Cheerleader with big dreams killed when chaos erupted at backwoods bonfire: cops
A high school cheerleader died after she was shot at a party on Sunday, which left her with severe injuries to her brain.
Kimber Mills, 18, was shot early Sunday in Pinson, Alabama, in a heavily wooded area referred to as The Pit, according to AL.com. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said that the suspect, 27-year-old Steven Tyler Whitehead, showed up at around 12:24 a.m. and fired his gun several times after a verbal and physical fight. WVTM reported that the shooting happened at a bonfire.
Whitehead was charged with three counts of attempted murder and is being held on a $180,000 bond.
Ashley Mills, the victim’s sister, told AL.com that no one knew Whitehead, adding that he tried talking to one of Kimber’s friends. Ashley said that the girl then told her boyfriend, causing a fight that ended with shots being fired.
VICTIM’S GIRLFRIEND AMONG 9 TEENS ARRESTED IN 16-YEAR-OLD’S BEACH TOWN MURDER
“Kimber was caught in the crossfire,” Ashley Mills said.
Kimber Mills was a senior at Cleveland High School, where she was a cheerleader and also ran track. Kimber Mills’ sister said she died on Wednesday night.
“Our sweet baby sister went to be with the Lord at 7:08 p.m. last night! She has had the biggest gathering for honor walk the doc has ever seen! She was and is so loved by so many. We will miss you Kimber! Everyone is free to share this post anywhere they feel necessary!” Ashley Mills wrote on Facebook.
According to the report, Kimber Mills was planning to attend the University of Alabama in 2026 with hopes of becoming a nurse.
SUSPECT IN MURDER OF RETIRED COLLEGE PROFESSOR HAD FELONY CHARGE DROPPED IN PRIOR ARREST: COURT DOCUMENTS
Ashley Mills said her sister’s injuries were too severe, adding an honor walk was held on Tuesday afternoon.
“She has too much trauma to her brain,” Ashley Mills said. “She is breathing on her own with an assisted breathing machine… We do have her on a DNR because we don’t want to hurt her anymore trying to bring her back. We’ve already got it set up for her to be an organ donor because that’s what she wanted.”
“She had a little spunk to her step,” Ashley Mills said.
MISSISSIPPI HOMECOMING FOOTBALL GAME SHOOTING: 4 SUSPECTS ARRESTED AFTER 6 DEAD, 20 INJURED
Trussville Police Chief Eric Rush said Kimber Mills was shot in the head and leg and was taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham.
Three other people were also injured in the shooting.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Rylie Cirbo, who knew Kimber Mills, told Fox News Digital: “I’d much rather her be known for her sunshine personality and big smile rather than the tragedy.”
“I’m thankful for all the joy she’s brought my other friends,” she said. “She seemed like a very bright light in so many lives.”
University professor urges White allies to mirror mass murderer in activism
A far-left Howard University professor called for White allies of the leftist political cause to mirror a pre-Civil War-era vigilante mass murderer, who was eventually hanged for his crimes.
Stacey Patton is a professor of journalism at the Washington, D.C., private school. In a recent blog post titled “John Brown Didn’t Ask Enslaved People How to Be A Good White Ally,” she discouraged White liberals from asking her how to be a better “ally” to minorities, and encouraged them instead to emulate Brown.
Brown was a militant slave abolitionist during the pre-Civil War “Bleeding Kansas” period. In 1856, he orchestrated the Pottawatomie massacre. He and fellow abolitionists dragged five Kansas settlers, at least three of whom were pro-slavery sympathizers, out of their homes and executed them.
AFTER CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION, LEFT-WING PROFESSORS DOUBLE DOWN ON SHREDDING HIS LEGACY
In October 1859, Brown led a 21-man raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, part of Virginia at the time. His goal was to start a slave uprising, but few slaves joined the fight. A local militia confronted Brown and his men and fought back. Four townspeople, including freed slave Heyward Shepherd, were caught in the crossfire and killed in the skirmish.
After 10 of his men were killed, Brown was captured. He was later tried for treason and eventually hanged.
“So when white allies ask, ‘What can I do?’ here’s the answer: Be like John Brown. Ask yourself, what am I willing to burn so somebody else can breathe?” Patton wrote.
“Brown didn’t need a syllabus, a think piece, or a guidebook on allyship. He didn’t need affirmation from Black folks that he was one of the good ones,” Patton wrote. “He saw the horror for what it was and decided that ending this racist f—ery mattered more than being understood.”
