Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.
In the last few months, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has earned a reputation for repeatedly dressing up in costumes while on the job.
Noem accompanied
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on multiple occasions, wearing a full protection vest along with perfectly applied hair and makeup. Noem also dressed the part while on a boat with the Coast Guard in March and even wore full firefighter regalia at a Coast Guard facility in Kodiak, Alaska.
Noem’s penchant for cosplay was so obvious that even the conservative Daily Mail pointed it out.
“Sec. Noem cosplays as a Border Patrol cowgirl at the southern border,” it said
alongside a video of Noem in a cowboy hat riding a horse.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is seen dressing up as a firefighter at a Coast Guard station in Kodiak, Alaska.
And she isn’t alone. Before shipping off to Greenland, Vice President JD Vance dressed in
full sniper regalia to shoot a gun and serve Marines lunch at a military base in Virginia. In a cringeworthy post, the official White House X account hailed him
for “sending some freedom seeds downrange.”
It’s not surprising, considering how much Noem and Vance’s boss loves to play dress up.
While campaigning in 2024, Trump staged
a “shift” working at a McDonald’s and served up meals to pre-selected supporters. And a few weeks later, trying to deflect from racist commentary at his rallies, Trump wore
a reflective sanitation worker vest, stumbling as he boarded a MAGA garbage truck.
Arguably, Trump’s most costumed appearance was during his stint as the host of “The Apprentice,” where he dressed up
as a competent businessman, ignoring the string of failures
that he has been involved in.
The Republican tradition goes back for years, with figures like Ronald Reagan playing cowboy
to—perhaps most disturbingly—George W. Bush and his flight suit.
Heralding the purported end of “major combat operations” in Iraq during the war in 2003, Bush dressed in a flight suit
, flying a jet that landed on the surface of an aircraft carrier. Timed months before his reelection campaign kicked off, the war did not end that year—and thousands of lives were lost after the stunt.
George W. Bush is seen wearing a flight suit in 2003.
While Republicans pose as cops, ranchers, members of the military, and other occupations, they still have little to no patience
for purported fashion misfires by Democrats. Whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s iconic pantsuits or President Barack Obama’s infamous tan suit, Democrats can do nothing right in the eyes of the GOP.
The reason for the right’s dress-up comes from a form of insecurity about the conservative political movement. Core to the movement is the desire to cut taxes for the super-rich. Multiple Republican presidents have passed these sorts of cuts, but the highly touted “trickle-down”
effect is a myth
.
A party that serves up a policy agenda meant to help
the elite has to offer some sort of distraction. Cosplay is one of many ways to make Republicans appear more blue collar and relatable. Surely if Trump dresses up like a McDonald’s worker he won’t cut middle-class jobs and benefits, right?
Wrong.
The right pursues its extremist agenda regardless, assuming that the dress-up distraction will work. And, unfortunately, it does.
It’s 2025. Do you know where your birth certificate is? How about your passport?
If Republican officials get their way, more Americans will need to know the answers to those questions before they could register to vote. And for millions of Americans who don’t have easy access to citizenship documentation
, voting rights advocates say, not knowing the answers will cost them that opportunity.
New Hampshire
, Wyoming, and Louisiana have already passed laws requiring that anyone registering to vote provide citizenship proof. Many other states, including Michigan
and Texas
, are considering it. The U.S. House will consider the SAVE Act
, federal legislation to require it nationwide, as early as next week.
And this week, President Donald Trump — in an executive order
that’s almost certain to face challenges in the courts — asserted his authority to make the proof-of-citizenship requirement the law of the land, almost by presidential fiat.
Republicans around the country, from Trump on down, have been raising alarm
for several years about the threat of noncitizens voting in large numbers, even though audits
, investigations, and other checks have found almost no evidence that it happens more than rarely. And they’ve leveraged that message to promote proof-of-citizenship law as an urgently needed solution to this vaporous threat. That is, Republicans argue that noncitizen voting, or the potential for it, is a big enough problem to merit an overhaul to the way jurisdictions across the nation handle voter registration — and big enough to justify the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters who can’t easily comply with the requirements.
We’ve had this debate before. Three decades ago, Congress considered allowing states to require proof of citizenship, and it has revisited the issue since. There’s a lengthy record of arguments over whether the benefits of such a requirement would outweigh the burdens it would place on eligible voters, and also on the state and local election officials who would have to administer it.
