Trump to Pull Stefanik UN Ambassador Nomination to Protect Republican House Majority

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / March 27, 2025

President Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be United Nations ambassador.

The move is designed to protect House Republicans’ slim majority, the president said.

“With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” the president said on Truth Social. “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”

Others can do a good job in the position, so Stefanik “will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People,” according to Trump.

“Speaker [Mike] Johnson is thrilled! I look forward to the day when Elise is able to join my Administration in the future,” he said. “She is absolutely FANTASTIC. Thank you Elise!”

While Stefanik would likely have had no trouble getting the necessary votes for confirmation, Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House with 218 seats while Democrats hold 213 seats. There are currently four vacant seats.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, was expected to slow-walk the special election to replace Stefanik.

Stefanik’s nomination was expected to move forward on April 2, the day after the Florida special elections, Axios reported last week. She would have been the last of Trump’s Cabinet to get confirmed.

Stefanik is the second of Trump’s Cabinet picks to have their nominations withdrawn, following Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal in November after it became clear he did not have the votes to be confirmed.

This is a breaking news story and it may be updated.

Watch Our Live Inauguration Day Coverage

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / January 20, 2025

The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett will be doing live coverage today from Washington, D.C. Catch his show, which you can watch right here, starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and concluding half an hour after the inauguration. Stay tuned to get smart commentary from guests, including Scott Rasmussen and Kurt Schlichter, and watch the inauguration itself.

American Tea Parties, Greek Yogurt Parties

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / June 21, 2011

When it comes to crushing debts, unsustainable entitlements and ballooning deficits, Americans and Europeans are all in the same sinking boat. Where they part ways is in their response to the looming crisis.

Faced with out-of-control government spending and the prospect of a bleak economic future, Americans from across the country have rallied under the banner of the Tea Party and sent a clear message to Washington: Enough! In a vigorous manifestation of that greatest of all checks on government—the “vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America”—citizens began a grassroots wave of orderly protests that have since only grown in number and promise to keep the pressure on Washington to pull its financial act together.

Meanwhile in Greece, proposed austerity measures to avert bankruptcy have left the country paralyzed by strikes and riots. Last week in Athens, Greek police fired teargas at protesters who responded by throwing stones and yogurt. This week, the country is being hit with blackouts as the main power company goes on strike. Violent protests have sadly become the norm whenever European governments attempt to tackle their financial woes. Their citizens, coddled by the nanny-state and its promises of cradle-to-grave no-hassle living, do not take well to being told it’s time to face the music.

Cynics will say that Americans aren’t hurling stones and yogurt because the government has yet to touch their benefits, and that when it does, things will get ugly here too. Perhaps. But there are reasons to believe that Americans, who by and large still view themselves as free citizens of a republic rather than dependent wards of the welfare state, will have the fortitude to accept whatever painful cuts are necessary. And thanks to the efforts of the Tea Party, these cuts, when they do occur, will not be as drastic as they would have been had the people sat by in torpor until the crisis hit.

Little-Known Issue Contributing to Deadly Muslim Attacks on Christians in Nigeria

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / December 20, 2025

Persecution of Christians in Nigeria is not driven solely by religion, according to Pastor Brad Brandon.

While religion plays a direct role, socio-economic issues are a significant factor contributing to the bloodshed, says Brandon, founder and CEO of Across Nigeria, a Christian organization with the mission of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Nigeria and supporting persecuted Christians in the African nation.

It is estimated that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, and about 7,000 in the first half of 2025 alone.

A Missionary Calling

A decade ago, Brandon was pastoring a church in Connecticut when he realized his relationship with God “had become very stale.”

“I cried out to Him and just said, ‘God, I don’t want this anymore. I want to be back close with you and have that side-by-side walk with you again,’” Brandon tells The Daily Signal he recalls praying.

Shortly thereafter, Brandon got involved with Christian missions work in Nigeria. When he traveled to the African nation in 2016, he gave God the credit for leading him to a Fulani Muslim village, which became the start of Across Nigeria.

Brad Brandon stands with a man in Nigeria. (Courtesy of Across Nigeria)

Brandon has dedicated much of the past 10 years of his life to serving Christians in Nigeria and building relationships with Fulani Muslims, giving him unique insight into current tensions between Christians and Fulani Muslims.

Why Fulani Muslims Are Attacking Christians

While Boko Haram and the Islamic State—West Africa are driven by their radical Islamic ideology to persecute Christians in Nigeria, many Fulani Muslims are in conflict with Christians over issues of farming and ranching.

“Although there are some militarized radical Fulani Muslims who are ideological in their beliefs and in their actions, I would say many of the Fulani Muslims are in conflict with the Christians … [because of a] lack of good grazing ground for their cattle,” he said.

Boko Haram and the Islamic State are terrorist groups, both of which have a strong presence in Nigeria, but the Fulani Muslims are an ethnic group in Northern Nigeria and are responsible for a great deal of the current violence being carried out against Christians.

“They raise cattle,” Brandon said of the Nigerian Fulani Muslims. “The Christians do farming [and] especially during the dry season, you’ll see an increase in the violence. When the cattle are looking for food, they’ll wander onto a farmer’s crops [and] destroy the crops. The farmer comes out, chases the cattle away, the Fulani come back and retaliate, and before you know it, hundreds of Christians are killed.”

Stopping the Fulani Violence

While the socio-economic issues do not justify the violence from the Fulani Muslims “it gives us an insight into how we can solve the problem,” the Christian missionary said.

“We’re helping those communities with wells, with medical care, with schools, because we want to increase their socio-economic position so that their young people aren’t drawn into radical ideologies and terrorism,” he explained.

To date, Across Nigeria has built eight schools serving over 4,000 students primarily in Fulani Muslims communities. Violence has dropped by 60% to 70% in every area where a school has been built, Brandon said.

One of the solutions to the tensions in Nigeria between Christians and Fulani Muslim is a ranching system that would include fences for cattle, which Brandon says is not a perfect plan, but does have “some good points to it.”

‘Christian Lives Are Expendable’

Brandon also places responsibility at the feet of the Nigerian government for allowing the persecution to continue.

About 25 years ago, Christians and Fulani Muslims lived peacefully side-by-side, Brandon explained. But because the “Nigerian government has been silent on the issue of Christians being killed,” Brandon says, the message to “the Fulani is that when we have a problem, Christian lives are expendable, and we’re not going to get in trouble for killing them.”

Additionally, Brandon say he believes that the instability in northern Nigeria is viewed as a benefit to and by the Nigerian government.

“It allows them to retain power,” he said the government. “It allows them to be able to do things in the north that they couldn’t do if it was stabilized.”

Trump in Action

The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has gained international attention, including from President Donald Trump, who at the end of October announced he was designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern.

Trump has also directed members of Congress to look into the issue of Christian persecution in Nigeria and report back to him.

“I’m appreciative of President Trump for drawing attention to this,” Brandon said, adding that “there hasn’t been a president in recent history that has done anything about this.”

When President Joe Biden entered the White House, he removed Nigeria from the Country of Particular Concern list despite the fact that persecution of Christians was taking place at the time.

Trump put Nigeria on the list of countries of Particular Concern during his first term, “so he’s always had his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in Nigeria,” the missionary said.

The Tale of 2 Kevins: What the Fed Chair Candidates’ Backgrounds Reveal About If They’ll Cut Interest Rates

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / December 20, 2025

President Donald Trump recently told The Wall Street Journal he is favoring selecting either National Economic Council head Kevin Hassett or former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh for the next chair of the Federal Reserve.

Trump has said he expects the next Fed chair to cut interest rates.

How have the candidates under consideration approached interest rate cuts in the past?

Kevin Warsh

Following the 2009 financial crisis, Warsh was skeptical of cutting rates.

At the November 2010 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Warsh expressed concerns about the Fed’s plan to stimulate the economy by lowering long-term interest rates through additional asset purchases.

“Given what ails us, additional monetary policy measures are, at best, poor substitutes for more powerful pro-growth policies,” he said.

Warsh said the Fed should be “leery of drawing inapt lessons from the crisis to the current policy conjuncture.”

“But when non-traditional tools are needed to loosen policy and markets are functioning more or less normally—even with output and employment below trend—the risk-reward ratio for policy action is decidedly less favorable,” he said. “In my view, these risks increase with the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. As a result, we cannot and should not be as aggressive as conventional policy rules—cultivated in more benign environments—might judge appropriate.”

Warsh maintained that the Fed should not be treated as a “repair shop for broken fiscal, trade, or regulatory policies.”

Despite Warsh’s mixed record on interest rates, economist and former Trump Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee EJ Antoni thinks Warsh understands that the next Fed chair needs to do more than adjust the Fed’s benchmark interest rate.

“The entire novel monetary framework that [current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome] Powell and his associates built in 2020 needs to be undone,” Antoni told The Daily Signal. “Powell has so thoroughly botched the job that any of his potential replacements would be infinitely better than him.”

Recently, Warsh has criticized Powell for being too hesitant to lower interest rates. He told Fox Business’ “Kudlow” program that he had “some sympathy” for Trump being frustrated with how Powell is handling interest rates.

“Economic growth in the U.S. is poised to boom, but it’s being held down by bad economic policies coming from the central bank, bad supervision policies, bad monetary policies, and a very confusing set of standards as we’ve gone from last year to this year,” Warsh said.

Kevin Hassett

Trump’s other top pick, Kevin Hassett, is a strong supporter of cutting interest rates in his positions in both of Trump’s presidential terms.

Hassett told The Wall Street Journal that while there may be “plenty of room” to cut rates, he would not cave to political pressure if inflation was high.

He told Fox News’ Bret Baier that if the Fed were data driven, it would lower rates.

“The president has expressed frustration with the policy decisions of the Fed,” he said. “And I think that that frustration that he has with the policy decisions is based on pretty sound analysis. The fact is that inflation is way down. Interest rates in the U.S. are amongst the highest anywhere on earth. And reducing interest rates would be sensible and would save the taxpayers lots of money right now.”

Christopher Waller

Previously, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the short list also includes Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Fed Vice Chair of Supervision Michelle Bowman.

In March 2024, Waller said the data did not yet justify immediate rate cuts when inflation was still above target. He said that recent inflation and economic figures reinforced his view that the Fed should wait before lowering interest rates, adding that he saw “no rush” to cut rates.

“As a result, in the absence of an unexpected and material deterioration in the economy, I am going to need to see at least a couple months of better inflation data before I have enough confidence that beginning to cut rates will keep the economy on a path to 2% inflation,” Waller said.

But he changed his tune over the summer, saying that inflation was cooling and labor market risks were rising, showing it was time to ease policy.

“It makes sense to cut the [Federal Open Market Committee]’s policy rate by 25 basis points two weeks from now,” Waller told a gathering of the Money Marketeers of New York University in July.

Michelle Bowman

In September, when Bowman dissented from the Fed’s decision to cut rates by half a percentage point, she became the first Fed governor to dissent on an interest rate decision in 19 years.

She gave remarks at a bankers convention in May 2024 suggesting that illegal immigration was responsible for high housing prices.