HARVARD FACULTY EXPRESSED SUPPORT FOR POTENTIAL LEFT-WING POLITICAL VIOLENCE DURING 2018 PANEL
She explains in the piece that trying to guide White people in their allyship is “exhausting as hell.”
“Even the well-intentioned versions drag you back into the same cycle of having to translate pain into curriculum. It’s the paradox of white ‘goodness.’ They want to be seen trying, but the trying itself becomes another demand on the people that are already harmed,” she wrote.
“We are not the architects. We are the collateral damage. You don’t ask the people choking on the smoke to explain how to put out the blaze,” she continued. “You go get the damn hose. You stop pretending you don’t see the flames. That’s the real answer: you already know what to do. Be honest: you just don’t want to lose the warmth that fire gives you.”
Later in the piece, she conceded that White allies don’t have to die like Brown.
“If you don’t want to die like John Brown, fine,” Patton wrote. “But understand that somebody always does.”
NY TIMES’ NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES CALLS PUBLIC MOURNING FOR CHARLIE KIRK ‘UNSETTLING’
Brown’s name has recently been invoked during the national discourse on left-wing extremism.
Benjamin Song, a long-time Antifa agitator, was recently charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents in addition to three counts of discharging a firearm stemming from an ambush-style shooting at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. A dozen others were charged in the plot.
Song was identified as a member of the John Brown Gun Club — named for Brown — after he was sued in 2023 by a right-wing group called the New Columbia Movement.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The gun club is listed as a “far-left” group by the Counter Extremism Project.
Howard University condemned violence in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Howard University condemns all forms of violence, particularly actions that may result in the loss of life,” the Office of University Communications said. “The University remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding and protecting the First Amendment rights of free expression. However, the views and opinions expressed by individual faculty, staff, or students are solely their own and should not be construed as reflecting the official stance of Howard University.”
Patton declined to comment.
Former Democratic mayor suffers ‘significant injuries’ in stabbing at business
A former mayor in Massachusetts was stabbed outside a cannabis dispensary he owns, according to officials.
Will Flanagan, 45, served as the Democratic mayor of Fall River from 2010 until 2014, when he faced a recall election after being accused of showing a gun to one of his political rivals, Jasiel Correia, according to The Herald News. The Fall River Police Department said the stabbing happened on Monday at around 5 p.m. outside Cosmopolitan Dispensary, which Flanagan owns.
Police said Flanagan suffered “significant injuries” and was transported to a hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.
Fall River police announced Tuesday afternoon that 31-year-old Corree Gonzales was arrested in connection with the stabbing.
MICHIGAN COUNCILMAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AFTER DEM LAW CLEARED HIS CRIMINAL PAST
Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan said in a statement he was praying for Flanagan.
“My thoughts and prayers are with Former Mayor Will Flanagan, his family, and friends. The full support of the Mayor’s Office is with the Fall River Police Department as they work tirelessly to bring justice in this case. We stand firmly behind Chief Kelly Furtado, and the dedicated men and women of the FRPD as they continue this active investigation,” Coogan said.
Fall River Police Chief Kelly Furtado said patrol officers and detectives “responded swiftly” to what she called a “senseless act of violence.”
“We will exhaust every resource to ensure justice is served,” she said. “I want to thank the Mayor’s Office for their continued support as we move forward with this investigation.”
TEEN MURDER SUSPECT ALLEGEDLY SWATTED VICTIM’S HOME WEEKS BEFORE DEADLY HIT-AND-RUN: LAWYER
Coogan said the suspect suffers from mental health issues and has been arrested several times in the past decade, according to WHDH.
“I’m not so much concerned about his criminal past, I’m concerned about his mental health and his ability to reintegrate into society,” Coogan said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
According to The Herald News, Flanagan recently developed a side hustle as a local film performer in addition to being an attorney.
Hours before the stabbing, Flanagan recorded a video of himself signing “Blame it on the Rain” during a storm that was moving through the area.
Nick Saban points to who’s to blame for college football’s coaching bloodbath
Several college football programs fired their head coaches in the middle of the season, with the latest being the Florida Gators parting ways with Billy Napier on Sunday.
