“As much as I reject Donald Trump as our party leader, he did not create the political culture of the United States on his own.”
–Former Republican presidential candidate and governor of Florida Jeb Bush, in an op-ed published in The Washington Post where he denounces Donald Trump, saying he does not reflect “the principles or inclusive legacy of the Republican Party.” But Bush says that it is President Obama, not Donald Trump, who first escalated the conflict, by abusing his power to push liberal policies over the wishes of the American people.
“Eight years of the divisive tactics of President Obama and his allies have undermined Americans’ faith in politics and government to accomplish anything constructive,” Bush writes. “The president has wielded his power — while often exceeding his authority — to punish his opponents, legislate from the White House and turn agency rulemaking into a weapon for liberal dogma.
“In turn, a few in the Republican Party responded by trying to out-polarize the president, making us seem anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker and anti-common-sense,” Bush continues. “The result has been the vanishing of any semblance of compromise or bipartisanship in our nation’s capital. Simple problems don’t get solved. Speeches happen; the important stuff doesn’t. The failure of elected leaders to break the gridlock in Washington has led to an increasingly divided electorate, which in turn has led to a breakdown in our political system.”
Bush then uses the bulk of the rest of the column to propose conservative ideas meant to solve major issues facing the country. Bush argues that Republicans can win back the White House with “the power of our ideas,” such as term limits, a balanced-budget amendment, line-item-veto authority, a tough approach to terrorism, and promoting free markets. While Bush says he will either vote Libertarian or write someone in for president, he urges House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and the Republican-controlled Congress to serve as a check on the president, regardless of which candidate eventually wins the White House.
Bush also attacks Trump’s “abrasive, Know Nothing-like nativist rhetoric,” calling out the business mogul over his lack of serious policies, his use of Twitter to disparage opponents, and his embrace of tactics that “cynically feed” people’s angst and fear. But he also takes aim at presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, arguing that she would only “continue the disastrous foreign and economic policies of the Obama administration, as well as its hyper-partisanship.”
“She has gone as far as to say Republicans are her “enemy” — a clear sign she doesn’t have any more interest in doing the hard work of forging consensus than her former boss does,” writes Bush in a dig at both Obama and Clinton.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that prohibits transgender and nonbinary individuals from obtaining passports reflecting their gender identities.
Rubio's directive, issued in January, had instructed State Department staff to freeze all applications for passports with "X" gender markers or applications requesting changes to gender markers on existing passports.
Rubio also directed his subordinate to enforce a section of the Immigration and Nationalist Act that allows the United States to refuse entry to any visa applicant who commits identity fraud or misrepresents who they are, with particular focus on transgender athletes from foreign countries.
Support for same-sex marriage has decreased over the past three years, driven by a drastic drop in support from Republicans, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Overall support for same-sex marriage among American adults stands at 68%, down from a high of 71% in 2022.
While 88% of Democrats and 76% of independents support same-sex nuptials, Republican support has tumbled from a high of 55% in 2021 and 2022 to just 41% in 2025.
It’s unclear what’s driving the trend. It could be that Republicans are changing their minds on the issue or that more socially liberal individuals are refusing to identify as Republicans.
In a tense House hearing, a pair of congressional Democrats blasted Pentagon officials for stripping gay rights icon Harvey Milk’s name from a Navy ship, accusing the military of erasing LGBTQ history. U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), an out gay Democrat, directly confronted Navy Secretary John Phelan over the decision during the June 11 Armed Services Committee meeting.
"I just wanted to take a moment to talk about a veteran who served on a submarine as a diving officer during the Korean War," Sorensen said, referring to Milk's biography before actually naming him.
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