Democracy Watch: RFK Jr.’s dangerous views on autism, a constitutional crisis has arrived, DOGE continues its nefarious ways, and more

Socialite Life is a lively celebrity and pop culture website that offers a daily dose of divas, drag queens, hot male celebrities, models, and all the latest celebrity news. Given that our democracy is currently in turmoil, we feel compelled to keep everyone informed about the chaotic situation the Trump administration is creating in this country.

In Democracy Watch, we’ll share a roundup of the most alarming and mostly illegal activities that the Trump administration engages in a few times a week, along with some ridiculous things that Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk are attempting to do.

We’ll also offer some useful resources to keep you informed about current events and guide you on how you can help prevent the United States from becoming the next Russia. In the meantime, make sure to follow Socialite Life on Bluesky: @socialitelife.bsky.social.

RFK Jr. is a highly dangerous individual. In remarks laced with scientific inaccuracies, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Wednesday that autism was preventable while directly contradicting researchers within his own agency on a primary driver behind rising rates of the condition in young children. Mr. Kennedy made his comments at a news conference, responding to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that rates of autism had increased to one in 31 among 8-year-olds, continuing a long-running trend.

Blaming environmental risk factors for the uptick, he accused the media and the public of succumbing to a “myth of epidemic denial” when it came to autism. He also called research into the genetic factors that scientists say play a vital role in whether a child will develop autism “a dead end.” “Genes don’t cause epidemics,” he said. “You need an environmental toxin.”

Autism rates among children have increased nearly fivefold since 2000, when the C.D.C. first began collecting data on the condition’s incidence in children. The C.D.C.’s new report attributed some of the increase in autism’s prevalence to more screening for the condition. And researchers have pointed to several other factors, including greater awareness of what autism looks like, more access to services, more parents having children later in life and broader definitions of the disorder. [The New York Times – Gifted]

A man who authorities said scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion where he set a fire had planned to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a hammer if he found him, according to court documents released Monday. The fire left significant damage and forced Shapiro, his family, and guests to evacuate the building early Sunday. The man, who was arrested later in the day, faces charges including attempted homicide, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault, authorities said. During a police interview, authorities said Cody Balmer told them after he was taken into custody that he would have beaten Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had found him, the documents say. Balmer had walked an hour from his home to the governor’s residence, and during the police interview, “Balmer admitted to harboring hatred towards Governor Shapiro,” according to a police affidavit, but it didn’t explain why. [AP News]

Ransomware gangs, email scammers, state-sponsored spies: hacking groups come in all shapes and sizes. There are some we write about quite a bit here at WIRED, who through some combination of audacity, incompetence, or geopolitical importance—or some combination of all three—grab the spotlight in the wake of a major heist or intrusion. Then there are the groups that largely manage to stay in the shadows. A North Korean group that specializes in crypto thefts. Industrial sabotage specialists out of Iran. Scammers from China who have probably sent you a phony text or two. Ransomware extremists that have just gone underground. And spies. So many spies. These stories shine a spotlight on the hacking groups you don’t hear about as often, because they’re often the ones you need to worry about the most. These are the most dangerous hackers that you’ve never heard of. [WIRED]

The Trump regime is reportedly proposing to slash the state department budget by nearly half in a move that could drastically reduce US international spending and end its funding for NATO and the United Nations, according to an internal memorandum. The memo based on spending cuts devised by the White House office of management and budget envisions the total budget of the state department and USAID, the main foreign assistance body which has been largely dismantled by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, being reduced to $28.4bn, a reduction of $27bn or 48% from what Congress approved for 2025. [The Guardian]

Donald Trump took one step closer to openly defying an order from the Supreme Court today—effectively daring the justices to defend the law or pack up and go home. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has emerged as a confederate of Trump’s, accepting planes full of Venezuelan citizens removed from the United States. Last month, the U.S. government deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland with protected legal status. As The Atlantic first reported, the Trump administration acknowledged in court that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was “an administrative error”; last week the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the executive branch to “facilitate” his return to the United States. [The Atlantic]

A man who officials have acknowledged was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador “will never live” in the US again, the White House has said. Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García was deported to Central America from Maryland after he was accused of being a member of the banned MS-13 gang, which his lawyer has denied. A judge has ordered President Donald Trump‘s regime to secure his return to the US – but El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said earlier this week that he did not “have the power” to do so. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on accusations that Mr Ábrego García is a gang member and accused the 29-year-old of domestic violence. [BBC News]

Much of the IT and cybersecurity infrastructure underpinning the US health system is in danger of a possible collapse following a purge of IT staff and leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), four current and former agency workers tell WIRED. This could put vast troves of public health data, including the sensitive health records of hundreds of millions of Americans, clinical trial data, and more, at risk of exposure. As a result of a reduction in force, or RIF, in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), the sources say, staff who oversee and renew contracts for critical enterprise services are no longer there. The same staff oversaw hundreds of contractors, some of whom play a crucial role in keeping systems and data safe from cyberattacks. And a void of leadership means that efforts to draw attention to what the sources believe to be a looming catastrophe have allegedly been ignored. [WIRED]

President Trump threatened Harvard University’s tax-exempt status on Tuesday after the school rebuffed the administration’s demands ostensibly aimed at purging “woke” ideology from America’s college campuses. The changes, Harvard officials said, required severe restrictions, including to freedom of expression, that they could not accept. Mr. Trump’s threat escalated the pressure being applied by the Trump administration on Harvard, the nation’s richest as well as oldest university. “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!” [New York Times]

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been criticized by a Trump official, who described him as “the most irritating person I’ve ever had to deal with.” [PinkNews]

The Associated Press is asking a federal judge to enforce his order that the Trump White House had to end its ban on the wire service because it refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in style guidance. The Associated Press is asking a federal judge to enforce his order that the Trump White House had to end its ban on the wire service because it refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in style guidance. [Deadline]

Staff at Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) demanded to meet with an independent non-profit to discuss embedding a team within their organization, according to the non-profit, stating that refusal to take the meeting would mean a violation of Donald Trump’s executive order empowering Doge. Doge staff member Nate Cavanaugh emailed the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice reform non-profit that is independent from the government, on 11 April to demand the meeting, according to a copy of the email. Vera’s staff was confused by the request, as its government funding had been canceled a week prior, but agreed to a call which they said took place on Tuesday. The demand to meet with an independent non-profit organization and potentially embed its staffers there represents an expansion of Doge’s already sprawling reach and coincides with Musk issuing public attacks against non-governmental organizations. [The Guardian]

How America can avoid becoming Russia. [The Atlantic]

The Justice Department has filed suit against Maine in an effort to challenge the state’s policy regarding transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday. The lawsuit alleges Maine’s policy violates Title IX and stems from a broader effort by the Trump administration to spotlight an issue that they see as politically damaging for Democrats. [ABC News]

How You Can Help Save Democracy

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