A bowl of voting stickers in Steubenville, Ohio.
Until now, Congress has decided the answer is no.
In 1993, a Democratic-controlled Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act
, designed to make voter registration easier and more uniform from state to state. It was also known as the motor-voter bill, because it established procedures for people to register while simultaneously applying for a driver’s license.
In debating the legislation at the time, Congress considered a provision that would have allowed states to require proof of citizenship if they chose. That provision initially made it into the Senate version of the bill. But then a conference committee ironing out differences between different versions decided that the final legislation shouldn’t include it, because it “would have eviscerated the mail-in registration provisions and stripped the bill of its uniform and nondiscriminatory components,” U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said at the time.
Some House members tried to put it back in, warning about the specter of noncitizen voting. Without a provision explicitly allowing states to require proof of citizenship from people registering to vote, the National Voter Registration Act would be “an invitation to electoral fraud,” declared U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, a California Republican, according to the Congressional Record. “In fact, it should be called the Illegal Alien Voter Registration Act.”
Under the NVRA, “all any individual in this country, citizen or not, minor or adult, has to do is send in a postcard saying that he is a citizen, that he is of age and that he is qualified to vote,” said U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who pushed hard to give states the citizenship-proof option, “and this bill prohibits any State from requiring any documentation to the contrary,” Christopher Cox
But that’s the law Congress passed, ultimately deciding that allowing states to impose a citizenship-proof requirement was not consistent with the aims of the legislation. The NVRA underpins many of the courts’ deliberations and decisions on the requirements for voter registration, and since its passage, at least some judges have noted the clarity of the congressional record when weighing attempts to require some form of proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to register eligible voters across the country, was among the groups lobbying against the provision at the time. CEO Celina Stewart said one of the pens President Bill Clinton used to sign the NVRA still hangs in the group’s offices. After Trump’s executive order this week, she said she’s “disheartened that we still have to talk about it in 2025.”
The fact that we are talking about it again, though, suggests that the question of whether proof-of-citizenship requirement is an unreasonable barrier to voter registration is still an unsettled issue. And Trump’s decision to put a proof-of-citizenship requirement in his executive order suggests that he’s determined to get this done, even if the SAVE Act isn’t able to clear hurdles in the Senate.
Stewart said she does not believe that Trump can require proof of citizenship via executive order, or that the SAVE Act is the right way to ensure that only eligible voters can cast ballots. If lawmakers want to ensure clean voter rolls or deter fraud, she said, they need to “go back to the drawing table and figure out a bipartisan way to get that done.”
Sixteen-year-old AB Hernandez is a natural athlete. On a recent blustery afternoon, she stood at the edge of Jurupa Valley High School’s athletic field, waiting for her event at a track and field meet to be called. As a voice announced over the loudspeaker, “Girls Triple Jump!,” she ran to take her place. On her turn, she broke into a measured, high stride, arms swinging in time with her legs. She quickened her pace and hurtled towards a sand pit. As she reached her mark, she flung herself high into the air and forwards several meters. She quickly pointed her toes and reached her arms forward as she descended, finally splashing down into the sand. Cheers erupted from the stands while she rolled onto her stomach, stood and ran to her friends, smiling.
Hernandez is the transgender athlete who was thrown into the national spotlight after the president of a nearby school board doxxed her — revealing her name, her high school and the fact that she is trans. Since then, Hernandez has been seen her name in Newsweek and The Washington Post. She has been smeared on right-wing podcasts and harassed online; some of her antagonists have even shown up at her track meets.
A small faction of adults have made AB Hernandez the face of a campaign to rewrite California law that has allowed transgender children to play on their school’s sports teams for over a decade. None of them has children enrolled in the Jurupa Valley Unified School District; several homeschool their kids.
“This is all child abuse,” Nereyda Hernandez, AB’s mother, told Capital & Main in an exclusive interview. “They just need to leave my baby alone.”
***
Nereyda Hernandez reviews legal paperwork in her office.
The Hernandez family has lived in Jurupa Valley, an equestrian, mostly Latino city of about 106,000, for nearly 30 years. AB grew up, the youngest of four sisters, like many other local kids: on a ranch surrounded by family. Her grandparents immigrated to the United States from Mexico and El Salvador, and instilled a strong sense of faith and tradition into the family. Nereyda, who became a widow in her early 20s, raised her children regularly attending a Catholic church.
