Air Base.

Iranian officials have accused the U.S. troops holed up in hotel rooms of using civilians as human shields.

“We are forced to identify and target the Americans,” the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a message to people in the region, according to Tasnim News Agency. “Therefore, it is better not to shelter them in hotels and to stay away from their locations.”

Bill Maher will be the twenty-seventh recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor despite the White House’s earlier claims that no such thing would happen.

Last week, The Atlantic reported that the openly racist, misogynist, and astonishingly unfunny comedian would receive the honor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts before it shuts down in July, following Trump’s orders.

The White House wasn’t having it. After the report was published, Trump’s team called the Kennedy Center and “made clear that Maher would not receive the prize,” and the Kennedy Center confirmed that the decision had been reversed, sources told The Atlantic.

“This is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then said in a statement.

“Literally FAKE NEWS,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X.

Well, despite that back and forth, Maher—who once gleefully used the n-word on live television—will in fact receive the award on June 28, the Kennedy Center announced Thursday. The ceremony will premiere exclusively on Netflix at a later date.

“Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win,” the 70-year-old comedian said in a statement. “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain,” he attempted to joke.

Trump and Maher have had an on-again-off-again relationship for years. Maher was openly critical of the president during his first term but then had dinner with him at the White House in 2025. He described the president as “gracious and measured” and a “possible friend,” which sent him plummeting from what little grace he had left in the comedy world.

By February however, Trump turned on Maher, calling him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT” and a “total waste of time.” It’s perhaps one of the only agreeable takes the president has ever had.

Donald Trump admitted that he is referring to the Iran war as a “military operation” to circumvent the Constitution.

In remarks at a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner Wednesday night, the president joked: “I won’t use the word ‘war,’ because they say if you use the word ‘war,’ that’s maybe not a good thing to do. They don’t like the word ‘war’ because you are supposed to get approval. So I will use the word ‘military operation.’”

Article 1 of the Constitution, which created Congress in the first place, gives the legislative branch the sole power to declare war. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 further clarifies this, requiring the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of introducing American forces into a conflict.

But there’s an easy loophole here, first exploited by Harry Truman in 1950 to send U.S. troops to Korea—just call your plan a “police action,” or a “military operation.” Whatever the hell you want, really, except an act of war. Then you don’t need those sniveling nerds to approve anything!

The War Powers Resolution failed to fix this loophole, and Congress still hasn’t officially declared war since World War II. Our country has sent hundreds of thousands of troops to kill and maim in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran. But for all the death, memorials, and flag-waving, none of those wars technically took place.

Trump flat-out admitting he’s doing this—in front of GOP representatives, no less!—should be a slap in the face to any lawmaker who claims to believe in the Constitution. But besides Senator Rand Paul and Representatives Warren Davidson and Thomas Massie, every single congressional Republican has rolled over and allowed Trump to continue bombing at will. May their children never see such “military operations” in the flesh.

It appears that the war on Iran—the one President Trump keeps saying is already over—is so costly that the Pentagon is weighing taking weapons and resources from Ukraine to use in the Middle East.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that the U.S. may divert air defense interceptor missiles specifically from Ukraine while their stockpile depletes—something European leaders have expressed concern over.

“They are really burning through munitions, so there are questions now about how much they will keep providing through the deal,” an anonymous diplomat told the Post.

While this has yet to occur, the fact that shifting weapons is even an option does not inspire any kind of confidence in the successful end of the war in Iran. Thousands of Iranian and Lebanese civilians have been either killed or displaced, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and rumors of a boots on the ground initiative grow stronger by the day. Meanwhile, the war and the man who started it are becoming less and less popular. From Ukraine’s perspective, Russia has not eased up in any way on its attacks, and won’t anytime soon. The air defense interceptors will be sorely missed.