A legal immigrant with a valid work permit who has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years has been held in ICE custody since September.Seamus Culleton has no criminal record, “not even a parking ticket,” is married to a U.S. citizen, and owns a plastering business near Boston. Culleton said he was pulled over by ICE agents while driving home from work five months ago, and had his Massachusetts driver’s license and work permit with him.He was then detained and held in a cell with several other immigrants before being flown to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Buffalo, New York, where he was asked to sign papers agreeing to his deportation. Culleton said he refused and checked a box that he was contesting his deportation on the grounds that his wife is a U.S. citizen and that he has a valid work permit, thanks to his pending application for permanent resident status filed last April.But from there, he was taken to another ICE detention center in El Paso, Texas. Culleton said conditions there are “like a concentration camp, absolute hell,” in a phone interview with The Irish Times, as he shares a large, cold, and damp room with over 70 men. Meals are small child-size portions served in the center of the room, and detainees often fight over the food.Culleton said that he has only left the room for fresh air and exercise less than 12 times in his nearly five-month detention, and is stuck lying on a bed most days. His wife paid a $4,000 bond for his release in November, but nothing happened, and days later, they found that Culleton’s bond had been denied, unlike in most other cases.Culleton’s attorney appealed the case to federal court, where ICE agents claimed that he had signed documents agreeing to his own deportation, which he adamantly denies, saying that the signatures can’t be his.“My whole life is here [in the U.S.]. I worked so hard to build my business. My wife is here,” Culleton said. A federal judge noted irregularities in the documents but still sided with ICE.Legally, Culleton can’t appeal further, but believes that video of his interview with ICE in Buffalo would show that he refused to agree to his own deportation in writing. Any signatures, he said, would not match his. He added that ICE agents tried again to get him to sign a deportation order.“You have one section of the government trying to deport me, and another trying to give me a green card,” Culleton said.Conservative America launched its own musical performance Sunday evening to compete with Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show—but their star performer, Kid Rock, couldn’t have been more of a dud.The country music rapper opened his portion of Turning Point USA’s “All American Halftime Show” with his hit “Bawitdaba,” but within minutes, it was crystal clear that Rock’s blaring voice wasn’t coming from his mouth.The musician’s lips were closed during some portions of his obviously prerecorded vocal performance but open during moments of silence on the mic, eliciting scorn from viewers online, who likened his vocal talent to famed fakers Ashlee Simpson and Millie Vanilli. Others claimed that Rock’s set was “worse” than one of Frankie Valli’s cashed-out 2024 performances, in which the “Sherry” singer hardly moved his mouth at all.Kid Rock’s lip syncing is even more egregious than Ashlee Simpson and Millie Vanilli pic.twitter.com/Yiz3RrxQ1j— Geoff Coffelt (@Skate_a_book) February 9, 2026 As Rock’s set ended, large screens surrounding the stage flashed a tribute, noting that the entirety of the show was in remembrance of Turning Point USA’s founder Charlie Kirk, who was killed in September.But the country singer’s questionable performance barely mattered, considering that basically no one watched the far-right halftime alternative. While a whopping 128 million people tuned in to watch global superstar Bad Bunny rap in Spanish about culture, beauty, and unity, just four million clocked in for Turning Point’s divisive, initial airing of its 25-minute broadcast, reported The Independent.Even the president—whose administration said he would watch it—couldn’t be bothered to tune in for TPUSA. Instead, Donald Trump was glued to the Puerto Rican singer’s performance, which aired on all screens during a Super Bowl party at his Mar-a-Lago golf club, according to clips taken by attendees of the event.Trump eventually confirmed he had watched Bad Bunny’s set instead of Kid Rock’s, though the news came by way of a classic Trump rant on Truth Social, in which he complained that he doesn’t understand Spanish and claimed that the dancing—which included reggaeton, salsa, bomba, and merengue—was “disgusting.”Read more about the half-time show:Eight survivors of deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein used a Super Bowl commercial to call out Attorney General Pam Bondi for her lack of transparency on the Epstein files. “On November 19, 2025, the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law. Three million files still have not been released,” the ad read in between headshots of different Epstein survivors, some with their mouths covered by the black “redacted” effect, implying that they’ve been silenced.