Dear Commons Community,

Time magazine has revealed the cover of its latest edition, showing billionaire Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the White House’s Oval Office.

Musk, the wealthiest person on earth, is seen holding a beverage in one hand as he peers out from behind the iconic desk, used by U.S. presidents since the late 1880s.

An accompanying article titled “Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington” covers Musk’s reshaping of America’s government since his appointment as the head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“No single private citizen, certainly not one whose wealth and web of businesses are directly subject to the oversight of federal authorities, has wielded such power over the machinery of the U.S. government,” the article states.

The multibillionaire tech and media mogul “has been deputized to dismantle vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy — slashing budgets, gutting the civil service, and stripping independent agencies of the ability to impede the President’s objectives,” it goes on.

This extreme appointment of power follows Musk being a loyal supporter and campaign donor to Trump, spending at least $288 million to help secure his reelection, according to a recent analysis by The Washington Post.

The next four years will change America forever. But HuffPost won’t back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism.

Since his election success, Trump has granted Musk widespread access to his inner orbit and the federal government’s spending, raising numerous ethics questions, including about the multibillion-dollar contracts that Musk’s businesses have with the federal government.

In the weeks since his arrival, Musk has assisted with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which he has publicly called “a criminal organization,” and he has been given access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system and the Small Business Administration.

Musk has been labeled by the White House as a “special government employee.” He is not paid and is not full time, according to the ethics rules of such a title, but he does have top secret security clearance, a source told CNN.

The big question is:  How does Trump feel about the Time cover?

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Trump administration announced late Friday it is drastically reducing payments the National Institutes of Health makes to universities, hospitals, and institutes that help cover administrative costs, a move critics said will result in a catastrophic hit to science research across the country.

Federal NIH grants pay for a portion of the overhead costs required for institutions to conduct research, including construction, utility costs, and lab operation, known generally as “indirect costs,” in addition to the costs of the research itself. Typically, about 30% of an average NIH grant to an institution is earmarked for indirect costs, but some universities get much higher rates.

NIH said that starting tomorrow, a 15% indirect cost rate will now apply to all new and existing grants, saving taxpayers more than $4 billion a year.  As reported by The Huffington Post and Science.

“Can you believe that universities with tens of billions in endowments were siphoning off 60% of research award money for ‘overhead’? What a ripoff!” billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency empowered by Trump to unilaterally slash federal spending, wrote Friday in a post online.

The changes to NIH grants follow reports that Trump and Musk are seeking to gut the National Science Foundation and lay off half its staff, and that the president will soon issue an executive order laying off thousands of Health and Human Services workers.

Scientists and medical experts said the move to effectively slash NIH grants will interrupt research across the country, forcing institutions to cut staff, close labs, and cancel projects, threatening the United States’ role as a global leader in scientific and medical innovation.

“This approach to suddenly cutting NIH grant indirect costs will cause chaos and harm biomedical research and researchers in hospitals, schools and institutes nationwide. A sane government would never do this,” said Jeffrey Flier, a professor of medicine at Harvard University.

“This is not ‘trimming the fat,’” added F. Perry Wilson, an associate professor of medicine at Yale University. “This is cutting right to the bone. It will lead to mass layoffs at Academic research centers. These are places where FUNDAMENTAL science is done — science that industry won’t always fund because the ROI isn’t immediately clear.”

The Trump administration’s announcement gutting NIH funding is likely to draw legal challenges. Congress specifically prohibited the agency from changing its funding without its approval, per Samuel Bagenstos, who served as general counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.

“By proposing an illegal and arbitrary indirect cost rate, Trump and Elon are functionally forcing an indiscriminate funding cut for research institutions across the country that will be nothing short of catastrophic for so much of the lifesaving research patients and families are counting on,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, also warned in a statement on Friday.

The next four years will change America forever. But HuffPost won’t back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism.

“Sick kids may not get the treatment they need,” she added. “Clinical trials may be shut down abruptly with dangerous consequences. Just because Elon Musk doesn’t understand indirect costs doesn’t mean Americans should have to pay the price with their lives.”

