American Eagle’s Nazi homage is right on-brand for 2025- EVRYBDY News: July 30, 2025

Good morning, everybody! Today is Wednesday, July 30, 2025 and you are reading EVRYBDY News, news for everybody, about everybody.

This is what everybody (should be) talking about this morning:

Jenny Wright

In a chilling throwback to some of the darkest chapters in American mental health history, President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that resurrects the failed policies of mass institutionalization. Trump is directing federal agencies to figure out how to forcibly institutionalize homeless people with mental illness and addiction. For thousands of people who are already struggling to survive on the streets could soon find themselves locked up against their will.

The executive order, dramatically titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” reads like a dystopian novel. In it, Trump claims that current programs such as harm reduction and housing initatives are total failures. For Charles, who sleeps in a tent while working toward sobriety, this isn’t some abstract policy debate: it’s a direct threat to the little autonomy he has left.

"Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe," Trump wrote, painting people experiencing homelessness as roving criminals rather than actually human beings who oftentimes are women fleeing domestic violence, young adults who have aged out of the foster care system or addicts struggling with untreated and undiagnosed mental illness.

For the estimated 650,000 Americans experiencing homelessness, this order represents a fundamental shift form offering services to imposing control. Instead of asking “What do you need to get back on your feet?” the order asks “How can we disappear you?”

Under Trump's order, those same clients could be rounded up and committed to institutions, not because they're dangerous, but because they're visible reminders of America's housing crisis.

Civil rights and homeless right advocates slammed the measure. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wasted no time calling out what this is: a direct assault on people’s constitutional rights. Scout Katovich, a senior attorney with the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality said, “Homelessness is a policy failure. Weaponizing federal funding to fuel cruel and ineffective approaches to homelessness won't solve this crisis."

Jesse Rabinowitz, Communications Director of the National Homelessness Law Center said, “The safest communities are those with the most housing and resources, not those that make it a crime to be poor or sick."

This order also dismantles cades of protections designed to prevent exactly this kind of abuse. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1975 case of O’Connor v. Donaldson, that states can't lock people away simply for having a mental illness if they’re not a danger to others and can live freely with help. However, with the help of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., these safeguards may be overturned.

For those experiencing homelessness, this means a bad day can determine whether they keep their freedom. Anything from having a panic attack in public, arguing with police or even becoming hangry can put a homeless person’s freedom in jeopardy.

This order attacks basic civil liberties,” said Jennifer Mathis of the Bazelon Center. “It targets people based on disability, not danger.”

Jenny Wright

American Eagle wants you to know that Sydney Sweeney has good genes jeans. While I’m always down for some wordplay and off-beat humor, nothing about this campaign is funny.