“There is a risk that strong consumer demand for services, increased immigration, and continued labor market tightness could lead to persistently high core services inflation,” she said.

“Given the current low inventory of affordable housing, the inflow of new immigrants to some geographic areas could result in upward pressure on rents, as additional housing supply may take time to materialize,” she continued

While Bowman has kept the door open to lowering rates, she has warned against easing policy too soon. She said in August 2024 that rate cuts would be appropriate if inflation moves toward the 2% target.

“Should the incoming data continue to show that inflation is moving sustainably toward our 2% goal, it will become appropriate to gradually lower the federal funds rate to prevent monetary policy from becoming overly restrictive on economic activity and employment,” she said.

“But we need to be patient and avoid undermining continued progress on lowering inflation by overreacting to any single data point,” she continued.

None of the Fed chair candidates could be reached for comment.

Calendarcare: One Way Out of GOP’s Health Care Mess

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Deroy Murdock / December 20, 2025

As 2025 wanes, and 2026 approaches, the calendar itself offers Republicans a partial solution to its health care woes.

Since Obamacare’s 2010 launch, the GOP has floundered while trying to repeal and replace the Democrats’ illegible scrawl of a signature issue. During President Donald Trump’s first term, Republicans junked the program’s individual-mandate penalty, a medical-device tax, and other noxious provisions. Alas, Obamacare survives. Hobbled, yes, but it’s still standing.

Free-market think tanks have performed admirably throughout this effort. They proposed and analyzed countless alternatives. Individual lawmakers embraced many of these ideas and advocated their own reforms.

Regardless, Republicans have failed to rally around and pass any single substitute to Obamacare.

New York’s Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats shut down the federal government for 43 days—to save illegal-alien health care and Obamacare subsidies.

On Dec. 11, they torpedoed a plan by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho to replace Democrat subsidies with deposits in Health Savings Accounts. Republicans, earlier, scuttled Schumer’s three-year subsidy extension. For its part, the GOP House struggled this week to prescribe its own cure to the persistent Obamacare infection.

This is where the calendar becomes helpful.

The months from January through December provide an incredibly straightforward way for Congress to authorize a dozen new Association Health Plans, AHPs, that automatically would place participants in separate pools, each large and diverse enough to cushion the impact of covering those with existing conditions and other insurance gambles.

Americans would be free to enroll in one of these 12 plans, ideally owned and operated by up to a dozen separate, private companies. Consumers would register by birth month: Those born on Jan. 17 would join the January Plan. Born on the Fourth of July? The July Plan is for you. If your birthday is between today and year-end 2025, welcome to the December Plan.

Diabetics, cardiac patients, asthmatics, hypertensives, and others with chronic ailments appear randomly across every year’s 365 birthdates. All 12 months also are rich with physical trainers, yogis, mountain bikers, joggers, swimmers, skiers, cyclists, and other healthy people—born from New Year’s Day through New Year’s Eve. The millions more with average health—neither invalids nor Olympians—would populate the vast majority in each plan.

Thus, the high risks and steep costs associated with “sickly” enrollees would be diluted by the much larger “healthy” cohort and their tall waves of incoming aggregate premium revenue and tiny ripples of outgoing claims payments. Enough “healthy” cash from low-maintenance participants should remain to subsidize, in essence, the high-maintenance of the “sickly.” (Similarly, auto insurers pay the car-repair claims of thousands of young, unsafe drivers via the mounds of cash collected from millions of older, safer motorists who rarely wreck their vehicles.)

These 12 calendarcare plans should be free to offer simple, low-premium/high-deductible catastrophic coverage. This would suit millions of younger, fit people. The lion’s share of their premium payments would remain available to underwrite the claims of the smaller population with costlier, comprehensive policies that cover more conditions.

These calendarcare plans should be free to dump Obamacare’s rusty bells and twisted whistles. Down with absurd and idiotic mandatory benefits, such as requiring that every Obamacare plan include pediatric dental coverage—even for childless consumers.

Calendarcare plans also should be free to reject community rating—in which every participant in a jurisdiction pays the same premium, regardless of age or health. Calendarcare plans could make appropriate adjustments. Assuming each plan’s enormous population, such fine tuning should be modest.

Freeing Americans to open HSAs would empower them to husband money when they are spry, to help pay higher premiums, as they grow creaky. Lingering ObamaCare subsidies should be deposited directly into consumers’ HSAs.

Calendarcare plans also should be available across state lines. A Florida-based April Plan, for instance, would welcome Americans with that birth month—from southern California to northern Maine.

Price transparency also is vital. Doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies must post their prices. Once patients can compare costs of procedures, treatments, and drugs, competition will curb prices.

“Deroy Murdock’s proposal to legalize AHPs and expand HSAs mirrors many of my proposals,” said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “For an AHP to successfully bring down premiums, Congress needs to remove all obstacles, so that Costco, Sam’s Club, and Amazon-like collectives can sell insurance.”

Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, observes that Obamacare effectively banned AHPs by burying them beneath countless mandates.

“Relaxing those rules—and making it easier to form AHPs—would be a great way to boost access to affordable coverage,” Pipes said.

Trump 45 signed an executive order that eased access to AHPs. President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s order.

Calendarcare would give Republicans a simple and understandable health insurance option that Americans could embrace. Democrats can support this idea or, instead, tell voters why they rather would leave the uninsured unmedicated than help Republicans finally show Americans a universally accessible path toward better health.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Blocking Canada’s Silent Suicide From Creeping Into America

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Deroy Murdock / Virginia Allen / Elise McCue / December 20, 2025

Canada has embraced a culture of death.

America’s neighbor to the north legalized euthanasia in 2016, and since then, more than 75,000 Canadians have participated in Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program. Canada also has no restrictions on abortion and only considers a baby a human after it passes through the birth canal.

In 2021, Canada took its euthanasia laws a step further, allowing people not only facing a foreseeable death to end their lives, but anyone with a serious medical condition. And Canada is considering going even further in 2027 to allow those with mental illness to die by euthanasia.

Canada has become a “totalitarian wild west,” according to Liana Graham, who grew up in Canada and now works as a research assistant in domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation.

Areas that Canada should regulate, such as abortion and physician-assisted suicide, it does not; instead, it has created stringent regulations around freedom of speech and religion, according to Graham, who says America should heed a warning from Canada.

Eleven U.S. states and Washington, D.C., allow physician-assisted suicide, and Illinois might soon become the 12th. Canada has proven, Graham argues, that once a society begins to deny the value of all life, policy can quickly devolve into something that looks and sounds like it is straight out of a George Orwell novel.

On this week’s episode of “Problematic Women,” Graham joins the show to discuss the ways America can keep itself from becoming Canada 2.0 and protect the value of life that was intrinsic to America’s founding.

Also on today’s show, we wrap up the year by discussing President Donald Trump’s Wednesday night address to the nation.

Enjoy the show!

Guadalupe and the Largest Public Miracle

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Deroy Murdock / Virginia Allen / Elise McCue / Tom Griffin / December 20, 2025

When I was a senior in college, I went on a pilgrimage to the Mexican martyr sites that ended with a visit to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The entire trip was transformative for me.

The visit to the hills and the basilica where the miraculous tilma (a peasant-type shawl made of flimsy cactus fiber) is stored was definitely the pinnacle of the trip.

The Visitation

In December 1531, the Mother of Jesus appeared to a poor man named Juan Diego. As he was walking in the hills, a pregnant woman appeared to him asking him to take a message to the bishop directing him to build a church there in her honor.

She identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary and was named Guadalupe (meaning “the crusher of serpents”). Juan hesitantly made his way to the bishop’s residence to deliver her message. The bishop demanded evidence before he embarked on such an endeavor; he did not buy Juan’s story.

Simultaneously, Diego’s uncle became gravely ill. He desired to care for him and not be consumed by this mission which may never come to fruition. Diego even avoided the same hills when journeying to his uncle’s house to ensure the lady did not appear again to him.

However, Mary found him anyway. She appeared and told him not to fear; his uncle would have a full recovery. She instructed Juan to pick roses, which were growing on the hillside (a miraculous event itself since it was December in the mountains), and place them inside of his tilma. He was to keep the tilma wrapped up with his arms holding it up around his chest until he was in the presence of the bishop.

Juan made his way through the hillside and waited to see the bishop once again. Upon entering he instructed the bishop and his assistant that he had a sign from the woman. He released his hands from his chest and held the tilma from its top edges. The flower petals fell to the ground, and what remained on the shawl was the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Scientific Mystery

Hearing about the story made me wonder how this could have happened. However, what changed for me was actually seeing the tilma and learning about its miraculous qualities; qualities that have been verified by scientific analysis.

The image has been studied by unbiased scientists down through the ages and several characteristics are unexplainable.

First and foremost, the image has no pigment on the cactus fiber. Usually, when an artist paints on canvas or any surface, there are two fibers that can be detected under a microscope: the original surface and the fibers from the pigment used to make the image visible (paint, ink, etc.).

The tilma has no such fibers. There is no explanation for how the image was placed on its surface. The cactus fibers that the tilma is made of also should have deteriorated after only a few decades. However, it has endured just under 500 years.

According to astronomers, the stars that surround her veil also match the constellation that would have appeared in the sky in December of 1531. Under a microscope, one can also peer into the pupils of Mary’s eyes and see the miraculous image of the instant in which Juan unveiled the image. The bishop and his assistant are visible as if someone took a photograph of that moment in time.

In one study, an astrophysicist even found that the tilma emits a temperature (98.6 degrees) which is the same as the average female body temperature.

All the above-mentioned miraculous details are eye-opening and point to the fact that the appearance of the fabric of Our Lady of Guadalupe is arguably the largest public miracle in history.

Not only are there unexplainable facts about the tilma. There were true human consequences to her appearance. In the decade following her appearance in the 16th century, there were roughly 9 million conversions to Catholicism in Mexico.

This is the largest conversion rate among one nation in such a short period of time. The facts about the tilma are not just interesting, they are life-changing.

He Is Present

For me, it was viewing the tilma in person that put me over the edge. There is something about it not transmittable in words. Something majestic. Something supernatural.

It is proof that God is real and that He is present with His people—guiding them to be convinced of His love in public ways.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Dear Santa: Some Suggestions for Who Should Get Lumps of Coal

I’m not one to tell Santa his business, but I hope The Other Big Guy has left some room on his Naughty List for certain folks in the political world. I’m talking politicos seriously deserving of lumps of coal.

And not that “beautiful, clean coal” of ours that President Donald Trump keeps hyping. I’m talking the kind of dirty coal that created the Great Smog of London; heavy chunks that sag Christmas stockings like Nancy Pelosi’s face when someone calls her out about J6.

Rep. Bennie Thompson: The ‘Unfortunate Accident’

Putting the “miss” in Mississippi congressman, Rep. Bennie Thompson earned the season’s Ilhan Oman “Some People Did Something” Award for his comments last week about the brutal, vicious, premeditated, murderous attack on two young National Guardsmen on Thanksgiving Day.