Legendary college football coach Nick Saban said he believed the current state of the sport is to blame.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
“You know, I’m not (surprised) because everybody’s raising money to pay players,” Saban told ESPN on Tuesday. “So, the people that are giving the money think they have a voice and they’re just like a bunch of fans. When they get frustrated and disappointed, they put pressure on the (athletic directors) to take action, and it’s the way of the world.”
Napier and Penn State’s James Franklin are among the biggest names to be kicked to the curb during the season. Sam Pittman (Arkansas), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Deshaun Foster (UCLA), Brent Pry (Virginia Tech) and Trent Bray (Oregon State) were also axed by their respective schools.
BILL BELICHICK ADVANCES IN PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME SELECTION PROCESS AMID UNC STRUGGLES
Saban said on Saturday that he thought Franklin’s dismissal was “unfair,” given the success that Franklin had at Penn State.
Saban told ESPN that college football still needs to find a way to “improve the quality of life of players” while also developing them and giving them a proper education.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
More coaches are expected to be on the move during the upcoming offseason.
‘Natural correction’: College students abandoning trans identities in dramatic shift
More data is emerging supporting a sharp decline in the number of young adults identifying as transgender or non-binary.
Last week, Fox News Digital reported on data shared by Eric Kaufman, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, showing that the share of college students identifying as anything other than male or female has been cut in half in just two years.
Now, Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has identified additional data that appears to confirm these findings on a wider scale.
TRANSGENDER ‘TREND’ SHARPLY DECLINING ON AMERICAN COLLEGE CAMPUSES, NEW ANALYSIS FINDS
First, Twenge analyzed data from the nationally representative Household Pulse survey, which asked people directly about identifying as transgender, as she stated in an article for Generation Tech.
“The Household Pulse data showed a decline in trans ID among 18- to 22-year-olds in 2024, but I was cautious about drawing conclusions from it, as the decline appeared only in a limited time period (July to September 2024) — and two of the three survey administrations added an option for non-binary identification that wasn’t there before,” she wrote. “Maybe that was why identifying as trans declined.”
Next, the professor — who is also the author of the book “Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents” — looked at another nationally representative survey.
The Cooperative Election Study (CES), a nonprobability-based survey fielded each year in the fall by YouGov and administered by Tufts University, asked about transgender identification among all U.S. adults from 2021 to 2024. It also included a separate question about identifying as non-binary.
TRANS SURGERIES INCREASE RISK OF MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS, SUICIDAL IDEATIONS: STUDY
In 2021, 2022 and 2024, the CES asked, “Do you identify as transgender?” The choices were “yes,” “no” and “prefer not to say.”
“Prefer not to say” responses were treated as missing data, Twenge shared with Fox News Digital.
Beginning in 2021, the sex/gender question of the CES asked, “What is your gender?” with choices of “man,” “woman,” “non-binary” and “other.”
Among 18- to 22-year-olds, trans identification was cut nearly in half from 2022 to 2024 — and non-binary identification dropped by more than half between 2023 and 2024.
“When I looked at adults of all ages in the survey … I found a huge increase in identifying as transgender from those born before 1980 (Gen X and Boomers) to those born in the early 2000s (who are now 21 to 25 years old),” Twenge told Fox News Digital.
“Identifying as transgender then declined, especially for those born in 2005 and 2006 (who are now 18 to 20 years old).”
“I think the question now is not if trans is in decline, but how far it will fall.”
There are several theories as to why this is happening.
“One possibility is changes in acceptance; as acceptance increased, more young adults identified as transgender and/or were willing to identify as transgender in a survey,” Twenge said. “When acceptance declined, identifying as transgender (or at least identifying as transgender on a survey) declined.”
In previous analyses looking at data from another survey, Twenge found that the increase in identifying as transgender between 2014 and 2023 did not extend to people over age 45 (Gen X and boomers).
“That makes it less likely that the changes are due to acceptance, which should impact people of all ages,” she said. “However, it’s possible that acceptance increased more among young adults between 2014 and 2023 and then decreased more into 2024.”
Twenge emphasized that identifying as transgender and identifying as non-binary are two different things.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“One of the reasons I did this analysis was because the surveys Prof. Kaufmann relied on did not ask about identifying as transgender — they asked about identifying as non-binary or something other than male or female,” she noted. “I wanted to see if there was a decline in identifying as transgender.”
She added, “I also thought it was important to look at a nationally representative sample and not just at students from elite schools.”
Kaufmann applauded Twenge’s new report, calling her “the best in the business.”
