ICE Killings and Immigration Enforcement

The dominant theme of Aaron's activity on July 13 was the killing of an immigrant by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine. Aaron reposted extensive coverage of and commentary on the shooting, including reporting that a witness heard the victim say "I tried to stop" before dying, and analysis noting a troubling pattern in ICE operations of agents placing themselves in front of vehicles to manufacture justification for shooting drivers. He amplified Pete Buttigieg's call not to normalize the "reckless use of deadly force by federal agents" and a post observing that in cases where shooting victims survived — such as Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times and also claimed to have been "ramming" a vehicle — body cam footage proved ICE's account wrong, while subsequent shootings have left no survivors. Underlying all of this was a stark framing from Liberal Currents: mass deportation is happening, people are dying, and it will continue as long as Trump and Stephen Miller remain in office.

Legal and Political Accountability

Aaron engaged with several threads around legal and political accountability for the administration. A federal judge voided Trump's settlement with the IRS, finding the parties weren't truly adverse — essentially that Trump controlled both sides — and sanctioned Trump's lawyers for their conduct. Aaron also reposted commentary on the Trump administration's success at steering nationwide litigation over gender-affirming care for minors to a single Texas judge, and on the broader question of whether officials will ultimately face prison for their actions, with one post arguing that accountability will be politically necessary for any future Democratic administration trying to govern after Trump.

Other Political and Policy Topics

Aaron also touched on a range of other political and policy concerns. He reposted Senator Martin Heinrich's condemnation of Trump's executive action reducing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments, framing it as an assault on public lands for the benefit of billionaires. He amplified criticism of Senate Democrats' collegiality norms — specifically pushback on Elizabeth Warren's praise of Lindsey Graham — and a post on the collapse of food safety standards. On housing policy, he reposted an argument that corridor zoning — concentrating apartment buildings along busy stroads — is both harmful to lower-income residents and politically ineffective at overcoming NIMBY opposition anyway. He also shared a piece reconsidering the elimination of the SAT, and a post on the JADA device used in postpartum hemorrhage treatment, which was originally developed as an undergraduate senior thesis — offered as evidence of how much underinvestment there has been in OB/GYN innovation.