This will hurt research institutions that derive significant overhead recovery monies from federal grants.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

In an exclusive interview with The New York Post, Trump has formulated a plan to force New York to “kill” congestion pricing in Manhattan through the federal Department of Transportation.  

Among potential penalties available to the agency are withholding millions of dollars in funding and reopening the environmental review process that authorized the toll under the Biden administration.

Trump also vowed to rid Big Apple streets of bike lanes and criminal migrants, the president told The Post.  As reported.

He is hopeful that his “respect” for Gov. Hochul in their ongoing discussions will result in a mutually beneficial deal on the unpopular toll.

“Out of respect” for the governor, Trump refused to divulge details of at least two phone conversations the pair have had about ending the unpopular $9 tax on vehicles entering Manhattan during peak hours south of 60th Street, known as the Congestion Relief Zone.

Trump believes he and Hochul can still make a deal over ending the levy, which he slammed as “destructive to New York.”

“I think it’s really horrible, but I want to discuss it with her at this point,” he said. “If I decide to do it, I will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation.

“It’s a lot of power.”

At risk is part of the $36 billion in five-year federal transportation funding to New York state that extends to the end of 2026. Other federal grants might also be affected if Trump pounces on what New Yorkers are calling the congestion con.

The toll went into effect last month and the program’s revenues are ticketed for public transit infrastructure and arrest the decline in subway ridership by forcing people out of their cars.

But Trump says it’s only hurting business in his hometown.

“Traffic is way down because people can’t come into Manhattan and it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “People don’t know about it until they get the bill.”

Trump argued that New York “should focus on safety and cleanliness in the subway,” citing cases of straphangers being pushed onto the tracks by “thugs.”

“Cleanliness and efficiency are good but they gotta get tough on the thugs. They can’t be nice.”
Hochul has boasted that congestion pricing has reduced traffic, as intended. But Trump says that is not a positive sign:

“That’s because no one’s coming to the city.”

Trump also revealed to The Post that he wants to use his power to remove one of the biggest contributing factors to traffic congestion in the first place — bike lanes.

“They should get rid of the bike lanes and the sidewalks in the middle of the street,” he said. “They’re so bad. They’re dangerous. These [electric] bikes go at 20 miles an hour. They’re whacking people.”

As bike lanes multiply in NYC, pedestrian injuries have climbed steadily in the last five years. E-bikes and mopeds especially have made the city dangerous for pedestrians, according to the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, which is pushing for legislation to require the electronic bikes and scooters be registered and insured.

Priscilla’s Law is named after Priscilla Loke, who was killed by an e-bike in Chinatown in 2023.

Trump also warned that New York is next in the crosshairs of  his Justice Department over “sanctuary city” laws which obstruct his drive to deport criminal illegal aliens.

“We’ll have to” sue New York, he said.

“That’s a great thing to be suing over, anywhere where they have sanctuary cities. … New York doesn’t really want them. I don’t think anyone wants it. I think the only one who wants it are corrupt politicians.

“I don’t think the people want sanctuary cities. Why would they want to protect criminals?”

The DOJ last week filed a lawsuit against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, accusing them of interfering with federal immigration enforcement. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said “sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.”

We will have to wait and see if Trump is serious about his plans.

Tony

Will Generative AI exacerbate the climate crisis? ADOBE Stock Photo.

Dear Commons Community,

In a letter to “Science”, three Chinese scientists, Qiong Chen¹, Jinghui Wang², and Jialun Lin¹∗, raise concerns about the effects of AI expansion on climate. They comment that the explosion of generative AI is exacerbating the global climate crisis. As reported by Science.

“The economic benefits of generative artificial intelligence (AI) could reach US$7.9 trillion annually (¹). The emergence of groundbreaking generative AI tools has spurred development (²). However, the explosion of generative AI is exacerbating the global climate crisis. The scientific community, industry, and policy-makers must urgently address its effects.

ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool released by OpenAI in 2022 (³), has sparked a global wave of large language models, driving a surge in demand for intelligent computing power. Concurrently, climate challenges continue unabated. The combined electricity consumption of the AI and cryptocurrency industries reached 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022, accounting for about 2% of the global total energy consumption. Consumption is projected to reach 1000 TWh by 2026 (⁴). In 2024, increased energy consumption by data centers drove a surge in carbon emissions (⁵). As the generative AI industry expands, its electricity consumption is expected to grow rapidly (⁵).

The energy consumption of generative AI stems from the huge computational power required during model training and the resources expended in responding to user queries (⁶). ChatGPT will likely consume more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity daily to handle about 200 million user requests (⁷). The latest model, OpenAI o1, incurs even greater carbon emissions when tackling complex reasoning tasks (⁸). High-performance hardware, such as graphics and tensor processing units, requires additional electricity to power cooling systems and consume substantial amounts of water (⁹).

Principles such as the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence (¹⁰) have been widely accepted in pursuit of sustainable generative AI. Since 2023, internet technology companies around the world have invested heavily in purchasing clean energy (¹¹). However, greenhouse gas emissions have still risen substantially because of the surge in generative AI research and development (⁴).

Researchers must explore methods to reduce generative AI’s energy consumption. For example, measuring AI’s total footprint on the environment throughout its life cycle can pinpoint opportunities to reduce its negative effects. Transferring knowledge from a complex model to a simpler, smaller, and more efficient model can reduce computational costs while maintaining model performance. Transforming highdimensional data into low-dimensional data while maintaining important information can help simplify the data, reduce computational costs, and improve model performance (⁶). In addition, enterprises need to publicly disclose the actual energy consumption of their generative AI projects. Nations should regulate generative AI technologies and refine sustainable generative AI regulations. Strengthening regional communication will facilitate the creation of international standards and norms as well as knowledge sharing and innovation (¹²). Countries should also bolster support for renewable energy sources and raise public awareness of generative AI’s environmental impact through education and advocacy.

∗Corresponding authors.

¹School of Biomedical Information and Engineering, Hainan Medical University (Hainan Academy of Medical Sciences), Haikou, China.

²Modern Education Technology Center, Hainan Medical University (Hainan Academy of Medical Sciences), Haikou, China.

References

1. “The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier” (McKinsey & Company, 2023); https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-economic-potential-of-generative-ai-the-nextproductivity-frontier#introduction.
2. “Generative AI: Steam engine of the fourth industrial revolution?” (World Economic Forum, 2024); https://www.weforum.org/events/worldeconomic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/sessions/industry-applications-of-generative-ai/.
3. “Introducing ChatGPT” (OpenAI, 2022); https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/.
4. “Electricity 2024: Analysis and forecast to 2026” (International Energy Agency, 2024); https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024.
5. “Powering the AI revolution” (Morgan Stanley, 2024); https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/ai-energy-demand-infrastructure.
6. J. An, W. Ding, C. Lin, Nature 615, 586 (2023).
7. A. de Vries, Joule 7, 2191 (2023).
8. M. Zeitlin, “What does OpenAI’s new breakthrough mean for energy consumption?” (HEATMAP, 2024); https://heatmap.news/technology/openai-o1-energy.
9. Z. Wang, “How AI consumes water: The unspoken environmental footprint” (Deepgram, 2024); https://deepgram.com/learn/how-ai-consumes-water.
10. “Montreal Declaration for a responsible development of artificial intelligence” (Université de Montréal, 2018); https://www.montrealdeclaration-responsibleai.com.
11. K. Harrison, “Amazon is top green energy buyer in a market dominated by US” (BloombergNEF, 2024); https://about.bnef.com/blog/amazon-is-top-greenenergy-buyer-in-a-market-dominated-by-us/.
12. R. Raper et al., Sustainability 14, 4019 (2022).

Tony

Marianne Bronner, Elham Azizi, Guosong Hong, and Maayan Levy. Photos:  Courtesy of the Vilcek Fondation.

Dear Commons Community,

Those of us who work in research institutions understand that scientific progress in the United States is inextricably linked to the contributions of immigrants. Their efforts have improved lives worldwide and established this country as a beacon of scientific discovery. Immigrants represent 28% of the American recipients of Nobel Prizes awarded in physics, chemistry, and medicine between 1901 and 2024.