“It was good to see that mainstream academic generation researchers are following up,” he told Fox News Digital. “Her data very much reinforces what I found using FIRE, Brown and Andover Phillips data.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“I think the question now is not if trans is in decline,” he added, “but how far it will fall — and what the implications will be for the cultural progressive project, and for trends in gender surgery and diagnosis.”
“Perhaps young people are realizing they don’t have to announce or label everything about themselves to be valid.”
Jonathan Alpert, a New York City psychotherapist, said this shift likely marks a “natural correction.”
“For a while, we taught young people to over-interpret every feeling. Therapy culture told them that every discomfort needed a label or diagnosis,” Alpert, who was not part of the cited surveys, previously told Fox News Digital. “For some, that label became ‘non-binary’ — not identifying with a gender.”
Rather than rejecting who they are, Alpert said, young people may simply be tired of feeling pressure to define every emotion or difference with a new identity.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
“So, in essence, it’s the performance that’s slowing down — at least in what this study showed,” he said. “A few years ago, identity was treated almost like a social badge. Now, perhaps young people are realizing they don’t have to announce or label everything about themselves to be valid.”
Alpert said he sees this same pattern in his own therapy practice.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
“Once people become more comfortable [with] who they are, they stop needing to define themselves so rigidly. To me, that’s a sign of growing self-assurance, not intolerance.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Tufts University and to the U.S. Census Bureau requesting comment.
John Stamos addresses whether he’d have open marriage with his wife and Lori Loughlin
When asked on a podcast this week if he would bring a newly single Lori Loughlin into his relationship with his wife, John Stamos had a definitive answer.
“Would you bring her into the fold?” the “Good Guys” podcast co-host Ben Soffer asked Stamos, adding that the top question they received from fans for him was whether he’d leave his wife, Caitlin McHugh, for Loughlin.
But Soffer said he and co-host Josh Peck would rather ask if he’d want Loughlin to join him and his wife in an unconventional relationship.
JOHN STAMOS BLAMES LORI LOUGHLIN’S ‘NARCISSIST’ HUSBAND FOR HER INVOLVEMENT IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL
“Come on, Aunt Becky, bring her in. Bring her into the fold,” Soffer said some fans ask, referring to her character from “Full House.”
Stamos questioned if they meant a “threesome,” and they clarified it was more of a polyamory/open marriage question.
“No,” he answered. “I’m not Mormon.”
After that, they began to discuss the swinger lifestyle, and he said, in his opinion, “It never works” — except for a few sets of couples he knows.
Stamos went on to say that he and his wife are supporting Loughlin as she navigates her separation from her husband, Mossimo Giannulli.
LORI LOUGHLIN PRAISES LAW ENFORCEMENT 5 YEARS AFTER COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL
Loughlin and Giannulli announced their separation earlier this month after nearly 28 years of marriage.
“She put up with a lot over the years with this guy,” he said.
“She is an angel, and she always made things better,” he shared, calling Giannulli a “narcissist” and adding that he’ll never speak to him again.
“I think when you have a wife like that, and a family, how do you do that? How do you bust that up?” he asked.
In “Full House,” Stamos and Loughlin played husband and wife — Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky. The popular sitcom ran from 1987 to 1995.
The 62-year-old said people always assume there was something romantic between him and Loughlin, but he emphasized they’ve always just been friends.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
He admitted that he once called Loughlin the “one who got away” in an interview before he met McHugh.
“It was interesting,” he said. “There was a very small window for the two of us being single at the same time.”
The actor said he didn’t want to “belittle” his relationships down to the musical “Grease,” but compared Loughlin to Sandy before her transformation and ex-wife Rebecca Romijn to Sandy after.
He said at the time he was more attracted to “rebellious” women.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Stamos married former Victoria’s Secret model Rebecca Romijn from 1998 until their divorce in 2005.
“Lori was so sweet,” he admitted. “I loved working with her, but she was just too nice for me.”
He said that he even thought that he and Loughlin had made out on a ride at Disneyland once, but she denied to him that it happened.
“So, I don’t know if I made it up in my mind — you know, some kind of fantasy,” he laughed.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Stamos married McHugh in 2018. They have one son, a 7-year-old named Billy, who is Stamos’ only child.