While grilling Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, Thompson actually described the cold-blooded murder as an “unfortunate accident.” Noem was rightly apoplectic. “You think this was an unfortunate accident? It was a terrorist attack! They shot our Guardsmen in the head!”

For the record, puppies have unfortunate accidents. Not Islamist terrorists yelling “Allah akbar.”

To make matters worse, Thompson’s response was not to apologize, but to whine like a 5-year-old who can’t see Santa that Noem wasn’t answering his question.

? Rep. Bennie Thompson refers to the terrorist attack against two National Guardsmen in DC as an "unfortunate accident."

Sec. Noem: "Unfortunate accident? It was a terroist attack. They shot our Guardsmen in the head." pic.twitter.com/34YtPrVteF
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 11, 2025

Tim Walz: Blame Whitey

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a gift that keeps giving.

Yes, it’s easy to mock Mr. Jazz Hands, like when he boasted again last week about his intimidating masculinity while on a podcast with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. For the record, governor, you make Hermey the Elf look like Det. John McLain. And together, you and Newsom are like Thelma & Louise … except it’s your states that you’re driving over a cliff.

But I digress.

When Walz was asked if the Somalis who pulled off one of the biggest frauds in American history right under his nose will be held accountable, Walz channeled his inner Joy Reid and attacked white men.

“Look, it’s not law-abiding citizens. If that were the case, there’s a lot of white men should be holding a lot of white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed,” Walz said.

Then after a bit about communities and victims within the communities of the fraud—though not a word about the real victims of the fraud, the American taxpayers—he returned to his Caucasian excoriation.

“So, I think it’s asking us then, you know, for every crime, which of course, the majority being committed by white men, asking us to do more about that.”

Chuck Schumer: 15 Jews Slaughtered, But in Our Top Story, the Bills Won!

When you’re the senator from New York and your state’s other two NFL teams are the Giants and the Jets, one can understand a little misplaced enthusiasm for the Bills.

Still, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer deserves to be forced to watch Josh Allen commercials on a 24-hour loop for his comments this week.

In the wake of the horrific Hanukkah massacre on Bondi Beach in Australia, Schumer showed all the sensitivity of a quarterback sack.

“I’m going to say a few words about the terrible shooting in Sydney, Australia. First, of course, as I always say, no matter what: Go Bills! They beat the Patriots. It’s a big deal.”

? SCHUMER: “I’m going to say a few words about the terrible shooting in Sydney, Australia… first, of course, as I always say, no matter what: Go Bills! They beat the Patriots.” pic.twitter.com/pONwxTGouE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 15, 2025

Really? Millionaires running around jumping on each other for three hours until a whistle blows with one group victorious is a big deal when compared to the global problem of antisemitic terrorism?

Sorry, Chuck. I think you’re a few candles short of a menorah on this one.

Impeachments Fill the Capitol Like a Mug of Hot Cocoa

Democrats currently are pushing impeachments the way Kohl’s Mom is pushing clothing apparel.

Last week alone:

Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., filed two articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. One for “Murder and Conspiracy to Murder” in connection to the debunked charge of ordering a second strike on hapless, helpless, lovable, adorable, cuter-than-an-Elf-on-a-Shelf survivors of a strike on a narco-terrorist boat.

Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing “health care chaos.” She’d have a better case for impeaching RFK for wearing blue jeans while rock climbing … or for having lethal abs.

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., is pushing for impeachment hearings for Noem, according to Axios. Noem’s “high crime and misdemeanor”? She’s in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which, by definition, makes her more evil than keeping gingerbread cookies locked in a glass container.

And, of course, Democrats are again trying to impeach Trump. Rep. Al Green, R-Texas, has filed impeachment articles against the president yet again. Green runs to impeachment as often as TBS runs “A Christmas Story.”

The TDS seems worse by the hour. If I could get Democrats a Christmas gift, it’d be a ticket to Ireland and a joint counseling session with Rosie O’Donnell’s shrink.

And for you, my Christmas wish is simple: May each and every one of you find someone to love you half as much as Democrats love impeachments, narco-terrorists and human traffickers.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Victor Davis Hanson: I’m Not Racist for Saying Somalis Stole a Billion Dollars

In this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler take aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s trash talking America and how mass immigration without assimilation gives you what you’re seeing in Minnesota.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to VDH’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: I think all of us, we have to just tell the Left be quiet. We don’t care what you say. It’s just true. Somalis stole millions of dollars, probably a billion. I’m not a racist for saying that. You should talk about that community and Ilhan Omar and the message she gave to them. If you’re spokesman is saying, “Something happened on 9/11,” or “Somaliland only for Somalis,” you’re not going to get the leadership you need.

She never said to that community, to take an example, “We are in the most wonderful country in the world. We are so lucky to leave our war-torn, impoverished, torn apart state and be in this wonderful country. I want all of us to work, work, work, work. Some of you will have to be on public assistance, but we’ll confine that to as few as possible. And we want to contribute more and take less from this wonderful government.” That was never there.

It was either, “This is the worst country in the world,” I’m quoting literally. She said it looked “dirty,” and she said that we had a dictatorship worse than Somalia.

So that whole area, what I’m talking about is that classical paradigm of small farms, small communities, close knit, you can still find in America, believe me, in the Midwest that still exist. Hillsdale County is a good example. But it’s gone in California.

There are places in Northern California in the foothills that sort of replicate that, but it was a one-two punch when you let in millions of people, which is fine if you want to integrate and assimilate. But if you don’t, and you suggest that they’re victims on top of that …

The first debate I ever had at the Hoover Institution, I think I told you, was Milton Friedman and I on immigration, and he was an open borders guy, complete. The debate went downhill.

I said, “You’re gonna destroy wages.” He said, “Well, when it gets down to dollar an hour, they won’t come, will they?” And I said, “Yeah, but you’re not gonna be a person trying to get the job when it’s one dollar an hour.”

But then he did say something I’ll never forget. He said, “But you’re right. It’ll never work if you’re subsidizing people who come in from impoverished countries with generous entitlements because you’re not letting the market work.” That’s what he said.

And I think I had another debate with a friend of his. But if you have generous entitlements, and you let people en masse, and you don’t want to acculturate them or teach them in the values of your civilization you’re a Minnesota every year.

JACK FOWLER: And there may be certain cultures or ethnicities that are less inclined to assimilate into another culture.

HANSON: If your idea is that we’re coming to the United States for the prosperity, security, and freedom, but we want to keep entirely our own culture in an enclave.

FOWLER: Yeah, we talked about the oath of allegiance. Those are words that mean something, and it means I am you. I am an American, and I reject all of this.

HANSON: It’s very different. Where I’m speaking, the Japanese community came in large numbers in the ‘20s.

In 1965, there was a Buddhist temple and there was a Japanese baseball league and that lasted for three generations. It just disappeared because the immigration stopped. They had one of the highest rates of intermarriage. And they’re completely assimilated.

And they were never separatists though. Those were enhanced cultural enhancements, but they were the most loyal, wonderful Americans. There was nothing like a Dearborn, Michigan.

I don’t know how long Dearborn, Michigan will last. It has to be constantly refueled by immigration because we do have popular culture that can change it. If you want a Dearborn, Michigan, or you want London under Mayor [Sadiq] Kahn or whatever his name is, then the whole idea of a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, but single culture democracy doesn’t work.

And we’re getting close to that right now that it doesn’t work anymore. California’s a good example.

FOWLER: I consider what’s happening in England a preview. So, folks better prepare. They better well prepare to tolerate it or prepare to stop it.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

We Have Reached the Emily Litella Moment on Climate Change

It’s been a cold winter so far in the Midwest and much of the Northeast, early-in-the-season snow even in Washington, D.C., and temperatures falling to freezing and below in much of the South. Come to think of it, North America’s 2024-25 winter was pretty cold, too. It’s gotten to the point that “polar vortex” is a phrase on just about everyone’s lips.

Of course, you are surely aware—as those of us with doubts about inevitably disastrous global warming were often told—that there’s a difference between weather and climate. Weather is anecdote, climate is longstanding trend. And the longstanding trend in climate, we have been told this entire past quarter-century, is toward a hotter climate all over the world, with multiple catastrophic consequences.

Now, we seem to have reached an Emily Litella moment—the moment when, on the now half-century-old “Saturday Night Live” program, the befuddled character realized that she had misheard and misinterpreted some anodyne comment and had been propounding an absurd theory, and dismissed it with a hurried, “Never mind.”

Playing the Litella role this October was Bill Gates, who, as a mega-philanthropist, makes serious efforts to gauge whether the causes to which he has contributed have been worth the money. Although “climate change will have serious consequences,” he said, using the two-word phrase that replaced global warming as it was becoming apparent that Earth wasn’t uniformly warming in line with predictions, “it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

Numbered also among the converts—the use of religious metaphor is not accidental; more below—is Breakthrough Institute research director Ted Nordhaus. “I used to argue that if the world kept burning fossil fuels at current rates, catastrophe was virtually assured,” he wrote this fall in The Free Press. “I no longer believe this hyperbole.”

He pointed out that the demographic and physical factors on which he based his predictions two decades ago have not come to pass, and that despite measurable warming, some of which is attributable to human activity, people have adapted, and any damage has been well short of catastrophic. As British science writer Matt Ridley notes, claims such as Al Gore’s 2006 prediction of a 20-foot sea-level rise in 20 years have fallen short—by 19 feet and 9 inches.

Meanwhile, the undermining of hyperbolic scenarios has, as Wall Street Journal economics reporter Greg Ip wrote this week, led the likes of Canadian Prime Minister (and former British central banker) Mark Carney and BlackRock DEO Larry Fink to downplay the risks of climate change, as most American voters have done some time ago.

In all this, I see elements of religious conversion. Advocates of drastic action to address global warming climate change tend to be secular in religion but religious in their devotion to their cause. We have sinned, with our SUVs and corporate jets frying the Earth; we must atone by reducing our (or others’) standards of living; we must faithfully perform daily rituals, adjusting our thermostats and sorting our trash for recycling.

The science writer John Tierney reports that The New York Times received a record number of letters in response to his 1996 article that it was economically and environmentally wasteful. It was like telling traditional Catholics their rosaries were a waste of time.

For many Americans of a certain age, any change in the climate they remember from the summer when they were 16 is a change for the worse, just like any change from the playlist of songs they remember from that glorious summer. Satellite radio programmers and canned music providers in shopping malls provide the music from that golden moment, and politicians promising to halt climate change promise to provide the golden weather.

But my impression is that those musical offerings are, like the baby boomer generation, getting scarcer, and certainly the demand in the political marketplace for restoration of that golden summer’s weather climate seems to have grown weaker too.

This is operating within a larger cultural trend, an increasing skepticism of science and scientists. Earlier this month, as a Wall Street Journal editorial was among the few to emblazon, the journal Nature retracted a study that projected climate change could lead to a 62% economic decline by 2100. Among the factors that skewed the results threefold was the 1995-99 data from Uzbekistan. You can almost hear Litella saying, “Never mind.”