The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 to recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to culture and society in the United States, with a focus on biomedical science and the arts and humanities. This year, the Foundation awarded a total of $250,000 in prizes to immigrant scientists, honoring foreign-born professionals at the forefront of research in immunotherapy, brain imaging, metabolite-based therapy, and human development. Marianne Bronner receives the $100,000 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science; Elham Azizi, Guosong Hong, and Maayan Levy each receive a $50,000 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.  Here are brief biographies of the four winners.

Marianne Bronner

California Institute of Technology

Marianne Bronner was 4 years old when her family fled communist Hungary. Her early enthusiasm for physics transformed into a fascination with developmental biology, particularly the functions of neural crest stem cells (NCSCs). This group of transient, migratory cells found early in vertebrate development differentiate into a wide variety of cell types in the body and may have potential in regenerative therapies. Bronner’s career-long examination of NCSCs has led to the identification of the mechanisms that drive genetic regulation of cell migration and differentiation, and furthered scientists’ understanding of NCSC involvement in congenital disorders, cancer metastasis, and heart regeneration. She receives the Vilcek Prize for advancing science’s understanding of how NSCSs contribute to the development of the nervous system, heart, and skeleton.

A pioneer in her field, Bronner prioritizes helping mentees develop their strengths and navigate careers. “I’ve never taken for granted the access to opportunities in a free country that helped me realize my dream of being a scientist.”

Elham Azizi

Columbia University

Elham Azizi embodies the concept of a multidisciplinary approach to difficult problems. The Iranian-born computational biologist leverages an innate curiosity and background in genomics and bioengineering to reveal insights into cancer progression and persistence. She receives a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in recognition of ongoing efforts to enlist machine learning and artificial intelligence to unmask how the immune system interacts with complex diseases.

Azizi’s efforts capitalize on tools offering an unprecedented opportunity to model a patient’s unique immunological fingerprint and disease phenotype. “The ultimate goal is to translate strategies for targeting cancer and other diseases into effective, personalized immunotherapies for patients.̶

Guosong Hong

Stanford University

Born to working-class parents in China, Guosong Hong’s fascination with the physical and chemical properties of matter was ignited by a children’s book of chemistry experiments. Now a materials scientist at Stanford University, his research has accelerated breakthroughs in biological imaging and neuromodulation. Hong receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in recognition of his development of noninvasive methods to visualize complex physiological processes in real time.

Hong’s work to optimize deep-tissue and brain imaging promises to allow glimpses of previously invisible biological processes. “The culture of academic freedom in this country has guided my career,” he says. “Collaborations with brilliant colleagues continue to motivate new discoveries.”

Maayan Levy

Stanford University

Immunologist and microbiologist Maayan Levy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in recognition of her work on the efficacy of metabolites for the prevention and treatment of cancer, chronic inflammation, and other diseases.

Growing up in Israel, Levy witnessed firsthand how immigration can affect integration and equality; she carries this core experience in her practice, and advocates for minority students in the sciences. She is also a passionate supporter of women in STEM, especially those with children. As a principal investigator and mother, Levy appreciates the demands and rewards of each role and advocates for colleagues balancing parenthood and careers in science. “Creating an environment that minimizes compromises between being a scientist and mother encourages people to excel at both.”

Congratulations to these four scholars!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

For sports enthusiasts, this weekend provides a smorgasbord of top events in several professional sports including golf, basketball, and football.

Friday through Sunday afternoon, the PGA  Phoenix Open will feature the likes of Scottie Scheffler competing on a fun course – TPC Scottsdale – Stadium Course.  It is referred to as “The People’s Open,” featuring enthusiastic crowds and iconic moments in golf at the famed 16th hole Coliseum.  Broadcast on CBS and the Golf Channel.

On Saturday night, the Boston Celtics will play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in what is arguably one of the great all-time sports rivalries. In addition, both teams are playing well this season and have two of the five best won-lost records in the NBA.  The game will be on ESPN.