Mike Trout suspected drug use by team official linked to teammate’s fatal overdose
Mike Trout took the stand Tuesday in a Santa Ana, California, courtroom to testify in a trial over whether his Los Angeles Angels should be held responsible for the drug overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
Skaggs died in 2019 after taking fentanyl-laced oxycodone, mixed with alcohol, supplied by the team’s former communications director, Eric Kay, who is serving 22 years in prison. Skaggs’ family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Angels, saying the team knew about Kay’s past drug history, posing dangers.
Trout testified that players would pay Kay for bizarre stunts, leaving Trout to raise an eyebrow. At one point, a clubhouse attendant suggested the players should stop, Trout said, because Kay might be using the money for a “bad purpose,” which Trout said he immediately assumed was drugs.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Trout said he would not sign autographs requested by Kay unless he knew who they were going to out of concern they could be sold for money.
Trout said it was clear Kay was “using something.”
“I just didn’t know what it was,” Trout said.
The three-time MVP said he had only seen Skaggs smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, never thinking he was using other drugs.
MARINERS PITCHER’S MEDIA AVAILABILITY INTERRUPTED BY AUDIBLE SCREAM IN LOCKER ROOM AFTER CRUSHING GAME 7 LOSS
Skaggs’ family is seeking $118 million for Skaggs’ lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering, and punitive damages against the team. In addition to Trout, other players, including former Angels pitcher Wade Miley, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds, could also testify in what is expected to be a weeks-long trial. Miley was tabbed by Skaggs’ former agent, Ryan Hamil, in a deposition earlier this year as a drug supplier to Skaggs.
“I hate what happened to Tyler. It sucks. My thoughts are with his family and friends,” Miley said in June. “But I’m not going to sit here and talk about things that somebody might have said about me or whatnot. I was never a witness for any of this. I’ve never been accused of any wrongdoing.”
Former New York Mets ace Matt Harvey admitted during Kay’s trial that he had supplied drugs to Skaggs. The two were teammates with the Angels in the year of Skaggs’ death.
Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian also said in court that they had been provided drugs by Kay.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Skaggs was 27 when he was found in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, before the Angels were set to play the Texas Rangers. The Angels argue that Skaggs, despite being given the pill by Kay, took the drugs in his private time on his own admission.
Matthew McConaughey, Camila Alves celebrate his arrest anniversary with tequila campaign
Matthew McConaughey is commemorating the anniversary of his arrest in a unique way.
The 55-year-old “Dallas Buyers Club” star and his wife, Camila Alves, and their tequila company, Pantalones Organic Tequila, marked the occasion with a dramatic reading of his arrest report.
“If playing the bongos in my birthday suit gives us an anniversary worth raising a glass to, I’ll pour some Pantalones and cheers to it,” McConaughey told Fox News Digital.
Voice actor Steve Zirnkilton, best known as the voice of the opening narration for all “Law and Order” franchises, provided his voice for the video’s intro.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY SHARES THE ‘NON-NEGOTIABLE’ THAT PROTECTS HIS FAMILY LIFE
McConaughey first wrote about his arrest in his 2020 memoir, “Greenlights.” In the book, he explained it occurred in October 1999 when he was 29 years old, after he watched his alma mater, the Texas Longhorns, defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Following the win, he wrote that “it was time to celebrate.”
“I partied through the night into Sunday, and through Sunday night without sleeping a wink,” he wrote. “At 2:30 that Monday morning, I finally decided to wind down. It was time to lower the lights, get undressed, open up the window and let the jasmine scent from my garden come inside.”
“If playing the bongos in my birthday suit gives us an anniversary worth raising a glass to, I’ll pour some Pantalones and cheers to it.”
He went on to say that “it was time to smoke a bowl and listen to” musician Henri Dikongué, while he followed along on his bongos. “It was time to stand over my drum set and follow the rhythm of the blues before they got to Memphis,” he said.
“What I didn’t know was that while I was banging away in my bliss, two Austin policemen also thought it was time to barge into my house unannounced, wrestle me to the ground with nightsticks, handcuff me and pin me to the floor,” he wrote in his book.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
The actor wrote that he was charged with “disturbing the peace, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.”
Looking back, Alves tells Fox News Digital that “Only Matthew could turn a night like that into something we celebrate with tequila.”
In addition to the dramatic reading, the couple are celebrating the anniversary with a new signature cocktail called “Pantsless and Famous,” a play on the well-known cocktail, “Naked and Famous,” a move which plays into the brand’s slogan, “The Official Tequila of Marching to Your Own Beat.”