Such shoddiness seems amusing, at least until you consider the “replication crisis” in which scientists have been unable to replicate the results of dozens of peer-reviewed and journal-published experiments, some of them famous like the Stanford prison experiment.

And then there was the effort, successful during the COVID-19 crisis, by National Institutes of Health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, to suppress the now generally accepted theory that the virus spread because of a leak from the lab in Wuhan, China, whose gain-of-function research, deliberately strengthening viruses, was subsidized despite a ban by former President Barack Obama in 2014.

So, the public’s skepticism of science and scientists is not surprising, though it’s surely having some unfortunate effects. People can see that expert recommendations, pushed by teachers unions, to close schools despite children’s negligible COVID-19 risk have resulted in long-lasting learning loss. And they are seeing one prominent preacher after another of environmental doom from climate change suddenly saying, like Litella, “Never mind.”

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Young Americans: Pursue Meaning, Not Just Mobility

There’s a popular idea circulating, especially for young Americans, that the highest form of freedom means having no one need you. It usually comes packaged attractively: summers in Europe, spontaneous road trips, disappearing off-grid on weekends, money invested in “experiences.”

On its face, this framing sounds harmless—just another lifestyle choice.

But it reveals something deeper and far more troubling about the way modern culture has taught us to think about adulthood, fulfillment, and especially womanhood. There has been an undeniable shift in the way culture defines freedom—as an absence of responsibility rather than a deeper sense of purpose.

Travel is not new, nor is adventure. Leisure, beauty, and autonomy are all things women have wanted for as long as we have existed.

What is new is the insistence that responsibility is a threat to a good life rather than the very thing that gives it shape.

This cultural script doesn’t spare men, who are increasingly encouraged to delay commitment, avoid permanence, and treat responsibility as something to be taken on only once every other box is checked.

It is reinforced not only by economic pressure and social norms, but also by modern dating expectations, with financial security, status, and total readiness as prerequisites for being chosen, rather than qualities built in partnership.

However, it lands differently on women, who are more explicitly told motherhood and marriage are something to be escaped.

Motherhood, in particular, is now framed as the experience that ends your life rather than deepens it.

Children are treated as a cost center, a limitation, a trade-off that must be justified, while consumption, mobility, and self-optimization are treated as unquestioned goods.

The difference is not moral but material: Women feel the consequences of postponement more directly. They are more expressly pressured to believe that choosing family is a form of self-betrayal rather than self-authorship.

The most common rebuttal to critiques like this is predictable: If people without kids are truly happy, why do they need to announce it?

But that misses the point entirely.

This isn’t about convincing any single individual their life choices are valid. It’s about the story being told to young women who haven’t yet chosen anything at all.

Entire generations of women have been trained to believe they are “missing out” on life by choosing to create it. That becoming a mother ruins their lives.

These lies have consequences.

We tell women explicitly and implicitly that a life oriented around family, service, and sacrifice is a smaller life. That they will “find themselves” in consumption rather than creation. And perhaps most corrosively, that needing and being needed is a form of weakness.

This framing collapses under even minimal scrutiny.

You can see the world and still build one. You can invest and still create something that outlasts you. You can experience freedom and accept responsibility. These are not all opposing paths.

The real choice being offered isn’t between children and travel, it’s between a life oriented toward legacy and one optimized to avoid constraint.

We should be honest about which of those our culture now celebrates.

“Rich,” we are told, means liquid. Flexible. Untethered. But that definition only works if you believe life’s purpose is to remain perpetually available to experiences and upgrades. It assumes that the highest good is optionality.

Yet, the things we most admire in every other context are products of people who accept limits. Who tied themselves to others. Who gave up certain freedoms with the understanding that mastery in every craft and pursuit requires constraint, years spent saying no to other paths to build something coherent and meaningful.

No serious person would argue a society can sustain itself on consumption alone. Yet, we increasingly ask women to do exactly that at the personal level.

I became a mother recently, and nothing about it fits the caricature young women have been sold.

My life did not shrink. My sense of time did not flatten. The world didn’t get smaller; it got more serious and important.

No trip has ever rearranged my understanding of purpose the way becoming responsible for another human being has. This doesn’t mean that every woman must become a mother, or that childless people live empty lives. Those are lazy counterarguments, and they’re not what’s at stake here.

The problem is not individual choice. The problem is a culture that relentlessly frames creation as loss and detachment as elegant sophistication.

A society that teaches women to fear responsibility should not be surprised when it struggles to find meaning biologically, culturally, or morally.

At some point, we have to ask whether a life optimized only for freedom is actually free and whether avoiding sacrifice is the same thing as flourishing.

Deep down, most people instinctively know experiences don’t replace the slow, unglamorous work of building something that doesn’t end with you. One is designed to keep us moving, chasing endless novelty; the other is built to let us stay in contentment.

Europe will always be there—and I have heard they let children in! So will the open road.

Different priorities are fine. Different definitions of rich are inevitable. But we should be honest about what we are trading and who we are teaching to make that trade before they even know what they’re capable of building.

5 Ways Trump Put Pressure on ‘Rampant Fraud’ in Minnesota This Week

The Trump administration made a series of moves this week to crack down on the fraud that has allegedly occurred in Minnesota under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s watch.

“Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, the federal government is fully exposing and aggressively prosecuting the rampant fraud that was allowed to happen for years under failed Democrat leadership in the great state of Minnesota,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told The Daily Signal.

“The Trump administration will not rest until all the damaged caused by incompetent Tim Walz and his Democrat allies has been reversed,” Huston continued.

Five executive agencies took actions against Minnesota this week:

1. Department of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture sent a letter to Walz requiring Minnesota to conduct recertifications for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in four counties.

Secretary Brooke Rollins demanded Minnesota participate in a pilot program to root out fraud and abuse.

Rollins took this action after the Department of Justice found that members of the Somali community through the fake nonprofit Feeding Our Future allegedly defrauded taxpayers of at least $1 billion under Walz’s administration.

2. Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services sent eight letters to Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and the largest Head Start provider in Minneapolis, requiring citizenship or incoming eligibility data for recipients of benefits.

Head Start is a program helping children from low-income families to enter kindergarten.

3. Department of Labor

The Department of Labor launched an investigation into Minnesota’s Unemployment Insurance Program.

The Labor Department sent a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development saying that recent reports of fraud, waste, and abuse may compromise the integrity of its Unemployment Insurance Program, which provides temporary financial aid to workers who lose their jobs.

“I am appalled at what we are hearing about potential fraud coming from numerous benefits programs in Minnesota. If there has been any related abuse of our UI systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said. “Our mission to protect American workers remains unchanged, and I will not allow malicious actors to destroy the integrity of this trusted program.”

4. Department of Justice

The Justice Department sued Minneapolis Public Schools over allegations of diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring practices. This includes a collective bargaining agreement that promised to give preference to teachers of an “underrepresented population.”

The DOJ claims that since July 1, 2021, Minneapolis Public Schools has worked with a teachers union to provide “black teachers, teachers of color, and ‘underrepresented’ teachers preferential treatment in employment decisions.”

“Discrimination is unacceptable in all forms, especially when it comes to hiring decisions. Our public education system in Minnesota and across the country must be a bastion of merit and equal opportunity—not DEI,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

5. Department of Education

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to Walz highlighting fraud allegations within the state’s college education system.

“In Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans,” McMahon said. “They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest—without attending the college at all.

She even called on Walz to resign.

“Given your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,” she said in a Dec. 15 letter.

She accused Walz of doing “absolutely nothing” to prevent or stop fraud.

Rubio Addresses If He’ll End Program Brown University Shooter Used to Enter the United States

The Trump administration plans to fix the diversity visa program and then resume it, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Daily Signal Friday.

After the alleged shooter of students at Brown University and an MIT professor was found to have entered the country using a diversity visa, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paused the program. The Daily Signal asked Rubio if the State Department is considering permanent changes to the diversity visa program.

“The reason why you suspend this program, it’s not because you argue everybody who came in under that visa is about a person who’s going to shoot a place up,” Rubio said. “It’s because you want to determine whether there’s something in the vetting of that program that’s insufficient, is there a systemic problem, and how those decisions are made that needs to be addressed.”

After the Brown/MIT shooter was found to have entered the US through the diversity visa program, I asked @SecRubio if @StateDept is considering changing the program.

"I think it's wise to suspend a program until you understand whether there's a deficiency in the program."

"You… pic.twitter.com/9AVNwPMu2s
— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) December 19, 2025

Noem announced late Thursday that the Trump administration will pause the diversity visa lottery program after it was found to have been used eight years ago by the man accused of killing an MIT professor and two Brown University students, including College Republicans Vice President Ella Cook. The suspected shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the lottery in 2017 and was issued a green card.

NEW: Brown University sophomore Ella Cook, identified as one of the shooting victims, was "a devoted Christian and a committed conservative."

The announcement was made during a service at Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama.

"Some of you haven't heard a lot of… pic.twitter.com/iSHUKodhZy
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 15, 2025

The diversity visa lottery allows 50,000 people per year from countries with low rates of immigration to America to obtain visas.

Rubio said it’s “wise” to suspend the program until the administration has determined if there’s a deficiency.

“You just had a guy that came in through a certain route, you suspend the program to figure out whether something that came up in the interview process should have been a red flag but wasn’t identified,” Rubio said. “So you can fix that before you restart the program. So I would imagine that’s the process we’re going to go through as well.”

What Will Bring About America’s Golden Age? Heritage President Responds

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts told Turning Point USA’s America Fest on Friday about what will underpin America’s golden age.

America may be on the cusp of a golden age, but Americans still have to choose it for themselves. “As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, we ought to ask the question: What is America going to be like in the next 250 years?” Roberts asked the crowd of 10,000.

For Roberts, that question is in response to another question Roberts fields as he travels the country.

“The most common question that I’m asked as I travel the country,” Roberts told the audience, “is, ‘Kevin, are you still optimistic about the United States?’”

“I give them three answers,” Roberts said. First, “how could you not be optimistic given all of the great successes of the Trump-Vance administration?”

The Golden Age is a choice. America's future depends on our ability to choose well. Today at @TPUSA’s AmericaFest, I saw America's future in a room full of young patriots—and challenged them to join us.
@Heritage is fighting for policies to support the family, focus on the… pic.twitter.com/u7wPTfUs5i
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) December 19, 2025

“The second reason is,” Roberts continued, that “the future of America is actually here at America Fest.”

“The third reason is,” Roberts added, “don’t discount that God hasn’t given up on the American republic.”

“There are four big ideas that we’re working on,” Roberts said, previewing Heritage 2.0, a mission recently announced by the think tank that looks forward to America’s next 250 years.

Heritage 2.0 encompasses four main policy ideas:

The American Family
The Dignity of Work and the Future of Free Enterprise
National Security
The American Heritage and Citizenship

“We have to be focused on the future of the American family,” Roberts said, in “all of our policies.”

“We have to make sure that we are focused on the dignity of work and free enterprise,” Roberts continued, because “those of you who are in college or high school or just out of college know that the free market, as great a concept as it is, has been dominated by corporate welfare—by the big companies being in collusion with big government.”