Nereyda did not know her daughter was trans until AB was in the eighth grade.
“I was accidentally asked about her. I just said, ‘I’m just letting her be her,’ but I really didn’t know,” she recalled. Nereyda said she did not always understand her daughter’s experience, but made a point to educate herself. “As long as in your household, your child has that support, you stand behind your child, then they’re gonna be OK. I’m gonna stand behind her 120%. That’s my job as a mom.”
In 2013, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the School Success and Opportunity Act
into law, ensuring that transgender youth can fully participate in all school activities, sports teams, programs, and facilities that match their gender identity. This past February, President Donald Trump banned transgender women and girls from college women’s and high school girls’ sports teams. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) stated in response to Trump’s action that it would allow trans athletes to compete under existing California law. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. Department of Education announced a Title IX investigation into CIF
for its policy allowing transgender high school athletes to play girls’ sports. Title IX is a federal law aimed at preventing gender discrimination in education.
“There is the threat from the federal government to withhold funding. [And] there’s threats from the state government to withhold funding if we violate laws,” Superintendent Trenton Hansen said at the Jurupa Unified School District Board of Education’s March meeting. “Unfortunately, school districts are placed in the middle of this tug of war. All the information we’ve received from legal counsel … is that we follow the laws here in California, that [Trump’s] executive orders do not carry the weight of the force of law, and that these issues will need to be figured out in the court system.”
Many residents of Jurupa Valley, which Trump won by two points in November, have united in support of AB.
“Our community is in 100% support of our neighbors,” said Armando Carmona, a member of Jurupa Valley’s City Council. “I’ve extended 100% support to our young athlete, who’s competing at the highest level in high school, because they’re competing within the current rules. In this community we can talk about federal issues, we talk about state or even global issues. But at the end of the day, we all realize we’re neighbors first.”
Five parents of children enrolled in JUSD schools who spoke with Capital & Main said they fully support AB competing.
“It’s not about the divide of the topic, it’s about the well-being of a child, that all she wants to do is play sports,” said Veronica Hurtado, whose son attends a local high school. “As a mom, I can assure you there’s not a mother in this community that wouldn’t agree with me when they say you’re worried about her safety and her mental health.”
Hurtado says she can relate to Nereyda Hernandez. When Hurtado’s daughter, Molly Ramirez, came out a lesbian, she says she was pressured by an administrator to stay in the closet. Hurtado promptly moved her daughter to a different school. Today, her daughter runs the family’s feed store, and says she feels accepted by the community.
“I have a lot of younger people generations younger than me that are coming out. And my goal is to make them comfortable,” Ramirez said. “I feel like that’s what our community is about.”
***
City Council Member Armando Carmona stands outside Jurupa Valley City Hall.
AB has been athletic her entire life. She has done tumbling, hip-hop dance, cheerleading, soccer, baseball and volleyball. Her mother says that sports has helped AB navigate difficult circumstances in the past, like the sudden death of Nereyda’s parents in 2021 from COVID-19 complications, and becoming the subject of a national debate.
“I think that [sports] is her way of coping with things. This is, in a sense, therapy,” she said. “’Cause at the beginning, I was worried about suicidal thoughts. I’ve always been scared of people hurting her.”
The onslaught against AB has been led by a former teacher and nearby school board president. Jessica Tapia
, a former gym teacher at Jurupa Valley High School, was fired in January 2023 after stating she would not respect trans and nonbinary students’ pronouns — a violation of district policy. She began posting about AB on her social media pages in October 2024. Tapia was joined by five others at the Jurupa Unified School District Board of Education’s March meeting, where they misgendered AB repeatedly and demanded the board stop AB from competing.
“We know deep down in our heart this isn’t normal and it isn’t right,” Tapia said in an interview. “Any time that I have an opportunity to speak into an issue, especially a tip of the spear, hot topic issue, I take it as God calling me to use my voice, my experience, my platform, my influence to speak the truth.”
Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District and candidate for California Superintendent of Schools, began collaborating with Tapia’s Instagram posts about AB in February. One of those posts included the 16-year-old’s full name, and the name of her high school. Nereyda Hernandez subsequently sent a cease-and-desist to Tapia and Shaw, which Shaw tore up at a Board of Education meeting while deliberately misgendering AB.
