A father of a trans man voted for Trump. Now he fears an order targeting gender-affirming care will upend his son’s treatment
CNN
An executive order from Trump denying federal funding for providers of gender-affirming health care for minors threatens to upend care for many people. A Trump voter says he agrees with the president on everything but trans issues.
After undergoing surgery, Ashton Colby was confined to bed and couldn’t move his arms or carry out basic tasks. But his father Rick Colby was there every step of the way, helping him recover from his top surgery – support that meant the world from his conservative Republican father after Ashton came out as transgender and underwent the operation. Surgery is an option that some, but not all, trans people choose as a part of the broader gender-affirming care they may receive to help them with their transition. Ashton was 19 at the time. “He was there in the hotel room while helping me recover and drink protein shakes when I couldn’t use my arms. He’s made, literally, a life-or-death difference in my life,” Ashton, now 32, told CNN. Ashton had been tormented by fear that he would be rejected by his family in the weeks leading up to his coming out in 2012. But his father stood by him through therapy and doctor’s appointments, ensuring he would get the specialized care he needed to affirm his gender and thrive, which Ashton says: “Saved my life.” Rick voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, and he describes his role as an “offensive lineman” in a greater mission to fight misconceptions and legislation attacking transgender rights and health care.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.