To that, Roberts said, “We need you, and small businesses, to be the successes.”

For Roberts, national security is not just international, but “when we walk out of our own front doors in all of the cities where we live.”

Finally, Roberts said American heritage and citizenship seeks to answer the question, “what does it mean to be an American?”

Prior to Roberts’ speech, the conference watched an ad made by The Heritage Foundation honoring Charlie and Erika Kirk.

God Bless @MrsErikaKirk for showing America the strength, grace, and resolve that comes with salvation. Her testimony and work to continue her husband’s mission should inspire all of us.@Heritage is proud to honor Charlie and Erika with this video airing during tonight’s… pic.twitter.com/bmhf65By1s
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) December 13, 2025

The golden age “is a choice to prioritize families and empower local communities,” the ad says, accompanied by soaring music and a montage of American scenes. “A choice to find dignity in prosperous and honorable work. A choice to prioritize our nation’s safety, protecting our homeland and standing strong against foreign threats. A choice to cherish the greatest gift we’ve been given—waking up every day an American citizen.”

Epstein Files Release Highlights Clinton, Makes Scant Reference to Trump

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday that made scant reference to President Donald Trump but extensively featured Democratic former President Bill Clinton.

The release was intended to comply with a law overwhelmingly passed by Congress in November that mandated the disclosure of all Epstein files, despite the Republican president’s monthslong effort to keep them sealed. Trump for years had promoted conspiracy theories about Epstein, but the case has turned into a political liability for him since his return to the White House in January.

It was not immediately clear how substantive the new materials were, given that many Epstein-related documents have previously been made public since his 2019 death in jail, which was ruled a suicide. Reuters is in the process of reviewing them.

The material included evidence from several law enforcement investigations into Epstein, along with photos of Clinton, long scorned by Trump’s Republicans. But they appeared to include few, if any, photos of Trump or documents mentioning him, despite Trump and Epstein’s well-publicized friendship in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The absence of references to Trump was notable given that pictures and documents related to him have trickled out of previous Epstein releases for years. Trump’s name appeared in flight manifests listing passengers on Epstein’s private plane that were part of a first batch of Epstein material the Justice Department released in February.

Trump and several of his family members were also listed in an Epstein contact book, which was made public during the trial of Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the initial batch of documents would be followed by additional releases, leaving open the possibility that Trump could feature more prominently in later disclosures.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a woman are seen in this image from the estate of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 19, 2025. U.S. Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY REDACTED AREAS FROM SOURCE. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a woman are seen in this image from the estate of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025. (U.S. Justice Department/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY REDACTED AREAS FROM SOURCE. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Not All Documents Released

Trump ordered the Justice Department last month to investigate Clinton’s ties to Epstein, in what critics viewed as an effort to shift the focus away from his own relationship with Epstein.

In one image released on Friday, Clinton can be seen in a swimming pool with Maxwell and another person whose face is blocked out. Clinton, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has previously expressed regret for socializing with Epstein and has said he was not aware of any criminal activity.

The Justice Department added a note to the webpage where it posted links to the documents that said “all reasonable efforts have been made” to redact victims’ personal information, but warned that some could be disclosed inadvertently.

In a letter to Congress, Blanche estimated it would take an additional two weeks for the Justice Department to review other documents for potential release.

There are more than 1,200 names identified as victims or their relatives in the files, he added.

In a statement on Friday, the White House claimed the release demonstrated its transparency and commitment to justice for Epstein’s victims, criticizing previous Democratic administrations for not doing the same.

Bipartisan Vote Forced Release

But the statement ignored that the disclosures occurred only because Congress forced the administration’s hand, after Trump officials declared earlier this year that no more Epstein files would be made public.

Democrats immediately criticized the administration for failing to release all of the files.

“This set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who is the subject of a criminal mortgage-fraud investigation by the Justice Department that he says is motivated by politics, said: “They could have been completely ready for this moment, and they’re not, or they’re just simply withholding the materials.”

But many Trump voters accused his administration of covering up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscuring details surrounding his death in a Manhattan jail, where he was awaiting trial on charges of trafficking and abusing underage girls.

Just 44% of American adults who identify as Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein issue, compared to his 82% overall approval rating among the group, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The issue has damaged Trump’s political standing ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake.

Two days after those disclosures, Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s connections to Clinton and JPMorgan bank JPM.N. The following week, despite White House pressure to delay the vote, U.S. lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill forcing the release of the Justice Department records, which Trump then signed into law.

Trump Denied Knowledge of Epstein’s Alleged Sex Trafficking

Trump was once friendly with Epstein until they had a falling out in the mid-2000s, before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing and has denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking.

The law ordering the files’ release allowed the Justice Department to withhold personal information about Epstein’s victims as well as material that would jeopardize an active investigation.

Previous disclosures of Epstein records have revealed that even after his 2008 conviction he continued corresponding with high-profile figures, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Clinton’s former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Britain’s former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal title over revelations about his links to Epstein.

Spokespeople and lawyers for Bannon, Thiel and Mountbatten-Windsor have not responded to Reuters’ requests for comment about their interactions with Epstein.

Summers stepped back from positions at Harvard University, OpenAI and other institutions and said he was deeply ashamed of his actions after documents released by House Democrats in November showed that Summers corresponded with Epstein up through 2019, even seeking relationship advice from him.

JPMorgan paid some of Epstein’s victims $290 million in 2023 to settle claims that it had overlooked his sex trafficking. The bank kept Epstein on as a client for five years after he was convicted of soliciting a minor in 2008.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Julia Harte, , Brad Heath, Andy Sullivan, Jeff Mason and Ryan Patrick Jones, writing by Joseph Ax; editing by Ross Colvin, Scott Malone, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft)

This is a developing story.

Milwaukee Judge Guilty of Felony Obstruction During ICE Arrest

THE CENTER SQUARE—Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of a felony charge of obstruction by a jury Thursday in a case involving the judge’s actions related to a defendant in her court that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were attempting to arrest outside of the courtroom.

The jury returned the verdict at 8:38 p.m. Central Time.

The jury found Dugan not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of concealing related to defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was later arrested on the street outside the courthouse and has since been deported.

The obstruction charge could lead to up to five years in prison.

“While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in the matter,” her legal team said. “We have planned for this potential outcome and our defense of Judge Dugan is just beginning.”

Former Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan betrayed her oath and the people she served when she obstructed federal law enforcement during an immigration enforcement operation.

Today, a federal jury of her peers found her guilty and sent a clear message: the American people…
— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) December 19, 2025

Video from the courthouse depicts Dugan speaking with ICE officers in the hallway outside her courtroom and defendant Flores-Ruiz walking through a back hallway with a person identified in an affidavit as his attorney before heading to an elevator and then being chased down and arrested on the street outside of the courthouse.

?GUILTY. Now, lock her up.

Hannah Dugan obstructed federal agents attempting to arrest an illegal alien with a violent criminal history, including strangulation, suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. https://t.co/QhC8gPBgBS
— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) December 19, 2025

“Judge Dugan put her personal politics ahead of her sworn duty,” Wisconsin state Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, wrote on social media. “Judges are supposed to enforce the law and protect the public, not play political activist from the bench.”

The prosecution had plea negotiations with Dugan and her legal team but an agreement was not reached.

Originally published by The Center Square

Chanukah Is Relevant for Everyone—But Not in the Way You Might Think

Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Chanukah, which began last Sunday evening, has always been one of my favorites. Even when I was younger and far less observant, I appreciated the holiday’s well-known rituals and customs: lighting the menorah, spinning the dreidel, eating potato latkes, and so forth. My given Hebrew name—“Maccabee,” because Judah Maccabee was nicknamed “the hammer”—is also synonymous with the hero of the holiday’s story.

Because of the holiday’s timing and the general desire by corporate America and elected officials to include Jewish Americans in annual Christmastime festivity, Chanukah is the most commercialized and among the most frequently discussed of all the Jewish holidays. The commercialization of Chanukah is anodyne, if a bit of a distraction. More problematic is the time-tested tradition of American politicians distorting the holiday’s meaning—often, for self-serving reasons.

For as long as I can remember, liberal politicians have taken pains to invoke the imagery of the Chanukah menorah’s light in order to pontificate about abstract universalist principles such as justice and freedom and, as former President Barack Obama put it two years after leaving office, about an occasion to “recommit ourselves to building a brighter future for our families, our communities, and our world.” Sometimes they even get the most basic facts of the Chanukah story egregiously wrong, as the Jewish then-second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, did two years ago.

I have always found this recurring humiliating ritual to be worse than embarrassing. It’s offensive.

Chanukah, I’ve always thought, is the Jewish people’s quintessential particularist and nationalist holiday. It is a tale about the Maccabean revolt against the Greek-Syrian Seleucid Empire, which occupied Judea and attempted to Hellenize the Jews—to crush them physically and subdue them spiritually. Many are familiar with the miracle that followed the Maccabees’ victory: The scant oil found in the courtyard, upon repurifying and rededicating the Temple, lasted eight nights. But the more impressive miracle was the military victory over the Seleucids and the Hellenized Jews who joined them.

The core message of Chanukah, then, is one of traditionalism and cultural preservation in the face of menacing and assimilationist forces, both within and without. That’s the real meaning of the holiday—not exchanging gifts or waxing poetic about universalist platitudes.

Yet paradoxically, especially in light of tragic recent events, something occurred to me for the first time: This stridently particularist Jewish holiday does have broader—indeed, global—relevance. It’s just not the relevance liberal politicians have ascribed to Chanukah. Indeed, it’s the exact opposite.

The Maccabees were able to prevail and thereby preserve Judaism, against the odds, because they had purpose and conviction. They believed that Judaism stood for something important: They believed that ethical monotheism was important, the Hebrew Scriptures were true, and the Land of Israel belonged to the Children of Israel. In short, the Maccabees had national and civilizational pride, and it was because of that pride that they fought so valiantly and refused to bend the knee to Hellenistic assimilation. They rejected the universalist cri de coeur that all cultures and peoples are equal—and perhaps interchangeable.

In recent decades, and even more acutely in recent years, Western civilization has had to learn that lesson anew. Human beings, while all made in God’s image and thus all deserving of dignity and moral worth, are immensely complicated. We are not reducible to widgets on an economics chalkboard. Our inherited cultural traditions and learned customs and mannerisms are often very different from one another. We don’t all value the same things, pursue the same goals, hold the same social standards, or believe in the same political institutions.

We are, in short, different.

The Maccabees understood that there was something special about the truths, values, and principles that Judaism introduced to the world. They were not willing to sacrifice those truths, values, and principles to the siren song of Hellenistic universalism. Western nations today must learn that same lesson anew. The modern Maccabee martyrs senselessly slain last Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach are yet the latest victims of Hellenism gone awry, as one culture tries to replace and erase another.

