Many paid tribute on Tuesday to the 13 American service members who were killed four years earlier in the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate — and President Donald Trump led the charge. The attack was carried out by ISIS-K terrorists on August 26, 2021, and targeted the chaos and crowds at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan — chaos that might have been avoided altogether if President Joe Biden had not so badly botched the plan to end the war and evacuate American service members, civilians, and allies. Trump had announced one day prior that Tuesday would be set aside as a day to commemorate the loss of those 13 — Staff Sergeant Darin T. Hoover, USMC; Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo, USMC; Sergeant Nicole L. Gee, USMC; Corporal Hunter Lopez, USMC; Corporal Daegan W. Page, USMC; Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez, USMC; Lance Corporal David L. Espinoza, USMC; Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz, USMC; Lance Corporal Rylee J. McCollum, USMC; Lance Corporal Dylan R. Merola, USMC; Lance Corporal Kareem M. Nikoui, USMC; Petty Officer Third Class Maxton W. Soviak, USN; and Staff Sergeant Ryan C. Knauss, USA. WATCH: Fourth Anniversary of the Attack at Abbey Gate “This is a very special group of people… Abbey Gate. It’s the four-year anniversary, so we’re signing a proclamation honoring them and honoring you and your loved one.” – President Donald J. Trump ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8cMOCMKA6d — The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 26, 2025 “Four years ago today, we lost 13 American heroes at Abbey Gate. After the previous administration failed to deliver justice for the Gold Star families who lost their loved ones in Kabul, the Trump Administration took swift action to capture and extradite the ISIS-K terrorist responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted. “@POTUS will ALWAYS stand with Gold Star families and our fallen heroes.” Four years ago today, we lost 13 American heroes at Abbey Gate. After the previous administration failed to deliver justice for the Gold Star families who lost their loved ones in Kabul, the Trump Administration took swift action to capture and extradite the ISIS-K terrorist… — Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 26, 2025 America will forever remember the 13 service members we lost at Abbey Gate. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20 Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23 Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31 Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23 Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22… pic.twitter.com/JO9sCJh3gL — House Republicans (@HouseGOP) August 26, 2025 “Today, we honor the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan, four years ago. Their courage, sacrifice, and service will never be forgotten. May God bless our heroes,” the Republican Party posted. Today, we honor the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan, four years ago. Their courage, sacrifice, and service will never be forgotten. May God bless our heroes. pic.twitter.com/aM9FeGaTGp — GOP (@GOP) August 26, 2025 VA Secretary Doug Collins added, “Four years after 13 brave Americans fell at Abbey Gate, we stand united to honor their memory, support their families, and renew our resolve to serve those who defend liberty around the globe.” Four years after 13 brave Americans fell at Abbey Gate, we stand united to honor their memory, support their families, and renew our resolve to serve those who defend liberty around the globe. https://t.co/05sY3LWP2X — VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) August 26, 2025 .@RepTroyDowning is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He will never forget the 13 American heroes killed at Abbey Gate. pic.twitter.com/EUco9DnlEi — House Republicans (@HouseGOP) August 26, 2025 “Today, we remember the 13 American service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate. They will never be forgotten,” the Senate Republicans added. Today, we remember the 13 American service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate. They will never be forgotten. — Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) August 26, 2025 “Four years ago, thirteen American service members gave their lives during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. We owe it to them and every warrior who wears the uniform to ensure that something like this never happens again.” Four years ago, thirteen American service members gave their lives during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. We owe it to them and every warrior who wears the uniform to ensure that something like this never happens again. pic.twitter.com/NpRzlLzNkk — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) August 26, 2025

Pop star Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce have announced their engagement after two years of dating. Swift, 35, confirmed the news via a joint Instagram post, which included the caption, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” She had comments turned off, but within 15 minutes, the post had racked up two million likes from Swift’s 280 million followers on the platform. The photo carousel includes photos of Kelce down on one knee in front of Swift, plus a close-up of her engagement ring. There are more images of the couple posing together in a flower-filled garden.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) Fans have been speculating for months whether an engagement was imminent. Recently, the “Shake It Off” singer made a rare appearance on the “New Heights” sports podcast, which is hosted by Travis and his brother, Jason Kelce. Travis is currently the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Jason retired in 2024 after playing center for 13 years with the Philadelphia Eagles. During the appearance, Swift poked fun at herself and the backlash she’s gotten from sports fans sick of seeing her featured during football games. End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships “You guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast. And I think we all know that if there’s one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me,” Swift said during the episode. Entertainment outlets such as Page Six have been reporting for weeks that the pair was about to get engaged as insiders confirmed Kelce was ring shopping and had asked Swift’s father for permission to propose. The couple met following a missed connection. Kelce attended Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Kansas City in 2023 and tried to give her a personalized friendship bracelet with his phone number, but security denied him access. He later told the story on “New Heights,” which led to the pair meeting and a romance developing. Neither Swift nor Kelce have been married before. Previously, the pop star dated Joe Alwyn for six years, but kept their relationship mostly private.

