LOS ANGELES — In a notice addressed to Michael V. Drake, the President of the University of California, earlier today, the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) declared “that UCLA's response to its students' complaints of antisemitism on UCLA's campus violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Breaking News:

LOS ANGELES —  UCLA hired SKDK, a public relations firm that formally registered in February 2025 as a foreign agent for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to craft the university’s media responses to encampments, strikes and other demonstrations, documents obtained through the California Public Records Act reveal.

LOS ANGELES — A California judge dismissed a restraining order filed by University of California Regent Jay Sures against graduate student Dylan Kupsh and granted an anti-SLAPP motion, ruling that the order appeared aimed at suppressing the student’s First Amendment rights.

LOS ANGELES —  Around 7 p.m., students began setting up a screening of The Encampments in Bruin Plaza. They said they were almost immediately confronted by about 60 UCLA Police Department officers in riot gear, who attempted to seize the equipment. Attendees marched to De Neve Plaza, an area surrounded by student housing, to continue the screening.

At about 9:05 p.m., according to witnesses, 60 officers in riot gear “violently descended” on the plaza, running into the group of students.

LOS ANGELES — UCLA has notified lecturer Eric Martin of its intent to dismiss him, citing his arrest during a May 2024 campus protest and his refusal to participate in a university investigation. Martin, a lecturer in the Center for the Study of Religion for six years, was arrested May 2, 2024, during a police force sweep of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment.

When Donald Trump ran a populist campaign against establishment centrists, resting on a populist ‘anti-woke’ agenda, his rhetorical style mirrored what Saurette and Gunster describe as populism’s affective appeal: framing politics as a battle between “the people” and “the elites,” where authenticity trumps policy detail. In 2024, when he won a second time, headlines read “we need a Joe Rogan of the left” across mainstream media, and the podcasts were dubious (Grim, 2025).

There was no need for a Joe Rogan of the left. Joe Rogan was once on the left. He is not the cause; he is the consequence.