Pete Hegseth’s church is just as bigoted and extremist as he is.

The latest scandal facing President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Defense Department—who has already been accused of sexual assault, predatory workplace behavior, and showing up to work drunk—revolves around the church that the warmongering, Christian nationalist belongs to.

Salon reports that Hegseth made a dramatic, spiritual about-face after his 2017 rape allegation, as faith conveniently became “real” to him during that time. He moved to Tennessee and saddled up with Christ Church and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and sent his children to its affiliated schools, the Association of Classical Christian Schools, or ACCS. This group is led by pastor Doug Wilson, an unordained minister who preaches right-wing extremism from the pulpit.

Wilson believes men have a sexual right to women, and has written that unsubmissive women are at fault for sexual violence committed against them. “The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party … a man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” Wilson also believes that God created women “to make the sandwiches” and thinks that giving women the right to vote led to “a long, sustained war on the family.”

“Wilson holds the most extreme views of women’s submission found in any form of Christianity,” Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies professor at the University of North Florida, told Salon. “Women are taught that submission to their husbands (and other male authorities) is submission to God. Independence of any kind is cast as sin.”

Hegseth isn’t just an Easter-Christmas member of Wilson’s church: He’s a staunch public advocate. He posted in support of its schools, commended Wilson for not masking during the pandemic, and went on the ACCS affiliated CrossPolitic podcast shortly after his nomination for Defense Secretary. It makes sense that a man with multiple allegations of mistreating women would feel right at home in Doug Wilson’s Christ Church. And if confirmed, Hegseth will be sure not to leave a single degree of separation between his fanatical church and our state.

Justin Sun, a Chinese national accused of fraud, sent Donald Trump $18 million last week.

The newsletter Popular Information reports that Sun, most recently famous for spending $6.2 million on a banana and then eating it, paid $30 million for cryptocurrency tokens from World Liberty Financial, which is backed by Trump. In a pinned post on his X profile, Sun bragged about the purchase, saying his own blockchain start-up, TRON, was “committed to making America great again and leading innovation.”

Until Sun’s purchase, Trump’s crypto start-up appeared headed for failure with only $22 million in tokens sold, far short of its goal of $300 million in sales. The purchase not only keeps the WLF going, but also guarantees a windfall for Trump. A filing from the venture in October states that “$30 million of initial net protocol revenues” will be “held in a reserve … to cover operating expenses, indemnities, and obligations.”

After that reserve is met, a company owned by Trump is then entitled to 75 percent of WLF’s revenues from the sale of all other tokens. As of Sunday, WLF has sold $24 million in tokens, giving Trump a solid $18 million payoff. Sun’s purchase has also gotten him an advisory position in Trump’s venture, making him business partners with the president-elect.

And influence with Trump may be the only benefit to Sun’s transaction. Right now, Sun’s tokens don’t have any monetary value unless they “are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a fashion that does not contravene applicable law.” Plus, Sun is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud.

In March 2023, the SEC charged Sun, as well as three of his companies, for marketing unregistered securities and “fraudulently manipulating the secondary market” for a cryptocurrency token “through extensive wash trading.” Wash trading is “the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership,” according to Popular Information.

Sun was also charged with “orchestrating a scheme to pay celebrities to tout” cryptocurrency “without disclosing their compensation.” Under federal law, people who endorse securities have to disclose their compensation as well as how much money they received. Sun apparently got Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, and Lindsey Lohan to endorse his crypto tokens.

The charges against Sun took place under the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler, who will be gone after Trump is sworn in next year. Trump’s new SEC chair, whoever that may be, could easily make those charges disappear. Trump stands to rake in much more money from cryptocurrency, and the industry spent a whopping $180 million on political campaigns during the 2024 election cycle. The president-elect is almost certain to help the crypto industry, his new benefactor Sun, and himself make more money in his second term as president.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has advocated to remove all fluoride from public water within the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, once sold bottled water flush with the very stuff he imagines is toxic.

Kennedy, whom Trump nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claims that fluoride is “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”

In fact, fluoridation helps prevent teeth from rotting out of our heads and children........

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