McConaughey and Alves co-founded the tequila company in October 2023. In order to promote the brand, the couple released a number of advertisements featuring the two of them doing various activities, including playing pickleball and doing laundry, without pants on.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“We’re precious about our tequila, not our pants,” McConaughey and Camila said in a press release. “With the explosion in popularity of tequila, there’s a level of snootiness that’s crept into the category. People now talk about tequila the way they talk about wine.”
“While we’re all for being passionate about tequila, we wanted to remind people that, above all, it’s meant to be fun. That’s where the name Pantalones came from, and that’s why you won’t see us wearing any.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Grounds for concern: Bipartisan duo spills the beans on Trump’s coffee tariffs
FIRST ON FOX: Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., are urging President Donald Trump to exempt coffee from reciprocal tariff measures that are “drastically increasing its price.”
Coffee prices were up 20.9% from a year ago in August, according to the most recent edition of the consumer price index (CPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a letter to Trump on Wednesday, Khanna and Bacon asked Trump to remove coffee from his reciprocal tariffs in order to bring prices down for the two out of three Americans who drink coffee every day, according to the National Coffee Association.
“We respectfully request your administration exempt coffee from reciprocal tariff measures that are drastically increasing its price,” Khanna and Bacon said, according to the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “The administration can do this by adding coffee (both green beans, as well as roasted and ground products) to Annex II of Executive Order 14257. Given that our nation consumes around 400 million cups per day, this action is one modest but meaningful way to help the American people.”
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs included a list of exempt goods, but coffee isn’t on the list. As Trump’s universal reciprocal tariffs seek to level the playing field for international trade, the congressmen said coffee does not have “a viable large-scale domestic alternative.”
WHITE HOUSE RIPS ‘IMBECILIC BUFFOON’ TIM WALZ AFTER TRUMP TARIFF CRITICISM
“Though Hawaii and Puerto Rico grow small quantities of specialty coffee, domestic production accounts for less than 1 percent of all the coffee consumed by Americans. Tariffs on coffee do not protect domestic businesses and interests—they only raise costs and amount to an additional tax on American consumers. It is not practical to tariff a product that our nation does not meaningfully produce,” the bipartisan congressmen said in their letter to Trump.
TRUMP’S TARIFF POWER GRAB BARRELS TOWARD SUPREME COURT
According to the National Coffee Association, 99% of coffee is imported from outside the U.S.
“I’m always with a coffee mug, so it’s a personal issue for me, and we’re hoping that the president recognizes this as part of his exemption,” Khanna told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
Khanna, who represents California’s Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives, said his constituents tell him they are concerned about tariffs impacting the economy.
“I’ve heard from a lot of small business owners, coffee shops actually, and a lot of them are facing real pressures. Some may go out of business if this coffee tariff remains,” Khanna said, while also explaining that hospitality workers are experiencing increased costs and consumers are seeing prices go up.
Khanna said he hopes the letter sparks a “broader conversation about repealing the tariffs on food products, and particularly food products that we basically don’t grow in the United States.”
More than half of Americans drink coffee every day, including Khanna’s Republican colleague, Bacon, who is retiring from representing Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
Khanna and Bacon traveled to Mexico earlier this year for a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum, which was aimed at developing a more “constructive approach” to Trump’s tariffs.
The bipartisan duo also teamed up last month to introduce the “No Coffee Tax Act,” seeking to repeal the Trump administration’s tariffs on coffee.
“There is no American alternative to coffee,” Bacon told Fox News Digital. “Why tariff something we can’t grow? All you are doing is punishing Americans.”
Bacon, one of few House Republicans who has been willing to push back against the Trump administration’s second term, introduced legislation to return tariff control to Congress earlier this year.
“I’ve always been honest. I try to be tactful, but I have always pushed back where I thought there was a big concern,” Bacon said. “I want to do what’s right, despite what anybody thinks.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The retiring congressman said his constituents are feeling the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the economy, particularly soybean farmers who have been unable to sell their goods.
“I feel a little freer to do it since I announced, but I don’t know that I would have done it any differently,” Bacon said, explaining that pushing back on Trump’s tariffs is one of his top priorities as he closes out his final term.
When reached for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital, “Ro Khanna doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The President has included coffee in a recent executive order breaking down goods that are eligible for tariff-free treatment as part of trade deals. Coffee prices globally are also near historic highs because of supply woes in coffee-growing regions of the world, not tariffs.”