“After years of being kept apart, we’re standing together,” they said aloud, holding pictures of their younger selves. “Because this girl deserves the truth … because we all deserve the truth.“Stand with us. Tell Attorney General Pam Bondi IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH,” the ad concluded. This ad comes as Bondi’s Justice Department continues to feign ignorance regarding who or what is in the files, claiming that it has no information on the men who used Epstein’s network to abuse dozens of young women. It has also done a poor job of redacting the files thus far. In the latest drop, multiple photos of naked women (perhaps teenagers) appeared unredacted while a photo of Trump was blacked out. And as the survivors’ ad noted, there are still millions of files that Bondi has yet to release, for no good reason—leaving anyone who’s been paying attention to speculate about what exactly the DOJ may be trying to hide. Editor’s Pick:Jeffrey Epstein claimed that people were “concerned” that President Donald Trump was suffering from dementia as early as 2017.In an email Epstein sent to author Michael Wolff on December 29, 2017, the alleged sex trafficker fretted that his old friend Trump wasn’t doing well.“some at dinner with donald last night , were concerned about dementia. tons of makeup. did not recognize old friends,” Epstein wrote.It’s not clear that Epstein was present at the dinner, but at the time, Trump was staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, where he gave a wide-ranging impromptu interview to The New York Times that had immensely frustrated his staffers.Less than a month later, Trump sat for his first presidential physical exam, and White House physician Ronny Jackson claimed he was in “excellent” health—and the president reportedly scored a 30/30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a common dementia screening.But Epstein’s email offers a window into Trump’s inner circle, demonstrating just how clear the president’s cognitive decline has been to the people who know him best. Nine years later, Trump’s apparent instances of cognitive decline have only become more common—and more public.Former White House attorney Ty Cobb recently said he believed the president’s “dementia and the cognitive decline are palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians.”In 2017, Trump’s iconic clementine complexion was startling to behold. Now, the president wears makeup to cover massive bruises that appear to migrate from one hand to another, and doctors have theorized that the president’s discolored hands could be a sign of something much worse.Read more about Trump:It appears that President Trump didn’t even bother to tune into Turning Point USA’s alternative, anti-immigrant “All-American Halftime Show.”Footage taken from inside Trump’s Super Bowl party at his Mar-a-Lago golf club showed the president and his invited guests watching Bad Bunny’s halftime show rather than TPUSA’s night of Jesus Christ, Kid Rock, and country music. Footage from inside Trump’s golf club Super Bowl party reveals the Bad Bunny half time show played on the big screens.What a bunch of hypocrites. pic.twitter.com/hF5scOGYek— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 9, 2026 “This just proves it’s all performative,” one X user wrote, calling out Trump’s hypocrisy in not even putting on TPUSA’s halftime show. “They stoke the outrage but couldn’t care less as long as the peasants are fighting.”Trump later confirmed that he watched Bad Bunny instead of Kid Rock, in a classic long, angry Truth Social post Sunday evening. “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” he wrote, apparently fuming. “There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD.” But based on Trump’s own actions, it’s the MAGA sycophants who watched the TPUSA halftime show—when their own president didn’t bother—who don’t know what’s going on in the “real world.” A Grammy-winning artist, perhaps the most popular in the Western hemisphere, put on a sprawling, jubilant show and spoke in Spanish almost the entire time. Kid Rock just did some weird lip syncing. Editor’s Pick:MAGA is fighting with itself over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.President Trump crashed out almost immediately after, complaining about Bad Bunny’s singing in Spanish and calling it a “‘slap in the face’ to our Country” in an angry Truth Social post. This is despite the fact that the message on the football at the end of the Puerto Rican artist’s show was “Together we are America.” But others