In a TikTok video on Monday, a Michigan Democratic legislator offered to help children access “gender-affirming” care if they contacted her office. Michigan State Rep. Carrie Rheingans said in the video that she was specifically talking to “trans kids here in Michigan,” adding that life-altering gender procedures are still legal in the state. Wearing a “Protect Trans Kids” sweatshirt, the Michigan Democrat posted the video Monday in response to the University of Michigan’s hospital network ending gender procedures for minors under pressure from the Department of Justice. In her video, Rheingans told children that they could still get “care” at other places in Michigan. “I want you to know, as trans kids here in Michigan, that this care is obviously safe and effective. That’s why it’s been approved and why it’s been used all across the country and continues to be used,” she added. “So if you need to find a new place to get care it is still legal here in Michigan, and reach out to our office, we’ll be able to connect you to what might still be available in our community.” Rheingans, who represents Ann Arbor, urged children to “please contact our office” and provided contact information. “We love you. We are really supportive of you as kids, and we want to make sure that you can grow up and thrive here in Michigan,” she added.   @reprheingans ?️‍⚧️ #TransKids in #Michigan: we live you and want to see you grow and thrive here ??? #GenderAffirmingCare ♬ original sound – MI State RepCarrie Rheingans   The federal government and medical establishment previously pushed gender procedures for children as an effective way to treat gender dysphoria, but the practice has come under intense scrutiny as new research highlights the dangers of performing life-altering gender surgeries and puberty blockers. A Health and Human Services review released earlier this year, shortly after President Donald Trump took office, stated, “These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.” End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Even before Trump stepped into the White House, the federal government was changing its tune on gender procedures for children. Last summer, the Biden administration opposed lowering the age minimums for hormonal treatments, mastectomies, breast augmentations, facial, and genital surgeries, The New York Times reported. The Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funding to hospitals that continue to perform gender procedures on children, resulting in many large hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente and Children’s National Hospital ending the practice. Michigan Republican state Rep. Brad Paquette, who is leading an effort in the Great Lakes State to protect children from gender procedures, told The Daily Wire that he has a “good relationship” with Rheingans and has discussed the issue with her “pretty extensively.” “So here in the state of Michigan, one of the unfortunate aspects is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are completely captured by this ideology, this gender theory,” Paquette said. “So I’m trying to do my best to figure out how to get my colleagues informed as to what these procedures are.” “She has this mentality that she carries — that the trans activists carry — that there are safe spaces, that you’re an ally or you’re not,” Paquette added. “And this causes an extreme divide among families and in the political arena.” Rheingans did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment, but she did address some criticism of her video on social media. “Horrifying because I told children that I love them. Calm down,” she replied to one post from conservative communicator Steve Guest, who said it was “one of the most horrifying videos that I’ve ever seen posted by a politician.” “Kids need to see that some grownups love them, and not all are bullies,” she wrote in another post. Rheingans has made LGBT issues a significant part of her political agenda, saying earlier this year that she was “proud to vote YES to expand Michigan’s civil rights law,” which added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes. ?️‍??️‍⚧️?? Thank you to our many constituents and advocates from @equality_michigan for sharing your stories and being your beautiful selves! I was proud to vote YES to expand #Michigan‘s civil rights law … 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2M3mtsfooo — Rep. Carrie Rheingans (@RepRheingans) May 16, 2025 In 2024, Rheingans spoke at the Ann Arbor Pride Festival and urged gay people to run for office. “If you have never thought about running for office, we need more gays in office, go run for office,” she said. “We need to have a bigger LGBTQ caucus.”

