Articles by Cassandra MacDonald

Republican Florida State Sen. Ileana Garcia passed out while speaking at a press conference held by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday.
Garcia was speaking about environmental legislation when she suddenly turned to DeSantis to let him know she was not feeling well.
“Governor, forgive me,” Garcia said. “I’ve gotta sit down because I am not feeling well.”
Seconds later, Garcia slumped over and was caught by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
“We got you,” Ladapo repeatedly told her as he prevented her from falling.

WATCH: The moment Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo caught Sen. Ileana Garcia as she seemingly fainted or nearly passed out speaking at a press conference today
Garcia ultimately was fine and finished her remarks at the podium pic.twitter.com/Olloxog0AF
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) May 6, 2025
Garcia was given water and sat down momentarily before returning to the podium and finishing her remarks.
The crowd cheered, and she joked about the situation.
“Are you kidding? This was my moment,” Garcia said to laughter. “Nerve-racking, but this was my moment, and I so appreciate your grace, Governor DeSantis.”

The cause of the collapse remains unclear. […]

Credit: Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de / Wikimedia Commons
President Donald Trump announced that he is slapping a 100 percent tariff on all foreign films to save America’s movie industry.
Trump announced the tariff in a post to Truth Social on Sunday evening.
The president wrote, “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States.”
“Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” the post continued. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”

Trump wrote that he is authorizing the Department of Commerce to begin the process of implementing tariffs “immediately.”

“Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” Trump continued.
The post concluded, “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded to the post on X, writing, “We’re on it.”

Reuters reports, “It was unclear if the tariffs would apply to movies on streaming services as well as those shown in theaters, or if they would be calculated based on production costs or box office revenue. Hollywood executives were trying to sort out details on Sunday night. The Motion Picture Association, which represents the major studios, had no immediate comment.”
Netflix, Disney, and Universal are among the major studios that often film outside the US. […]

The National Institutes of Health just renewed funding for Dr. Anthony Fauci’s infamously cruel “Monkey Island” off the coast of South Carolina.
The Trump administration has been working to clean up Joe Biden and Fauci’s wasteful spending and funding of barbaric and outdated animal testing, but it seems that holdovers from the previous administration have other plans.
According to the transaction history, the NIH will potentially award Alpha Genesis a total of $26.9 million in taxpayer funds to maintain the island. Managing the island has cost Americans more than $66 million to date.

Finally, we get to Dr. Fauci’s funky monkey island.
Since 1979, Dr. Fauci’s @NIH division has maintained an island that currently houses 3,379 monkeys for use in taxpayer-funded experiments.
Managing the island has cost more than $66 million to date (adjusted for inflation).
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) December 14, 2024

In 2021, White Coat Waste, a watchdog organization working to end cruel and unnecessary taxpayer-funded animal experimentation, exposed how Monkey Island confines over 3,300 primates who are bred and then shipped to labs for deadly and horrific “maximum pain” research.
In a statement about the funding, WCW President Anthony Bellotti told Gateway Pundit:

“As the watchdog that first exposed Fauci’s funding for the Wuhan lab, beagle abuse, Monkey Island, and transgender animal experiments, we’re alarmed that NIH just renewed millions for more Biden-Fauci era animal abuse. President Trump’s message is crystal clear: cut NIH’s wasteful spending. But Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and the NIH staff either didn’t get Trump’s memo—or they’re ignoring it. Instead, Biden-Fauci holdovers at NIH are planning to open a new, big government department in the Beltway, they’re renewing Fauci payouts to animal labs where beagles are eaten alive by insects, and they’re promoting Fauci’s top lieutenants who champion gain-of-function. Just yesterday, they unveiled a foolish spending policy on “alternatives” that’s indistinguishable from the Biden-Fauci NIH—one that won’t hold Fauci accountable or save any animals in labs. NIH’s bureaucrats are undermining President Trump. More bureaucracy won’t save beagles, and it won’t make America greater for animals. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
An estimated 500 to 600 monkeys are taken from the island each year and sent to NIH and other government labs, where they’re infected with viruses, mutilated, and killed.
The Post and Courier reported this week:

About 500 primates, each bearing a numeric chest tattoo, are trapped every year, ferried to the mainland and trucked to federal laboratories. There, they may be sacrificed to develop vaccines, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. They’ve been called a vital part of national security, and the federal government pays about $4 million a year to keep an ample supply.
The monkey colony stayed over the objections of federal officials and conservationists. It became, in the words of one top former state official, a “performing asset” that generated lease money used to fund other programs and salaries.
A 2018 NIAID paper described the development of the deadly Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHFV) in monkeys taken from the island in very graphic detail.

White Coat Waste provided Gateway Pundit with a photo of one of the monkeys that was infected with the virus:
One of the primates from Monkey Island infected with Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Lab in Montana.

The agency used fifteen rhesus and African green monkeys for the pilot study. In the main study, they used a dozen macaque monkeys, who were injected with the painful virus and killed on the seventh day of the test.
The primates from the island have also been used for testing related to AIDS, polio, and even bioterrorism. Only researchers and officials are allowed on the secretive island, which sits at 32.4774º N and 80.5195ºW. The public is banned from entering.

WCW also obtained video through a FOIA lawsuit against NIH, revealing how NIH’s Rocky Mountain Lab in Montana tortures monkeys it receives from the island in Ebola and COVID experiments.
[embedded content]
The NIH is paying $22.8 million in taxpayer dollars to Alpha Genesis, the company with the NIAID contract, to manage the island. This is the same company that let 43 monkeys escape from its South Carolina lab last year.
According to a report from White Coat Waste, “In 2024 alone, Alpha Genesis raked in at least $19 million in taxpayer funding—all from NIH. They’ve received over $110 million in federal funding since 2008, including millions in special COVID-19 emergency funding and a $1 million COVID bailout.”

It’s time for another ️ #WasteReportWednesday ️ Read more at https://t.co/VsSbLKRlD6 https://t.co/CbS9SMccmU
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) January 24, 2024

On Tuesday, independent journalist Laura Loomer reported that the NIH claims it will “aim to reduce the number of animals” used in research, instead of cutting the funding entirely.

Wow! Shame on the @NIH under @DrJBhattacharya.
Today, right before President Trump’s speech in Michigan, the NIH quietly released this statement following increasing pressure on them to end animal testing under the new Trump admin.
The release comes shortly after BOMBSHELL… https://t.co/Q4G4SuEKKd pic.twitter.com/pU9A2kCU5h
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 29, 2025

Loomer wrote:
Today, right before President Trump’s speech in Michigan, the NIH quietly released this statement following increasing pressure on them to end animal testing under the new Trump admin.

The release comes shortly after BOMBSHELL reports from White Coat Waste, who exposed the fact that Fauci’s abusive experiments on Beagles are still being funded under the new Trump admin, and new @NIHDirector.

This press release release claims the NIH will only “aim to reduce the use of animals in NIH research” going forward, instead of completely cutting the funding for the abuse of Beagles, the torture of cats, monkeys, and the funding for trans experiments on MICE.
I guess @DrJBhattacharya is hoping people are too distracted by the Trump rally in Michigan tonight to notice his press release, in which he won’t even commit to ending abusive, tax payer funded tests on innocent animals.
We were told Fauci and Biden were EVIL for these cruel animal tests, but now these same experiments are still being funded under the Trump admin, and NIH won’t even commit to ENDING all of these animal abuse experiments.

White Coat Waste President Anthony Bellotti issued a statement in response, saying, “More NIH bureaucracy won’t save beagles. The only way to reduce animal abuse in NIH-funded labs is to tear down departments, not build new ones.”