It doesn’t have to be this way. A culture can be proud without being chauvinistic. And a people can be self-confident without being imperious. If there are going to be fewer Bondi Beach-style massacres, moving forward, Western cultures and nations are going to have to rediscover and reprioritize what made them great in the first place. They’re going to have to remember that human beings, and the specific societies they constitute, are unique. They cannot, and should not, be swapped or frivolously bartered like goods in a marketplace. We have our traditions, values, and ways of life that are worth cherishing and preserving from one generation to the next.

It might not be politically correct, but that is how we can apply the true lesson of Chanukah.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Brown University and MIT Shooter Entered US on Diversity Visa

The suspect in the Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor shootings entered the U.S. through an immigrant visa program, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Now, the secretary is pausing the program.

“The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card,” Noem wrote on X late Thursday night.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she added.

President Donald Trump sought to end the diversity visa program in 2017 following a terrorist attack in New York City that left eight people dead. The terrorist, who used his vehicle to plow down civilians, entered the U.S. in 2010 through the diversity visa program.

“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said.

The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.

In 2017, President Trump…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 19, 2025

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program provides up to 50,000 immigrant visas every year. The visa winners are drawn at random “among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to USCIS.

After Trump called for an end to the visa program, Republican members of Congress made efforts to end it, but were “stopped by [Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,] and Democrats,” according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

In 2020, Trump suspended the processing of the diversity visas, but “then, of course, President [Joe] Biden turned it back on,” McLaughlin said.

Authorities found the Brown shooter suspect dead in a storage unit in Salem, New Hampshire on Thursday. Officials say Valente, 48 and a Portuguese national, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, suspect in the Brown University shooting in Providence. (U.S. Attorney Massachusetts/Handout via REUTERS)

On Dec. 13, a shooter opened fire in a lecture hall at Brown University, killing 19-year-old Ella Cook and 18-year-old Muhammad Aziz Umurzakov and injuring nine others. Two days later, MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was found dead in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Valente is the suspect in both shootings, according to authorities.

“Neves Valente was enrolled at Brown as a graduate student from fall 2000 to spring 2001, but he has no active affiliation with Brown and has not been affiliated with Brown since 2003,” according to the university.

Valente attended Brown for three semesters but never received a degree from the university, according to Brown.

The MIT professor and Valente were both Portugal natives and, according to U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley, both men attended the same academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000.

The investigation into Valente’s motives in both deadly shootings is ongoing.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Overturns Biden-Era ‘Rocks in Shoes’ Regulation

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a new rule removing the Biden-era requirement that government-funded preschool programs have a policy to mitigate COVID-19.

The direct final rule proposed by the Administration for Children and Families on Friday removes the requirement that Head Start programs have a COVID-19 mitigation policy. Head Start is a program helping children from low-income families to enter kindergarten.

“One of my goals as Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is to have a regulatory bonfire that torches all the unnecessary regulatory burden and outdated sub-regulatory guidance currently imposed on states and families,” Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“While our broader effort is underway to remove significant portions of what is stuck on our books, this Head Start COVID mitigation rule is emblematic of the rocks-in-shoes regulations the Biden administration foisted on children and families across our nation,” he continued.

The rule is in compliance with Trump’s executive orders “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” and “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” according to the Administration for Children and Families.

The Biden administration published the final rule titled “Mitigating the Spread of COVID-19 in Head Start Programs” on Jan. 6, 2023.

The Trump administration’s rescission removes the requirement from the Head Start Program Performance Standards that Head Start programs have a COVID-19 mitigation policy developed in consultation with their Health and Mental Health Services Advisory Committee, formerly the Health Services Advisory Committee.

“It is long overdue to get rid of pandemic-era regulations that do not serve the American people,” Adams said.

Why Conservatives Should Oppose the Netflix-Warner Bros. Merger

Conservatives don’t reflexively oppose corporate mergers. We believe in free markets, in the power of competition, and in the freedom of businesses to grow when they win on merit.

But we also believe in limits, especially when a single company seeks to consolidate cultural and economic power in ways that threaten the marketplace itself. This is exactly what the proposed Netflix–Warner Bros. merger does.

Let’s first dispense with K Street’s talking points. This deal isn’t about “unlocking synergies,” “driving innovation,” or “competing globally.”

It’s about one company—Netflix—attempting to cement itself as the dominant, unchallengeable gatekeeper of American entertainment and becoming more of a monopoly.

If conservatives learned anything from the last 20 years of tech consolidation, it’s that letting one firm control the channels of communication, culture, and distribution is a recipe for ideological capture, higher prices, and less consumer choice.

Netflix’s growth strategy has always been simple: to get big fast, build a global moat and use scale to squeeze out smaller rivals. It was a winning formula when streaming was young and alternatives were limited, but the market has matured.

Consumers have more choices than ever: Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, and local broadcasters offering digital services. That’s competition doing what it’s supposed to do.

A merger with Warner Bros.—one of the last remaining studios with a true global footprint—would shatter such progress.

Instead of competing on quality and innovation, Netflix could simply absorb the studio owning some of America’s most valuable franchises and content libraries. This is not “efficiency.” It’s cornering the market.

With over 300 million subscribers and a dominant position as the global leader in streaming, Netflix already maintained outsized control of the entertainment market even before attempting to buy Warner Bros.

The truth is Netflix has long been a monopoly. Allowing it to take control of Warner Bros. would hand it overwhelming dominance of the video streaming space.

Conservatives don’t defend companies that game the market instead of competing in it.

Warner Bros. isn’t just another studio. It owns the DC Universe, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, Turner Classic Movies, HBO’s prestige catalog, and generations of American cultural heritage.

Whoever controls that library controls a significant part of the cultural narrative.

Conservatives have long sounded the alarm on Silicon Valley’s influence over speech, censorship, and the shaping of public discourse, and rightfully so.

Yet, somehow, we’re told not to worry when the largest global streaming platform wants to absorb a century-old American studio. Let’s not forget Netflix is run out of California, governed by opaque algorithms and accountable to no cultural norms beyond what sells internationally.

If conservatives are concerned about Hollywood’s ideological tilt today, imagine what happens when one company becomes the distributor, creator and curator of the majority of Americans’ entertainment.

By merging with Warner’s portfolio, Netflix would inherit leverage across sectors to which it has never been accountable.

This isn’t creative destruction. It’s regulatory arbitrage. And conservatives should call it what it is.

It’s possible the merger was never intended to go through.

Even if Netflix succeeds only in paralyzing Warner Bros. and preventing competitors from acquiring it for the next year or two while the regulatory process plays out, doing so alone is worth billions to Netflix as it extends its monopolistic lead in streaming. Lawmakers should not allow that behavior to go unpunished.

Too often, corporate lobbyists try to convince conservatives that opposing a merger is tantamount to opposing capitalism. That’s nonsense.

Capitalism depends on competition—not consolidation. As Adam Smith—the father of modern economics—recognized, free markets fail when the “wretched spirit” of a monopolists becomes so large that others cannot meaningfully compete.

Hence why this merger is so problematic.

Netflix, armed with an acquisition of Warner Bros., would be able to raise prices with impunity, reduce consumer choice and dictate the terms of distribution not only in Hollywood but across global markets. Once Netflix becomes the dominant platform worldwide, there’s no reason to think it will behave differently from other tech monopolies we’ve spent years trying to rein in.

Allowing one company to consolidate this much influence over American storytelling is not just bad economics—it’s bad for the republic.

The Netflix–Warner Bros. merger is unnecessary for business, harmful to consumers, and dangerous for cultural pluralism. Conservatives should oppose it not because we distrust markets, but because we understand what makes them work.

Yes, Virginia. You Elected Santa Claus.

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Deroy Murdock / Virginia Allen / Elise McCue / Tom Griffin / Al Perrotta / Victor Davis Hanson / Michael Barone / Danielle Franz / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Joseph Ax / Andy Sullivan / Jon Styf / Josh Hammer / Virginia Allen / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Joel Thayer / Joe Thomas / December 19, 2025

The late Rush Limbaugh posited in 2012 that it would be very difficult to win an election over Santa Claus. Meaning that someone who is just seen as bringing gifts will always be popular, and—with apologies to New York newspaper editor Francis Church—yes, Virginia. You just elected Santa Claus.

Both Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi have spoken since the election of their plans to lower the costs of things like electricity and housing on Virginians. However, as is often the case, details are sketchy.

For example, she told WUSA in Washington, D.C., “I think people will see a common theme on getting things done and improving on people’s lives,” which is hard to find in the Virginia Constitution.

“Lowering the cost” is most frequently code for subsidizing. This is a bipartisan truism. Republicans will often acquiesce to subsidy rather than try to make the case for free-market solutions. If you are explaining, you are losing, they say.

Subsidies increase the cost of goods or services because the provider no longer is under pressure to consider the ability of the end-user to pay what it would reasonably cost. This frequently causes the provider to choose more expensive ways of creating the product often to prove to the subsidizer that they are worthy of continued receipt.

The losers in this are the consumers that did not qualify for the subsidy, often only by a small margin leaving them well short of being able to afford the “full freight” cost.

The incoming administration will have two primary choices in how to accomplish this subsidization, supply-side or consumer-side. The latter is simpler but less common because the subsidy comes from the government, and if the consumer fails to keep their qualification, it will be on the government to tell them they are out of luck.

Think of SNAP benefits as a recent example. You can imagine that a new governor wouldn’t want to take that hit.

Supply side is more convoluted but because it insulates the elected official from being directly blamed for the loss of benefits it is more frequently how it works.

Think of most Section 8 housing or how most of the current electric cost subsidies work. The provider trades the position of having to play the “bad guy” for a predictable stream of semi-paid bills. The phrase “some money is better than no money” applies here.

In either event, this will require tax-paying Virginians to carry more of this burden through higher taxes, fees and, of course, in the prices of the things that the governor will try and “lower the cost of.”

The secondary effect of this campaign often manifests in job losses and that will further strain Virginia’s economy, which has been on the recovery trail for the past four years.

Spanberger will likely try to stave this off with workforce subsidy, and now you are starting to sense how this becomes a self-fulfilling process. Support people in need with tax dollars, create economic damage with those taxes, then create more people that need assistance.

The incoming governor has said that she favors streamlining the regulations in the home-building process to create more inventory, but localities have balked at that in past administrations.

Here comes Santa Claus. At least we don’t need to leave her milk and cookies.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

House Passes Bill Ending Trans Surgeries for Children. What’s the Next Step?

The House of Representatives passed a bill to make it a felony to facilitate transgender procedures on minors Wednesday, but does it have any shot of becoming law?

The bill, titled the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, passed by a 216-to-211 margin.

Three Democrats, Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, and Henry Cuellar of Texas, joined 213 Republicans in support of the legislation introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

But 4 Republicans joined 207 Democrats in opposition: Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Kennedy of Utah, and Gabe Evans of Colorado.

What could the opposition of a small number of House GOP moderates bode for the bill that now heads to the Senate?

A First for This Congress

Greene’s bill would make performing transgender surgeries or procedures on minors a felony.

The House vote on Wednesday was the first time this Congress Republicans had brought a ban on transgender procedures and surgeries for minors to the floor despite the fact that President Donald Trump had issued an executive order on the matter in January.