“I stand with parents, athletes, and coaches who demand real fairness in sports and privacy protections for all students,” Shaw said in a statement to Capital & Main. “We will not be silenced, and we will not stop fighting until girls receive the respect, opportunities, and safety they deserve. Enough is enough.”
Molly Ramirez tends to one of her family’s horses.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently spoke to right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk about AB on the debut episode of his podcast
“This Is Gavin Newsom.”
“It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom told Kirk. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
AB Hernandez is currently ranked
third in the United States for triple jump behind two girls from high schools in Texas and Arizona, two states that have banned gender-affirming care for trans children.
Nereyda Hernandez said she wished the governor had stopped the conversation when her daughter was mentioned. Jurupa Valley City Councilmember Carmona agreed.
“Bringing in a minor, a minor of color into this worldwide debate or discussion … is a major challenge and it’s problematic,” Carmona said. “We have a family that’s been harassed and attacked by extremists on one side targeting a child.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the Hernandez family’s concerns.
During a Friday afternoon visit to her church, Nereyda spoke to her priest about her daughter becoming the target of a hate campaign. He encouraged her to love her daughter, and to have her confirmed in the church.
In May, AB will compete at the CIF California State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, California. Nereyda says she and her daughter are looking forward to it.
“I hope that it has a positive impact, not just for my child, but for the future, for the future athletes,” Nereyda said. “And I tell my baby, ‘I really think and I really hope you open doors for other kids to be able to come out and live happy, because I see my baby’s happy being herself.’”
One day, Americans are being hit with President Donald Trump’s dreams of annexing Greenland
, and the next, the U.S. government is creating a global trade war
. Living in the United States in 2025 feels like an endless episode of a bad reality TV show. At least, that’s how Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer describes it.
“It’s almost like we’re in ‘The Apprentice,’” the Democrat told Daily Kos in an exclusive interview. “We’re in this game show where there’s constant exciting, great headlines and Americans are just lurching from one headline to the next.”
But just below the surface is a darker reality that Americans are living every day.
On April 3, the administration also threatened to pull funding
to the country’s poorest public schools, and it has been slowly chipping away
at funding for public universities that teach things Trump disagrees with.
Meyer also emphasized how the U.S. health care system is on a downward spiral, to which the Trump administration has responded with even more massive layoffs
and budget cuts.
“We don’t need to take a chainsaw to the government, we need to make it work,” he told Daily Kos. “I think what Americans want is they actually want a government that works. But our system is broken.”
“I think what’s happening is that a lot of Americans are dissatisfied,” he added.
Meyer speculates that people would actually be happy to foot the bill for social programs if they could see and experience their impacts.
“I bet you if Americans know … [they’re] getting the best schools in the world for those taxes, Americans will pay. Because there will be a return [on investment] to all of us if we know we’re paying for the highest quality health care,” he said.
Matt Meyer is seen with his wife and children on the night he was elected governor of Delaware in November 2024.
Meyer has already shaken things up on his own turf. In March, the governor proposed a 2026 budget that includes new tax brackets. placing some of the highest taxes on the wealthy that Delaware has ever seen.
And while Meyer—like every other governor at the moment—is trying to protect his residents from the chaos at the federal level, he’s also struggling to hold onto the state’s largest source of revenue.
As Daily Kos previously reported
, Meyer has been under heat for creating a bill aimed at keeping businesses in Delaware. On one hand, critics called it a handout to billionaires. On the other hand, businesses and locals alike were advocating for it as a means to keep money flowing to crucial state programs.
For Meyer, all of the noise at the federal level reminds him of his core purpose: protecting Delaware residents.
“For me, to be frank, it’s not necessarily about pushing back against Trump. It’s [about] fixing problems that Delawareans face every day, whether the people support Trump or not,” he told Daily Kos.
Looking toward the future of the Democratic Party, Meyer said Democrats need to focus on the broken systems and not be afraid to call out what’s going wrong as it’s happening.
“We don’t just invest nilly-willy, but we’re smart and strategic about our investments in Americans’ futures,” he told Daily Kos.
“I think that’s ultimately what’s gonna win the country and win for the Democratic Party.”