.@POTUS & @SecKennedy promised to clean up Fauci’s wasteful spending
Instead, Biden/Fauci NIH holdovers are:
Renewing Fauci’s beagle labsExtending transgender animal testsReplacing Fauci w/gain-of-function colleagueDefending animal tests & adding NIH bureaucracy https://t.co/9YlAnlr5rr
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) April 30, 2025

Following WCW’s investigations, the Trump administration has cut 10 NIH grants funding transgender animal experiments.
FDA’s Move to Phase Out Animal Testing Hailed as Victory for White Coat Waste Project

Earlier this month, Trump’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to phase out animal testing requirements, starting with monoclonal antibodies and expanding to other drugs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also pledged to eliminate animal testing, reinstating a plan originally introduced during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The Gateway Pundit has contacted the NIH for comment and will update this story if one is provided. […]

Luigi Mangione has pleaded “not guilty” to federal charges related to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione is facing both federal and state charges. The federal charges include murder through the use of a firearm, two counts of stalking, and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.
The 26-year-old from Maryland is facing the death penalty if convicted on the federal murder charge.
On Friday, Mangione entered his not guilty plea before Judge Margaret Garnett. His lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, also asked that the federal case take priority over the state charges and that she not seek the death penalty.
Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Thompson in cold blood on the streets of New York City in December, allegedly driven by frustration with the U.S. healthcare system. The murder was captured on security footage.

A handwritten letter found on Mangione at the time of his arrest labeled insurance companies “parasitic” and decried corporate greed, sentiments echoed by bullet casings at the crime scene inscribed with “DENY,” “DEPOSE,” and “DELAY”—terms often linked to insurance claim denials.
In a statement about the case, Bondi said, “Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
“After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,” Bondi continued.

The political nature of the shooting and widespread frustration with insurance companies have catapulted Mangione into a sort of folk hero status among leftists.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to the 11 state charges, which also include murder.
The next federal court date is December 5, 2025. The trial will likely begin in 2026.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this month, a proposed ballot initiative named the “Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act” has been submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office in honor of the accused murderer.
The proposal would amend the state’s Health and Safety Code to curb insurers’ ability to deny or delay medical treatments recommended by physicians. […]

A Texas mother has been arrested for serving spiked Jello shots to 15 children at a 5th-grade Christmas party, causing one of them to pass out.
Teresa Isabel Bernal, 33, was arrested on Monday, but claims she bought the boozy treats on Facebook Marketplace and did not know they contained alcohol.
Bernal claimed that the shots “do taste different,” but she brought them to the party anyway and did not realize they contained booze until after all the kids consumed them.
According to a report from the New York Post, almost all of the students reported “‘having stomach aches and headaches,’ the affidavit said. One kid couldn’t stay on his feet, another vomited, and a third ‘passed out.’”
“However, some of her daughter’s teachers could taste the alcohol, and they sent all of the kids who had eaten them to the nurses office, the officials said. Only four kids stayed behind,” the report explained.

The investigator’s affidavit states, “During the interviews I was told, while some of the teachers found it odd that Bernal would bring Jell-O shots to an elementary school party, they were trusting Bernal not to bring anything harmful to the school party. Bernal was an involved parent and was present at many functions at the school.”
The investigator did not believe the alcohol was served by accident.
“In my opinion, there is no way Bernal could have missed the fact that the Jell-O shots she purchased … and brought to her daughter’s 5th grade Christmas party contained drinking alcohol,” the investigator wrote.