Offenders would face a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison, with fines on the table, as well.

The bill expands the definition of chemical castration and genital or bodily mutilation in the federal code to a variety of transgender chemical and surgical procedures.

It also provides exemptions for treatment of rare conditions and medical emergencies. There are no exemptions for mental health-related issues.

What Could Happen in the Senate?

The bill would need to reach the 60-vote threshold for ending debate in order to come to a final vote in the Senate.

Unfortunately for Republicans, there’s no guarantee Democrats will get on board.

In January, zero Democrats voted to end debate on a bill introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to deny federal funding to schools that allow transgender-identifying male athletes to compete against females.

Greene’s bill likely falls under the jurisdiction of the Senate judiciary committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether they were interested in advancing the bill.

But while Democrats are likely to prevent the law from passing, a vote on Greene’s legislation on the Senate could be worthwhile for Republicans heading into a midterm election.

Vulnerable Senate Democrats are looking to appear as moderates heading into the 2026 midterm elections, but recorded votes on refusing to ban transgender surgeries for minors are one of the ways Republicans could look to dispel that narrative.

Other Ways to Ban Trans for Minors?

It comes to the Senate amid a continued debate over health care premium affordability, which has intersected with the transgender issue.

Last week, 51 Republicans voted to advance a bill from Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho to provide an alternative to the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, which included provisions to prevent taxpayer funds from going to transgender procedures. It was nine votes shy of the threshold needed to come to a vote.

Cassidy is the chair of the Senate health, education, labor, and pensions (HELP) committee, which handles most matters related to health care, and told The Daily Signal he wishes to prevent transgender treatments for minors.

“President Trump and I are committed to protecting children from chemical and surgical castration,” the Senator, who is also a practicing physician, told The Daily Signal. “I look forward to reviewing the bill, and will continue working with President Trump and Republican colleagues to protect children from irreversible harm.”

Trump Administration Moves to Ban Federal Funds for Trans-ing Kids

Cassidy was in attendance at a Thursday Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) event, in which secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new policy preventing federal taxpayer funds from going to the procedures.

Just left HHS, where it was announced federal tax dollars will NOT pay for sex-change surgeries for children. I've pushed for this in the Senate. It’s wrong, and it’s stopping now. Thank you, @POTUS & @SecKennedy!! pic.twitter.com/vxPLeMUG81
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) December 18, 2025

“It’s wrong. It’s stopping now,” Cassidy said in a video posted to X. “I’ve been pushing this as the chairman of the [HELP committee]. I’m glad to see the administration agrees with me.”

The Dumbest Assumption in All of Politics

One of the most persistent mistakes in modern politics is the insistence on flattening all ideologies—pretending that all human beings think the same way, want the same things, and are motivated by the same forces. Every time policymakers fall into this trap, the result is not compassion or clarity but some of the worst public policy imaginable.

The assumption usually begins with a comforting but false premise: that all people harbor the same yearning for freedom in precisely the same way. That belief animated much of the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy, when the president famously declared that America’s mission was to end tyranny on planet Earth. Noble as the sentiment sounded, it was never sustainable. It presumed that every society shares America’s priorities, values, and political instincts. History has shown otherwise.

The same flattening impulse appears whenever violence is discussed. Instead of examining the specific causes behind specific acts—who committed them, why they were committed, and which ideas justified them—many commentators abstract everything into a vague moral generality. Violence is bad, they say. All people should know that violence is bad. And with that, the inquiry ends.

But ending the inquiry there ensures that real solutions never begin.

If policymakers and cultural leaders refuse to acknowledge that some ideas are worse than others, that some ideological frameworks are more prone to producing violence, they miss the central motivating factor in human behavior. The result is a blunderbuss approach to policy—one that treats unlike things as if they were identical, striking indiscriminately and often unjustly.

A recent example came from “The View.” Commenting on a mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, that targeted Jews and was carried out by Islamists, co-host Sunny Hostin lamented what she described as a global spread of “sickness and hatred.” She grouped that attack together with an unrelated shooting at Brown University, asking why such violence seems to be happening everywhere.

At the level of moral outrage, that reaction is understandable. At the level of analysis, it is childlike.

Different ideological groups commit different types of crimes. Some promote peace. Some commit virtually no crimes at all. Others explicitly endorse terror and mass violence. Radical Islamism falls squarely into that last category. To reduce an ideologically driven antisemitic attack to just another instance of generic “violence,” or to focus exclusively on the instrument used, is to erase the very facts that might help prevent the next attack.

The motive matters. The ideology matters.

In Sydney, the ideological motive was clear. That clarity points directly toward possible policy responses: limiting the importation of radicalized individuals, monitoring extremist mosques, strengthening security, and refusing to grant legitimacy to radical Islamist arguments. These measures target a specific problem rooted in a specific belief system.

None of that is possible if every incident is flattened into the same category and labeled simply “gun violence.” Abstraction becomes an excuse for inaction.

This divide—between those who see ideas as central drivers of human behavior and those who do not—often marks the core disagreement between the traditional Right and the Left. Classical conservative thought holds that human beings are shaped by the ideas they embrace and that human nature itself is deeply flawed. People are capable of greatness but also of cruelty and sin.

That understanding is woven into the American founding. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison famously observed that if men were angels, no government would be necessary. The entire constitutional system rests on the opposite assumption: that human beings are imperfect and must be governed accordingly.

Once that reality is accepted, policy can be shaped around it. Specific ideologies can be confronted. Dangerous ideas can be named and opposed. Refusing to do so does not make society more humane—it only guarantees bad, and often very stupid, public policy.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Why Johnny Can’t Read

Reading and math scores are abysmal across the country, as national testing results keep documenting. Illiteracy rates are rising: The number of 16- to 24-year-olds reading at the lowest literacy levels increased from 16% in 2017 to 25% in 2023, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

In some inner-city schools, less than half of kids are reading or doing math at grade-level proficiency. Many high school grads can’t read their diplomas.

As an economist, I would submit that this is our greatest crisis. It puts the future of American prosperity in grave danger. Also, the learning gap widens income and wealth disparities.

The apparent solution among the education establishment is not to challenge kids to stretch their minds and hit the books but rather to dumb down the curriculum so everyone passes. I call this the “make everyone below average” solution.

Some schools are now no longer requiring kids in English class to read cover to cover the classic books that students have been reading for decades. Perhaps the students don’t have the attention spans. Perhaps their reading skills aren’t up to par. Perhaps they are too busy texting or playing video games on their cellphones.

A case in point is what has happened at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. This is one of the best public schools in the city, with reading proficiency rates at 80%, or double the D.C. District’s abysmal 38% average.

Alice Deal has decided to remove all full-length novels from its eighth-grade English curriculum. The educrats behind this strategy claim that moving from full-length books to section readings will better prepare students for high school.

Huh? How is it better for reading proficiency and knowledge-gathering for a student to read sections of “Huckleberry Finn” or “To Kill a Mockingbird” but not the whole book? Would anyone watch only a few scenes of the movie?

It’s almost as if the school is instructing the 13-year-olds to read the CliffsNotes version of “The Scarlet Letter” or “A Man for All Seasons.” That used to be considered a form of cheating. But now it’s the schools that are cheating the kids.

If it is true that reading a full-length novel is now too heavy a lift for a sixth, seventh, or eighth grader, Houston, we have a problem. If the kids in the top public schools can’t be expected to read a full-length book, it’s scary to think about the reading levels at the bad schools.

We solved the problem of illiteracy nearly 100 years ago. Now the problem is back.

This is yet another sad example of subjecting our children to the tyranny of low expectations. It is sadly symbolic of all that is wrong with government-run schools.

Ironically, it is coming at a time when poor states like Louisiana and Mississippi have returned to the basics—like good old-fashioned phonics—and have seen miraculous jumps in their reading scores. They are now beating out higher-income blue states.

Raise the bar, don’t lower it. We can do this. We all remember with fondness reading our favorite books—like “The Outsiders.” The joy of reading comes from reading a great book and learning its life message.

Kids are now being robbed of that joy.

Washington, D.C., will reap the illiteracy it sows, and my only hope is that other schools don’t participate in this dumbing down of America’s children.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Victor Davis Hanson: ‘The West Is Slouching Toward Open Season on Jews. It’s Just Sick.’

In this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson and Sami Winc dissect Australia’s reaction to the Hanukkah massacre and how the West flicks aside antisemitic violence.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to VDH’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

Victor Davis Hanson: So, we have this mass murder in Australia, and then you ask yourself, is he an ISIS plant? Did he try to coordinate it online with other violence that day? But that all said, when you put the Australia thing and the Brown [University] thing and the [Rob] Reiner killing all in a 48-hour period, it kind of shocks Americans.

Like, they’ve lost control. We’ve lost control of the American narrative. It’s kind of tragic.

When people in Australia, to take an example, when they comment on Bondi Beach, which we’ll get to in a minute, they usually say two things: “We’re going to have gun control.” They have gun control there. It’s much stricter than California. But ask themselves, why did they allow somebody they knew had ISIS ties to have six guns? Yet, they’ll double down on that.

And then the second thing they’ll always do is they’ll say, “Well, we’re going to look at extremist groups, like white nationalists and maybe, I don’t know, white supremacists.” Or, “We’re going to investigate Islamophobia.” That was the wrong thing to say.

[Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] should have said, “We have open borders, and we can’t vet people, so we’re going to take a time out until we get our house in order, so we don’t let people in who have a desire to kill us.” I’m so tired of these Western bureaucrats who say, “This is not who we are. We don’t tolerate this.” Well, what are you going to do about that?

And then always gun control or, “Well, we’re going to have a special task force for antisemitism and Islamophobia.” But they never tell us the data, as I said earlier. They know the data. The data does not support the idea that Islamic citizens, residents are the objects of hate crime.

If you look at the hate crime [statistics]—and it’s very hard to find because people in these blue cities don’t want to report it to the FBI—it’s mostly Jews who are 3% of the population. No, there are only six million, so maybe 2% of the population, they account for about 40 % of violent hate crimes. And they’re almost never the perpetrator. And Muslims are overrepresented, both as victims, but more importantly, as perpetrators.

Sami Winc: The other criticism in Australia was of the police department, which was only one block away. But you heard talk about how they hadn’t done enough to stop these guys. And we saw the one guy who was not police that tackled the father of the son-father duo in Australia. But the police chief came out and said, that’s not true. We shot one of the one of the perpetrators.

Killed him, I believe, and they also arrested the other one.

Hanson: Yeah, he shot him after what? After he killed 15 people? Tell that to the 15 people. The police were on the scene pretty quickly. I mean, I’m not trying to be melodramatic, but I think the Western public is so tired of all these contortions, gymnastics, linguistic tomfoolery. They always praise everybody. It’s like T-ball.

But why don’t they just say, “We’re going to make sure that this never happens again, and we’re going to want to warn everybody out there. If you point a gun at somebody in a crowd, and we hear a shot, you’re going to go down.”