On Sunday evening, nothing needs to be said about the Super Bowl as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Chiefs are playing for what would be a record-breaking third consecutive Super Bowl win.  The game will air on Fox.

Enjoy!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

College athletes who were male at birth may practice but no longer compete on women’s sports teams at colleges governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the organization announced yesterday.

The new rules were approved one day after President Trump signed an executive order pushing the Department of Education to rescind funding from educational programs that allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Athletes who were female at birth but began testosterone therapy are also not eligible to compete. For men’s teams, athletes can practice and compete regardless of their gender identity.

Before yesterday, the NCAA took a sport-by-sport approach, deferring to sport-specific governing bodies, but the reality was complicated by differing state laws and pending court battles around the gender-equity law known as Title IX. In a statement Wednesday, the NCAA’s president, Charlie Baker, said that President Trump’s order “provides a clear, national standard.”

The statement also said the association would continue to “help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes” and “assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy.”

Baker said at a congressional hearing late last year that fewer than 10 out of more than 500,000 athletes on NCAA teams were transgender. And yet some of those few instances have attracted controversy.

Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who competed for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swimming team, became a face of the debate when she took first place in an event at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships.

Then, last year, several opposing teams scheduled to play the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team opted to forfeit instead, in apparent protest of the presence of a transgender player on San Jose State’s roster. A group sued the university over allowing the athlete to play, but a judge declined to forbid her from participating in the conference tournament.

The Department of Education announced yesterday that it is now investigating the two colleges “for suspected Title IX violations.”

The new policy settles, for now, a question that has aroused furious debate at NCAA institutions. But they’re waiting on other pressing questions that will likely take longer to answer: for instance, whether the Education Department will co-sign guidance issued by the Biden Administration decreeing that future payments to athletes for their name, image, and likeness must comply with Title IX.

Baker has also asked Congress to pass legislation that would, among other things, protect the NCAA from legislation by granting it an antitrust exemption. The narrow Republican majorities there make such a bill far from a sure thing.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading a second novel by Ronald H. Balson entitled, Once We Were Brothers, written in 2010,  and republished in 2023.  It is a gripping story of two boys, who once were as close as brothers, on opposite sides of the Holocaust.  The story is in three parts:  Part I takes place in Chicago in the early 2000s, and establishes the plot of an older Jewish survivor (Ben Solomon) who claims that a respected civic leader, businessman, and philanthropist (Elliot Rozenzweig) was a Nazi who was responsible for atrocities in Poland.  Part II is a recollection of  events in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Part III summarizes judicial proceedings leading up to a civil trial.  At 390 pages, it is a bit hefty but Balson presents such a riveting tale that you will not want to put it down,  I read it in six days.

In sum, I highly recommend Once We Were Brothers.

Below is a brief review and summary that appeared in Princeton Book Review.

Tony

——————————————–

Princeton Book Review

Once We Were Brothers

By Ronald H. Balson

PBR Book Review:

This story moves back and forth between Nazi occupied Poland and present day and is one that will captive and hold your attention right from the start. The present day portion of this story is a legal thriller bringing to light the importance of justice, regardless of how long it takes. The courtroom drama is terrific and realistic as it should be considering the author is an attorney. The historical fiction portion of this book is heart wrenching and shows what it was like growing up in Poland and surviving the Holocaust. The book tells the story from the perspective of Ben Solomon, a holocaust survivor who accuses a prominent Chicago philanthropist of not just being a former Nazi but the same boy taken in by his parents and raised as his brother. The author keeps the suspense high and the reader guessing right to the end. Is Eliot a former Nazi or is this a case of mistaken identity.

Protesters on the steps of the Washington State Capital in Olympia.  Courtesy of The Associated Press.

Dear Commons Community,

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the U.S. yesterday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.  As reported by The Associated Press.

The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”

“I’m appalled by democracy’s changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks — but it started a long time ago,” Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. “So I’m just trying to put a presence into resistance.”

Catie Miglietti, from the Ann Arbor area, said Musk’s access to Treasury Department data was especially concerning. She painted a sign depicting Musk puppeteering Trump from his outraised arm — evoking Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a January speech that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute.

