In his Father’s Day proclamation, President Trump lauded America’s dads as “the custodians of our strength, the leaders of our families, and the protectors of our security and safety.” The President’s heartfelt nod echoes a recurring theme within the GOP that fathers are critical for the development of their children and the stability of society itself. Sadly, America’s family court system and the Family Bar Associations have spent decades putting a wedge between fathers and their children- an unconscionable act that the Trump Administration must confront.
America’s family courts seem to have missed the growing calls for gender equality in the workplace and society. In the event of a parental split, fathers are granted parental custody less than 20% of the time- a jaw-dropping stat to any feminist.
Even equal access between parents is an uphill battle. A growing movement for “equal shared parenting” calls for the presumption that each parent has equal access to their children unless there are mitigating factors such as violence or drug abuse. States such as Florida and Missouri have adopted this presumption, which should be the norm in any egalitarian society. Extensive research shows that mothers and fathers both play different yet crucial roles in child rearing, making an equal split a natural default.
Yet the Nation’s Family Bar Associations have stood in the way of such common-sense reforms. Family court attorneys suffer from a system where equitable treatment reduces the need for contentious court battles that generate six-figure legal bills. Children be damned!
America’s family courts themselves seem to revel in the cash churn. Judges are notorious for relying on costly third-party evaluators and appointing “guardian ad litem,” supposedly unbiased attorneys for the children, who often seem more interested in cashing their checks than representing their young clients.
Once appointed, failure to pay even the most incompetent or biased service provider results in contempt of court. In many jurisdictions, payment of the attorneys themselves is also included in the custody decision. A judge can legally take away a parent’s children for failure to pay, even the worst attorney—a power that any mob enforcer would revel in!
Every member of the family court ecosystem benefits from costly and prolonged litigation. Judges receive the benefits of donations to their campaigns and huge payouts as mediators upon retirement. Service providers churn fees through legal referrals and are often more beholden to the providers of their business pipeline than the lives of the children they serve. The whole family court system resembles more of a multibillion-dollar cartel than an institution dedicated to children’s interests.
Although custody issues are typically state or local affairs, President Trump can call for the DOJ to review Family Court corruption to seek out systemic violations of civil rights or even racketeering. This would bolster the Administration’s efforts to “restore the fundamental rights of parents to raise their children.”
Imagine the positive effect on America’s families for the next judge to be walked out in handcuffs to be a family court judge under a RICO indictment!
The Administration’s DOGE team has begun looking at the Title IV-D Child Support Program. Title IV-D was created under the Social Security Act to help ensure children receive financial support from both parents. This noble goal has since been corrupted to create a profit-driven collection scheme by State agencies to harangue non-custodial parents (predominantly fathers) for the benefit of state coffers.
Under Title IV-D, States receive reimbursements for enforcement actions, creating incentives to punish fathers, particularly low-income and minority group members, versus voluntary agreements that don’t carry Federal reimbursement. This predatory system should be removed from the DOGE chopping block and replaced with a fair and transparent system that prioritizes family needs over bureaucrats’ greed.
President Trump is well-versed in the family court system. Both his divorces were high-profile, tabloid affairs that placed great strain on his young children. Then, citizen Donald J. Trump had the resources to fight and faced partners who reached amicable arrangements. President Trump never experienced what it was like for his ex to disappear with his children or have them kept from him by the court.
President Trump has been lauded by friends and foes alike for his success in perhaps his most important role: as a father. So many fathers are denied this opportunity.
While the President and GOP continue to dissuade fathers from abandoning their children, let’s not lose sight of all the fathers who are fighting to be with their children. This is the low-hanging political fruit that the Trump Administration must champion for the future of America’s families.
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