The Facebook post she purchased them from makes it clear that they contained alcohol.
Bernal was released on Monday on a $75,000 bond.
The mom is now banned from the school. […]

Former congressman George Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison and two years of supervised release on Friday.
Santos, 36, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft last year.
The prosecution was granted the 87 months that they had requested.
Intelligencer reports:
In 2023, federal prosecutors unveiled an indictment against Santos, alleging the representative defrauded campaign donors by directing their contributions to his personal accounts and using the funds to purchase designer clothes and pay bills. They also alleged that he fraudulently applied for pandemic unemployment benefits despite being employed. A subsequent superseding indictment alleged Santos conspired to inflate his campaign’s financial records to qualify for assistance from the national party as well as stole the identities and financial information of his donors to make contributions in their names unknowingly. The 23 total counts against Santos ranged from wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
Santos was initially defiant, rebuffing calls for his resignation and vowing to run for reelection. But the beleaguered representative soon made history in 2023 by becoming only the sixth member of the House to be expelled from the political body following a damning ethics report that found “substantial evidence” of his rule breaking.

The Department of Justice asked for an increased sentence due to his social media posts criticizing the federal government.

Hi my name is George Santos and the DOJ has had a hard on for me since December of 2022.
I refuse to let them break me or my spirit and that makes them big Mad… they have used elaborate language to drag me and hinder my ability to earn income…
Long story short, I will NOT…
— Pants On Fire with George Santos (@MrSantosNY) April 5, 2025

In a letter to the judge last week, Santos expressed remorse for his actions but called out the prosecution for seeking such a harsh penalty.
“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” Santos wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, according to a report from the Associated Press. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”

“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” he wrote.
Santos was elected in 2022 and ousted the following year.
Before being kicked out of office, Santos received a 100% score from Heritage Action for America for his complete alignment with the organization’s conservative policy positions.
Santos has not publicly stated if he will seek a pardon from President Donald Trump […]

U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking with attendees at the 2021 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is reportedly considering a run for Senate in 2026, but only if Governor Brian Kemp does not enter the race.
Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff currently holds the seat Greene is said to be eying.
The Daily Caller, citing two unnamed sources, reports that Greene believes she would “crush” the Republican primary if Kemp does not enter the race. Kemp is widely considered a favorite to win and clear the field if he chooses.
The Daily Caller reports:
Greene’s potential candidacy for incumbent Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s seat would put the conservative congresswoman at the center of one of the most closely watched races of 2026. Republicans are laser-focused on defeating Ossoff, whose narrow victory over former Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue in a January 2021 runoff election was partly responsible for costing Senate Republicans their majority during the 2020 cycle.
Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state that Trump won last November.

Though Kemp is viewed as the party’s top recruit to defeat Ossoff — reflected by recent polling — the Republican primary is “frozen” until the term-limited governor makes a decision about whether to enter the race, a source familiar with the primary contest told the DCNF. Another source who requested anonymity to discuss both potential candidates’ bids said Kemp is likely to indicate whether he is running by Memorial Day.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been urging Kemp to run, as has Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
President Donald Trump has urged Greene to run instead, vowing to “fight like hell” for her if she does.

When asked if she was considering a run by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February, Greene did not rule it out. “Of course I’m considering all possibilities,” the congresswoman said. “No decisions have been made, but I would be telling a lie if I didn’t say I wasn’t considering it.”
“I think if she got in tomorrow, she’d raise millions of dollars online in the first week,” one source told The Caller. “If I was one of the other members of Congress that was looking at the race, I would not be fired up about running against her.”
Georgia Reps. Mike Collins, Rich McCormick, and Buddy Carter are also reportedly considering primary runs, but none are household names like Greene. […]

Photo courtesy of Caixin Global
President Donald Trump discussed his desire for Canada to become the 51st state in an interview with Time Magazine published this week.
The president told the magazine that he is “really not trolling” and is serious about the endeavor.
During the interview, the reporter said, “You’ve talked about acquiring Greenland, taking control of the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state. Maybe you’re trolling a little bit on that one. I don’t know.”
Trump replied, “Actually, no, I’m not.”
“Well, do you want to grow the American empire?” the interviewer asked.