“If we don’t stop it and get Congress to do something, it’s an attack on democracy,” Miglietti said.

Demonstrations in several cities piled criticism on Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.

“DOGE is not legit,” read one poster on the state Capitol steps in Jefferson City, Missouri, where dozens of protesters gathered. “Why does Elon have your Social Security info???”

Members of Congress have expressed concern that DOGE’s involvement with the U.S. government payment system could lead to security risks or missed payments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare. A Treasury Department official says a tech executive working with DOGE will have “read-only access.”

Trump has signed a series of executive orders in the first couple of weeks of his new term on everything from trade and immigration to climate change. As Democrats begin to raise their voice in opposition to Trump’s agenda, protests have multiplied.

Demonstrators strode through downtown Austin, Texas. They assembled in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park for a march to Georgia’s state Capitol and gathered outside California’s Democratic-dominated Legislature in Sacramento. In Denver, protests coincided with nearby operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and an unspecified number of people detained. Protesters in Phoenix chanted “deport Elon” and “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”

“We need to show strength,” said Laura Wilde, a former public school occupational therapist in Austin. “I think we’re in a state of shock.”

Thousands protested in St. Paul, Minnesota, where 28-year-old Hallie Parten carried a Democratic presidential campaign sign, revised to read “Harris Walz Were Right.” The Minneapolis resident says she was motivated by fear.

“Fear for what is going to happen to our country if we don’t all just do something about it,” Parten said.

At Iowa’s Capitol in Des Moines, protesters who joined the anti-Trump movement went inside to counter a registered event by the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty. The anti-Trump protesters shouted over the speakers in the rotunda for about 15 minutes before law enforcement pushed them outside, removing four demonstrators in handcuffs.

In Alabama, several hundred people gathered outside the Statehouse to protest actions targeting LGBTQ+ people.

“The president thinks he has a lot of power,” the Rev. Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist minister, told the crowd. “He does not have the power to determine your gender. He does not have the power to define your identity.”

Power to the people!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

ESPN’s commentator, Stephen A. Smith, slammed Fox News for brazen hypocrisy while on Fox News’ Hannity show.  Smith appeared on Tuesday’s edition of “Hannity” and sternly pushed back when its conservative host reiterated the baseless claim from Trump that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts caused a recent deadly plane crash.

A midair collision in Washington, D.C., between a military helicopter and an American Airlines jet killed all 67 people aboard the vehicles last week.

Sean Hannity claimed that the Federal Aviation Administration hired people with “severe intellectual” and “psychiatric” disabilities prior to the crashes, citing language from the FAA’s website that Trump pointed to at a recent briefing about the accidents. He failed to mention that the wording came from a biographical questionnaire the agency implemented to broaden recruitment, however, and had been on the FAA website since at least 2013.

But Smith was mostly baffled that a Fox News host was worried about “unqualified” people in high positions.

“My issue with the eradication of DEI was … the explanation that the Trump administration and others were giving about it,” Smith said Tuesday. “I don’t want to hear DEI automatically being about people who happen to be minorities that are unqualified.”

The ESPN personality eventually told Hannity that they should discuss Pete Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends Weekend” host who was confirmed last month as Secretary of Defense, “because he’s your former colleague” — only for Hannity to protest.

“Keep my friend outta this,” he warned Smith.

Pete Hegseth was confirmed last month as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense.

“Excuse me,” Smith replied Tuesday. “Listen, I’m not bringing up anything personal. I’m simply saying, ‘My God, Sean.’ When you’re talking about people who are unqualified, I wish him nothing but the best — he served our country in the military, I get all of that.”

He continued, “But when you are a weekend host on Fox News and now you’re the defense secretary of the United States overseeing three and a half million people, that is not qualified!”

Hannity argued otherwise because Hegseth served in the military and attended an Ivy League university. But he failed to acknowledge the lack of evidence that either of the pilots involved in the recent crashes were unqualified — or without similar accomplishments.

Smith 1; Hannity 0!

Tony