On March 26, Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag order to prohibit Donald Trump from attacking “witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff, as well as their relatives” ahead of the disgraced former president's April 15 hush-money payment trial. The same day, Islamophobic troll Laura Loomer attacked Merchan’s daughter, Loren, on social media, claiming that her X profile featured a photo of Trump behind bars. Trump repeated Loomer’s attack, which led the judge to extend the gag order to include attacks on members of his own family.
A spokesperson for New York’s state court system said that the social media account associated with the picture of Trump behind bars “is not linked to her [Loren Merchan’s] email address, nor has she posted under the screenname since she deleted the accounts” about a year ago. The spokesperson went on to say that the account “represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she has long ago abandoned.”
Right-wing figures launched similar attacks on Loren Merchan a year ago when they posted photos of her online and claimed that her work for Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign was evidence that her father was politically biased against Trump. Trump’s legal team attempted to bully Merchan into recusing himself. But the judge declined, citing the determination of the state advisory committee on judicial ethics that said his impartiality could not “reasonably be questioned.”
After Trump repeated Loomer’s smear, it spread on right-wing media, appearing on One America News and Newsmax.
It’s a dark reality we’re living in when the family of a judge performing their constitutional duties is subjected to such abuse. The incident demonstrates how right-wing media personalities will launch smears and engage in bloodthirsty rhetoric, regardless of its consequences, to performatively pledge fealty to their Dear Leader.
In previous newsletters, we’ve told you about Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s authoritarian policy and staffing proposals for the next Republican administration, and the threat it poses to our republic. The conservative think tank’s policy book contains proposals that would attack reproductive rights from several angles, including taking aim at surrogacy. In fact, the Heritage Foundation recently published several articles attacking surrogacy as part of a broader campaign by conservatives to roll back reproductive rights.
The Right has been engaged in a decadeslong war on reproductive rights. Surrogacy has become another prong in this attack, aided by the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that granted frozen embryos the same rights as children. The attacks often take the form of homophobic and sexist rhetoric to shame LGBTQ couples and single women who use surrogacy and in vitro fertilization to have babies.
The recent Heritage Foundation articles, coupled with the broader Project 2025 policy proposals, underscore the conservative movement's determination to roll back reproductive rights. The next Republican administration may very well bring these proposals into reality.
President Joe Biden designated March 31 as Trans Day of Visibility, an occasion to celebrate the lives and contributions of trans people. In its inaugural year, Trans Visibility Day coincided with Easter. While there is no obvious conflict between celebrating Easter and recognizing the dignity and humanity of a marginalized group, right-wing media disagreed. For days conservative commentators condemned Biden and claimed that his administration had made a deliberate “satanic” mockery of Christianity by recognizing Trans Day of Visibility on Easter.
- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called Biden a “demon” for recognizing Trans Day of Visibility.
- Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that the Biden administration is “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity.”
- Salem Media host Eric Metaxas wrote: “The deeply evil thing Joe Biden has done in declaring today ‘Trans Visibility Day’ is a deliberate and satanic mockery of God Himself on the holiest day of the year.”
Beyond the obscene takes, right-wing media obsessively covered the fake outrage. Fox News devoted 2 hours and 19 minutes to this story from March 30 through April 1. Newsmax, the fledgling Fox wannabe, spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on the subject.
This is yet another example of conservative media’s bloodthirsty war against trans people. It’s a war that doesn't allow for even the mildest recognition that trans people are people.