In March, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order (EO) calling for a restoration of “Truth and Sanity to American History” which included a review of the Smithsonian Institute Museums. Now, the Administration is making good on that EO. Naturally, politicians, Left-wing media, and the far-Left are pouncing with charges of “Stalinist tactics,” “fascism,” and “Trump’s historical vision.” Yet, the most glaring example to justify the Administration’s action is the now infamous Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s “Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in the United States.” But it is not just the one museum, the American Art Museum also features a page titled “Furthering the Conversation About Whiteness.” While the auditing of these institutions is probably overdue and necessary, there also needs to be a spotlight put on the teaching of culture and history in our educational institutions, especially K-12 schools. The defensive position from the Left is that they just want to teach “honest history.” Meant to sound noble, this is nothing more than wordplay. It is misdirection in an attempt to hide their heavily curated and far-Left [re]vision of history. “Honest history,” as they will have the public believe, is just teaching the history of “underrepresented groups” to highlight their contributions to the United States. However, peel back the feel-good façade and it is clear there is a political agenda to advance anti-American, anti-Western ideologies – i.e. anti-“whiteness.” In the context of K-12 education, there is no clearer example of this than [liberated/critical] ethnic studies. Sold to school districts, parents, students, and the public writ large as the teaching of history and culture of minority groups, it is a far-Left radical political programming. It is agitprop being deployed on children into K-12 schools. Amping up their emotions, preying on their empathy, and then feeding them politically biased content. It’s general framework begins with a heavy focus on a student’s various racial and ethnic “identities,” or intersectionality. The intention is to create a strong tribal attachment to the student’s collective identities. It then introduces “critical consciousness,” which trains students to find racism and oppression everywhere in their lives. Driving them into a constant state of anxiety and fear. End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships For example, a recent Castro Valley Unified School District ethnic studies presentation to the district board demonstrates this via student art which states “As an Asian American, racism is prevalent all around me.” Ethnic studies activate deep feelings of anger and resentment in students towards the United States, and even towards their white teachers and peers. A review of Saint Paul Publics Schools’ ethnic studies program by the University of Minnesota highlights several students’ reflections on the course. One anonymous student stated “Why would a course about being critical have white teachers? My school has one [B]lack teacher teaching it. How can we be critical if we don’t listen to the voices who are firstly impacted? Also, white teachers even if they mean well will implement their own biases that students will have to deal with.” The political programming continues by creating heroes, legends, and mythology through the intentional curation of historical events and peoples that have modeled “resistance” against whiteness. Examples include Che Guevara, the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, and even a defense of anti-Israel activism and terrorism. Finally, students are taught and required to engage in far-Left social justice activism. Under the guise of “Youth Participatory Action Research,” students are trained to become street activists for the flavor-of-the-day far-Left cause. Eventually, the goal is to embed it into every single subject area and curriculum. They admit this outright. In California, San Rafael City Schools contracted with the University of California Berkeley’s History-Social Science Project to integrate ethnic studies “concepts and pedagogies” into the district’s World and U.S. history courses. The university’s site states that it is assisting teachers and districts in integrating the “CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” into courses, which includes helping teachers “familiarize themselves with…critical race theory, intersectionality, which are key theoretical frameworks and pedagogies.” This issue is not about the actual teaching of culture and history; it is about how far-Left actors are advancing their cultural revolution via the long march through American institutions. While the Administration and public focus their attention on the national museums, heavy scrutiny must simultaneously be placed on the teaching of “honest history” and ethnic studies in K-12. The advancement of anti-American and anti-Western ideologies need to be removed from classrooms. * * * Rhyen Staley is a researcher for Defending Education. He holds a master’s degree in elementary education and has over a decade of classroom experience in both public and private schools. He has over 25 years of volleyball coaching experience from Women’s Division I down to junior high. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Vanity Fair may go ahead with a magazine cover featuring First Lady Melania Trump in the coming months — but only if the feat can be pulled off before all the disgruntled employees walk out the door. According to a report published by Semafor on Sunday, the magazine’s new global editorial director Mark Guiducci had indicated a desire to put the first lady on the cover — but as The Daily Mail reported a day later, his staffers may not be entirely onboard with his plan. “I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me,” one editor told the outlet. Another staffer who did not give a name appeared to be in agreement, adding, “We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right. If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it. If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it.” One employee told The Daily Mail that the outrage was likely to amount to little more than a few loud complaints and protests, saying that it wasn’t likely many would actually sacrifice their careers to make a political statement about who was on the magazine’s cover. End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships “It’s all talk. If they put her on the cover, people will protest and gripe about it, but I don’t see anyone quitting such a prestigious job over that. Honestly, there will be people who push back, but it’s ultimately Mark’s decision. He’s the one who will sink or swim over that choice, not the rest of us.” The first lady may not mind if she never makes it to the cover, however, if her last comments on the subject still stand. When the magazine passed over her for a cover during Trump’s first administration — despite featuring former First Lady Michelle Obama on several occasions — she brushed off questions about it and said that it wasn’t important. “Look, I’ve been there on the covers — on the cover of Vogue, on the covers of many magazines before,” Trump said, referencing her days as a model and then as Trump’s wife prior to him running for president. “We have so many other important things to do than to be on the cover of any magazine. I think that life would not change for anybody if I’m on the cover.”

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