Ask A Genius 1525: Trump Speech, ICE Dallas Attack, DOJ Jones Reversal
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/09/25
Did you see anything about Trump’s speech at the UN, or anything at the UN you want to talk about?
Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner parse Reuters-led headlines: Donald Trump’s UN speech clips, a halted escalator he spun into intrigue, and his late pivot backing Ukraine’s full territorial recovery. They note the Dallas ICE office shooting of detainees and tentative anti-ICE motive. Alex Jones faces no DOJ fishing after Ed Martin’s retracted letter. An unauthorized Trump–Jeffrey Epstein statue was removed. Trump targets “antifa” via executive order; senators press Match Group over Tinder scams. At the White House, a gaudy “walk of fame” features Joe Bidenreduced to an autopen jab—routine tech miscast as scandal. All sourced to Reuters today.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Quick Alien: Earth update.
Rick Rosner: Morrow and Hermit were in prison together in a cage setup. They got out, and then Morrow fought Kirsch. Kirsch bled the milky “android” fluid typical in sci-fi, but he was not dead and exaggerated his injuries. As of where I stopped, both were alive and likely back for season two. I checked Rotten Tomatoes. Critics’ scores are notably higher than those of the audience for this title. However, the exact percentages fluctuate by day and version (season, series, or episode), so I would avoid locking in numbers unless we cite the page at the time of publication.
Jacobsen: All the sources are from Reuters today. Did you see anything about Trump’s speech at the UN, or anything at the UN you want to talk about?
Rosner: I saw some clips—like when he said, “I am pretty great at stuff and you all are going to hell.” I do not know the context, but the fact that he would say something like that is, first, absurd, and second, everyone gives him a pass because it is Trump and he spouts crazy nonsense. What else should I know about his time at the UN? I know he does not like the UN. I know he does not respect it, and I am sure the feeling is mutual. We still have 40 months of this chaos agent who cares little for the American people or the nation and lives in a self-serving fever dream. Rotten Tomatoes. One good thing he did, though, was flip his stance on Ukraine and Russia. He is now saying Ukraine has a good chance of recovering all the territory stolen by Russia. Whether he will follow through on that by resuming aid to Ukraine—nobody knows. His opinion might not survive the week. However, it would be great if he resumed sending arms to Ukraine.
Jacobsen: A gunman opened fire on an ICE field office in Dallas, shooting three detainees, then died by suicide. One detainee was killed and two were critically injured, according to DHS.
Rosner: An unused bullet with “ANTI-ICE” written on it was recovered, which suggests an anti-ICE motive, though the investigation is ongoing. Some politicians framed it as an attack on ICE; it is too early to draw firm conclusions.
Jacobsen: Trump has called for the Secret Service to investigate an incident involving an escalator at the United Nations. Any thoughts?
Rosner: He is making a spectacle of it. The escalator did stop just as he stepped on, but UN officials say the likely cause was a safety trigger—possibly set off by his own videographer—rather than sabotage. Either way, it is not precisely a presidential-level crisis.
Jacobsen: A statue of Trump holding hands with Epstein was removed from the National Mall in Washington. Any thoughts?
Rosner: It was an unauthorized installation and got taken down quickly. Reports describe it as a life-size, bronze-painted piece by an anonymous collective—not a traditional cast bronze, which would have taken months and cost a small fortune. My central curiosity is the fabrication—how they managed to pull off something so significant, so quickly.
Jacobsen: Trump says he will sign an executive order to dismantle left-wing groups he claims are inciting violence. Any thoughts?
Rosner: He already signed an order targeting “antifa” as a terrorist organization this week. “Antifa” is not a single membership group; it is more an umbrella label or stance—anti-fascist—so treating it as a discrete organization is conceptually shaky and enforcement-wise tricky.
Jacobsen: The Justice Department has retracted an inquiry into the FBI agent who testified against Alex Jones. DOJ leadership told the official who sent that inquiry to rescind it. The agent had testified in the Sandy Hook defamation case; the DOJ walked back the letter. A U.S. Justice Department official on Wednesday retracted a demand for information from an FBI agent who testified against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a defamation case that resulted in a $1.5 billion verdict for spreading lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The request came days after Ed Martin, a senior Justice Department figure, sent a letter to the FBI agent’s lawyer seeking information on whether the agent received any financial benefit for participation in the case, part of a broader push to allege government “weaponization” against Trump and his supporters.
Rosner: Alex Jones is one of the top three worst right-wing pundits. He made the families of Sandy Hook victims miserable. They were harassed and threatened because he falsely claimed the massacre was staged. These families, already grieving the murder of their children, were targeted for more than a decade because of his lies. If Trump’s Justice Department is now attempting to undermine that case so Jones can avoid paying the $1.5 billion judgment—money largely scammed from people by selling worthless supplements—that is deeply corrupt. We have come to expect almost anything from this government, but this is shocking even by those standards. Jones harassed these families relentlessly, year after year, on his show. If this verdict is somehow reversed, they may have to try him again, but the judgment came more than two years ago, and Jones has still managed to hang on to much of his fortune. He should not be a billionaire on the backs of bereaved families.
Rosner: The White House trolled Biden with a portrait featuring his autopen signature. Any thoughts?
Jacobsen: Trump, while redecorating the White House in his typically gaudy style, has created a “walk of fame” of presidents, lining the hall with portraits in oversized gold frames of all 47 presidents. For Biden, instead of a portrait, Trump hung a facsimile of his autopen signature. This is intended as a jab, since some MAGA supporters claim Biden often did not know what he was signing and that staff used the autopen without his awareness. That is nonsense. For decades, presidents have used the autopen to handle routine paperwork. Trump himself used it. Biden has, too. The claim that Biden’s autopen use shows incompetence is just another baseless attack.
Jacobsen: Two U.S. senators have urged Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, to take more decisive action against dating scams. This follows reports of widespread fraud on dating apps, including high-profile cases such as the “Tinder Swindler,” who has faced allegations of fraud.
Rosner: I do not know much about the “Tinder Swindler.” I assume he does his swindling in real life, not just online.
Jacobsen: He uses the app. He lies through the app, meets his victims in person, and runs an elaborate fraud.
Rosner: So he romances someone—often a lonely person—out of a large amount of money?
Jacobsen: Families, individuals, yes.
Rosner: I do not know what more can be done to keep people safe from that kind of scam.
Jacobsen: If someone is a convincing actor… Yes, I remember. There was a documentary about it. He seemed unusually sophisticated.
Rosner: If there are known swindlers who have been investigated but not prosecuted—or prosecuted but released—then it makes sense for them to be flagged on Tinder. I am sure there are red flags people should be aware of. It does not seem unreasonable to make users more aware. It is not trivial to the victims, but it is also not the sort of political incompetence or overreach we have been discussing. Thank you.
Jacobsen: Okay, I will see you tomorrow.
Rosner: All right, see you then.
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