on the right praised the message. Conservative influencer Emily Austin said, “Bad Bunny had the biggest stage in the world and could’ve made it political. He didn’t. He chose unity & love. You can celebrate different backgrounds and still love this country.”A former press aide to Trump, Harrison Fields, criticized conservatives who called Bad Bunny anti-American, saying, “Last time I checked, my Puerto Rico–born grandmother was a full American citizen—and she voted for Trump.” Vivianca Rodriguez, who worked on the Trump campaign, said that Trump supporters who complained were “alienating [the] Puerto Rican conservative base.” Even Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, praised the “branding” of Bad Bunny’s show.The right-wing discourse over the show also divided brothers Jake and Logan Paul. Jake, who called Bad Bunny a “fake American citizen,” was admonished by Logan, who said, “I love my brother but I don’t agree with this.” “Puerto Ricans are Americans & I’m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island,” Logan posted on X.The MAGA right is probably going to fight over this instead of America’s actual issues. Some, like the president, can’t accept the fact that one of the world’s most popular stars speaks Spanish and is actually an American citizen born in a U.S. territory. Others recognize that Spanish speakers and Latinos vote too, and that most of the country didn’t switch to Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show. The question is which side will win the argument. Editor’s Pick:Nearly 137,000 Iowans stand to lose their access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace if Representative Zach Nunn has his way.The Hawkeye State Republican has gone on a tear against the ACA, slandering the health insurance solution as a form of modern-day human bondage while broadcasting his intention to dismantle the popular national program.Last week, Nunn told the Westside Conservative Club that he believed the “ACA keeps people in a position of permanent servitude.”“Let me be very clear: I am not in favor of the ACA going forward. We have a bill that will immediately end it,” Nunn said. “The ACA is one of the most destructive health care plans out there.”Nunn maintained a similar tone earlier in January, when he told the “America first” podcast Steak for Breakfast that the Obama-era solution was a “disaster” that had “enslaved” its beneficiaries.“The Democrats’ plan has failed, but let’s talk holistically about fixing it for everybody, not just the few people that are on the Unaffordable Care Act and have become enslaved into that program,” Nunn told the show.The Affordable Care Act’s marketplace has had an immense impact on the way that America approaches health insurance coverage. Roughly one in seven U.S. residents are enrolled in the marketplace, according data from the Treasury Department. A record 24 million Americans signed up for coverage through the ACA marketplace at the beginning of 2025, roughly double the number of people who enrolled just four years earlier amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet Republicans have fought tooth and nail to repeal and replace the program since it was signed into existence in 2010. Donald Trump originally campaigned on the issue in 2016, promising to end Obamacare, though he and his allies have not yet been completely successful.In July, the conservative caucus slashed $1.1 trillion from the ACA’s appropriations via Trump’s “big, beautiful” law. Despite the needs of his constituents, Nunn voted for the deleterious funding package, and in doing so contributed to the closure of multiple health clinics in his state that partially relied on federal funding.They included a MercyOne clinic in Ottumwa, which is expected to close at the end of February, the MercyOne Family Medicine clinic in Traer, and the Henry County Health Center-Wayland Clinic. Several other Iowa clinics have had to lay off their staff or drastically reduce critical services, such as birthing clinics. Some of the impacted sites include the Pella Regional Medical Clinic in Ottumwa, the Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center, and MercyOne clinics in Des Moines and Mason City.Meanwhile, millions of Americans across the country are still waiting for the Senate to pass an extension for the ACA’s premium tax credits, which assist individuals making upward of 400 percent of the federal poverty level. The premium credits expired at the end of December and have yet to be renewed.Read more about health insurance:Republicans suddenly seemed shocked that President Trump is capable of racism after he posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes Thursday night. On Friday morning, longest-serving Black Senator Tim Scott called the video “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House”—spurring other GOP senators