Trump responded:
Well, it depends as an empire, it wasn’t, these are not things that we had before, so I’d view it a little bit differently if we had the right opportunity. Yeah, I think Greenland would be very well off if they I think it’s important for us for national security and even international security. I think Canada, what you said that, “Well, that one, I might be trolling.” But I’m really not trolling.
Canada is an interesting case. We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada. And I asked a man who I called Governor Trudeau. I said, ”Why? Why do you think we’re losing so much money supporting you? Do you think that’s right? Do you think that’s appropriate for another country to make it possible, for a country to sustain and he was unable to give me an answer, but it costs us over $200 billion a year to take care of Canada?”
We’re taking care of their military. We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.

Canadian politicians have repeatedly rejected the idea, which became a major talking point in campaigns for people vying to replace former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. […]

The Pentagon by David B. Gleason is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Pentagon will be resuming providing sex change treatments and surgeries for transgender servicemembers or transgender dependents of servicemembers.
The change was announced in a memo dated Monday, but first reported on by Politico on Thursday.
“Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may receive appropriate care for their diagnosis of [gender dysphoria], including mental health care and counseling and newly initiated or ongoing cross-sex hormone therapy,” the memo, signed by Stephen Ferrara, acting assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs, read.
“Service members may also receive voice therapy and appropriate surgical procedures,” the memo continued.
The return to Biden-era transgender policies comes after a judge struck down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s changes that prohibited coverage of sex change procedures and hormones, deeming it “unconstitutional.”

The judge also struck down the ban on transgender people serving in the military, which was part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump at the beginning of his presidency.
Politico reports:
Hegseth, in a Wednesday speech at the Army War College, celebrated the first 100 days of the Trump administration by telling the assembled officers that there is “no more social engineering … no more gender confusion, no more pronouns, no more excuses,” within the military.
Some officials saw the move as a capitulation by the administration, which was settling for a loss in court while continuing to wage a public relations war to keep transgender service members out of the military.

“They’ve scared all of the trans people off,” said one person close to the Pentagon familiar with the conversations, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “What’s to be gained by continuing to fight with the courts? It seems pretty easy to stop getting crazy with it. You won. You got what you wanted.” […]

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the administration’s threat to withhold federal funding due to the state refusing to bar male athletes from women’s and girls’ sports.
Trump signed an executive order to protect women’s and girls’ sports on February 4.
On Tuesday, Bondi sent out a letter warning states that were not in compliance that they were at risk of losing funding.
“This Department of Justice will hold accountable states and state entities that violate federal law,” Bondi wrote Tuesday in letters addressed to Maine Gov. Janet Mills, California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director Ron Nocetti, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Erich Martens, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League, according to a report from The Hill.
She continued, “The Department of Justice stands ready to take all appropriate action to enforce federal law.”

“I hope that it does not come to this. The Department of Justice does not want to have to sue states or state entities, or to seek termination of their federal funds. We only want states and state entities to comply with the law. And federal law requires giving girls an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by ensuring that girls need to compete only with other girls, not with boys.”
Ellison responded to the letter by filing the lawsuit and accusing the administration of “bullying.”
“I’m not going to sit around waiting for the Trump administration to sue Minnesota,” Ellison said during a press conference on Tuesday. “Today, Minnesota is suing him and his administration because we will not participate in this shameful bullying.”

Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, who is a “transgender” biological male, also spoke at the press conference. He argued that protecting girls’ sports is “cruelty” and “bigotry.”
“Here, we do not bend to cruelty,” Finke said. “We do not bow to bullying or bigotry. We lead with love and follow the law. We will continue to build a state that honors and affirms the lives of all. We will continue to build a state that honors and affirms the lives of all. We have chosen love, we have chosen justice, and we continue to choose freedom, now and always.”
The extremely far-left attorney general infamously shared a photo of himself holding the Antifa Anti-Fascist Handbook in 2018, claiming that it would “strike fear” into President Trump.

Judge Susan Nelson, an Obama appointee recused herself from the case on Wednesday. The case has been assigned to Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee. […]