But they never talk like that. That’s only in the movies that show that the American people and Western publics want that, so Hollywood will supply it. But in the real world they don’t get it. I’m not talking about vigilantism.

It’s just like Parkland. Why didn’t the police just rush in there and say, “That’s my job. I signed up for this.” But you saw them cowering while these kids were butchered like animals.

And when I watch that picture of Bondi Beach and you juxtapose it to Oct. 7, and then you think of the Holocaust Museum butchery, and then you look at things that happened in Israel where a couple of people were killed, and then you look at what’s happening in Europe. I would say the West is slouching toward open season on Jews. I really do. I think they’re going to be hunted like animals.

It’s just sick and nobody speaks out against it. There are three things going on: Open borders and immigration from the Middle East, the corruption of the university that has these Middle East hate Israel programs, and a quarter million people from the Middle East who think it’s their country and can say, “From the river to the sea and Hamas,” right? And then DEI that protects them.

When I mean slouching toward open season on Jews, then you have Tucker [Carlson] and Candace Owens, almost every major event now in the news. Maduro, we move on him—the Jews. Taking out the Iranian nuclear bomb—the Jews. Charlie Kirk’s death—Jews. 9-11—Jews.

Why do they do that? And then they say, well, you can be anti-[Israel] and … [Vice President] JD Vance, I like him a lot, he tweeted, you can be against Israel and not be an antisemite. Yes, you can. But why do people who condemn Israel always go down the antisemitic road? And you know what I’m saying?

Winc: Yes, because haven’t we pointed this out in our podcast that if they are anti-Israel, then all the things they apply to Israel they should apply in other places like Turkey and Ukraine.

Hanson: They never do. Israel shouldn’t take out these targets. Look at Ukraine. That’s pretty dangerous to sink a submarine of a nuclear-powered Russia. We always say no ceasefires. Netanyahu and Israelis—ceasefires.

Coalition government, Israel. No coalition government, [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky. Collateral damage, Israel. We don’t care about what you kill, kill the Russians all you want. And “occupation, occupation, occupation.” Yeah, that’s right. Azerbaijan just ethnically cleansed 150,000 Armenians I didn’t hear a peep.

Turkey went into Cyprus and slaughtered innocents in 1974, and they occupy illegally the northern part of the country. They took paradise and turned it into a backwater state. And then they forced the poor Greeks to go to the southern part of the island, the traditionally less affluent, and they turned it into paradise. Nobody talks about that.

And so, the other thing is, when people say, “From the River to the Sea,” and I heard that ad nauseam at Stanford.

I was walking to my office: “River of the sea, Palestine shall be free.” And I told you once, I asked this young woman, “Which sea? Which river?” Everybody asked that. She had no idea. And I was just kind of joking. It was a Red Sea? Close. Was it the North Sea? Not close. Maybe the Mediterranean? What river? The Euphrates? The Tigris? The Nile? Or the Jordan? Which is it?

And then I asked, this is what I remember the most. I was walking by and a very affluent student from the Middle East, and I say that because of my Victor gold antenna went up with the jewelry and stuff. Student, student. And she was out screaming.

And I said to her, “What do you do with a two million? River to the sea means you want to get rid of Israel, erase it. Because if you take them, you’re going to take the Jews and kill them?” “Oh, no. They can go back.”

Remember Helen Thomas, the journalist that was the very left-wing journalist at all the press conferences, they gave her the top seat. She goes, well, those Jews, they should just get out of Israel and go back to Poland or wherever they came. Helen, Helen, 3,500 years in counting Jews have been in that place. The Arab world did not get there until the seventh century. And that was about 4,000 years after Jews were there. If that’s the game you want to play.

What was fascinating is when you ask that, I always would ask, “What do you do with the 2 million Arabs? River to the sea, so you’re going to go in and you’re going to destroy Israel and kill 9 million Jews, but you let 2 million Arabs live who right now vote and are the only Arabs in the Middle East that have constitutional freedom and security and economic outside of the Gulf, prosperity. But Saudi Arabia, can you vote with a free and unfettered election? No.

Gaza? No. West Bank? No. Egypt? No. Tunisia? No. Morocco? No. Algeria? No. Syria? No. Iraq? Not really. Lebanon? If you want to risk your life. I mean free and unfettered. Can you say anything you want if you’re an Arab citizen in Israel? Pretty much. Can you say it anywhere else in the Arab homeland? Nope. Nope.

If Israel said tomorrow, “We will let Arabs live here in Israel,” they would have a flood of people.

Winc: Of course they would.

Hanson: Israel ethnically cleansed their own Jews from Gaza. They were settlements, we’re going to get out. So, there are no Jews in Gaza.

There’s no more expansion. They’re really working on not allowing the expansion. But my point is this: If you’re an Arab citizen in Israel and you own property, the Israelis say, OK. They may not want more. But if you say, “Hmm, I like this view in the West Bank, I’m going to buy property and I’m a Jew.” You can’t live there. You have to be in this particular settlement and armed.

All these things just go out the window when you talk to these students and professors, given the hate.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Erika Kirk Endorses ‘My Husband’s Friend’ JD Vance for President

PHOENIX—At Turning Point USA’s 2025 America Fest Thursday, Erika Kirk pledged the organization’s support behind one possible 2028 presidential candidate.

“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible!” said Kirk, whose husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated in September.

Turning Point Action, the organization’s grassroots political advocacy arm, is “locked in and mission focused” for the midterms and 2028 election. Kirk further shared that they are focused on “building the red wall” in Arizona, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

In a October interview, Vance said talk of a presidential run was “premature.”

“So my attitude is, the American people elected me to be vice president. I’m gonna work as hard as I can to make the president successful over the next three years and three months,” he told the New York Post.

In September, Vance and his wife, Usha, joined Erika Kirk to escort Charlie Kirk’s body on Air Force Two from Utah to Arizona.

Kirk also spoke on the future of TPUSA. “A year ago, my husband stood on this stage,” Kirk began, “and said ‘Lord send me,’ and boy he did.”

After her husband’s death, Erika Kirk was appointed as CEO of Turning Point USA in an unanimous decision by the organization’s board.

She shared that they are taking a “Make Heaven Crowded Tour” across the nation. In honor of Charlie Kirk’s love of debate, the “Prove Me Wrong” tour will relaunch this spring.

While dark corners of the internet celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder, Erika Kirk also quickly became the center of conspiracy theories, threats and intense media scrutiny. She addressed that and more with a forgiving heart.

“Joy Reid probably needs a really, really good hug. And honestly, I’m here for it if she needs it. I’ve got a good hug for you … and I’ll even touch the back of your head,'” Kirk said, making light of the internet scrutiny she received following an interaction with the vice president.

Joy Reid, a former MSNBC host, reportedly made a snide remark about Vance swapping his wife Usha to marry Erika Kirk. “Wouldn’t it be the most perfect MAGA fairytale if he [Vance] finally sees the light that he needs a white queen, instead of this brown Hindu?” Reid told podcast host Jennifer Welch in November, according to Mediaite.

Joy Reid pushes the deranged conspiracy theory that JD Vance is going to leave his wife for Erika Kirk:

“Rubbin on his head? Babyyyy… you in leatha pants?… Wouldn’t it be the most perfect MAGA fairy-tail if he finally sees the light that he needs a White Queen instead of this… pic.twitter.com/BFj4vmcsYT
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) November 25, 2025

Kirk also shared some of the statistics from this year’s America Fest conference. She remarked that a third of attendees are students, 54% are female, all 50 states are represented, and 25 countries are represented.

“Don’t worry, guys, Egypt is not on this list,” quipped Kirk, likely alluding to a theory from podcast host Candace Owens. The crowd erupted into laughter..

ERIKA KIRK:

"Don't just attend AmFest. Let it mark you. Let it stretch you. Let it challenge assumptions, strengthen convictions, and maybe even make you a little uncomfortable because that's where growth happens, in those moments.

Let it be another Turning Point in your life.… pic.twitter.com/Hx4xBQY3Sw
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 19, 2025

Kirk finished with words of encouragement, welcoming over 30,000 attendees to the conference.

“You may not agree with everyone on this stage this weekend, and that’s OK. Welcome to America!”

Charlie “believed disagreement was something not to be canceled. It was something to confront with clarity, courage, and grace,” she added.

“The mission didn’t end with Charlie’s life,” Kirk also said.

BREAKING: Suspect in Brown University Killing Found Dead, Also Suspected of MIT Murder

The suspect in last weekend’s fatal shooting at Brown University has been found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage unit he rented in Salem, New Hampshire, Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez announced Thursday night.

The suspect has been identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley later confirmed Valente is also suspected of killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loreiro two days later in Brookline, Massachusetts.

A car connected to the suspect had been found earlier Thursday outside the storage unit facility.

Valente had been a Ph.D student in physics at Brown University 25 years ago, Brown President Christina H. Paxton revealed. Loreiro was born and raised in Portugal. Police say it is believed the two men attended school together in Lisbon.

Earlier this week, an FBI official said authorities did not believe there was a link between Saturday’s shooting at Brown and the MIT professor’s murder. Loureiro was a member of the departments of nuclear science and engineering and physics as well as MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Authorities had been conducting a manhunt since the Dec. 13 shooting inside a classroom building at Brown University shook Rhode Island’s capital city. Two students were killed and at least eight were wounded.

Seeking the Public’s Help

Investigators in Providence said the suspect in the Brown University shooting escaped on foot into nearby streets, prompting a search that relied heavily on residential security footage because of a lack of surveillance cameras in the classroom building and surrounding area.

Police released images and video of a masked man believed to be the shooter, based on survivor accounts, and have repeatedly asked for the public’s help in identifying that man. The footage showed the suspect walking in a nearby neighborhood both before and immediately after the attack, including moments when police vehicles arrived with flashing lights.

“He could be anywhere,” Perez said on Wednesday, adding that authorities did not initially know the suspect’s identity or motive.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said residents and students had grown “restless and eager” for an arrest as the search stretched into several days.

Police also circulated photos of another unidentified man seen near the area, saying they wanted to speak with him as a potential witness who may have relevant information. During Thursday night’s press conference, authorities said that potential witness did quickly come forward.

Authorities initially announced a person was in custody a day after the shooting but later released that individual after determining he was not involved.

Reuters contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Red-State AG Demands Governor Designate CAIR a Terrorist Group

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is calling on Gov. Mike Braun to join other Republican governors in branding the Council on American-Islamic Relations a terrorist organization.

“It’s high time that Indiana declare CAIR a foreign terrorist organization,” Rokita told The Daily Signal in an interview Thursday. “I completely agree and I call on Gov. Braun to do that very thing.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, designated CAIR a foreign terrorist organization on Nov. 18, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., followed suit last week.

Both Abbott and DeSantis cited the history of CAIR, which bills itself as the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S.

Members of the Islamic Association for Palestine, an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and created to support Hamas in the U.S., founded CAIR in 1994. Federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror financing case, in which CAIR associates were convicted of providing material support to designated terrorist organizations.

While a federal judge later ruled that publicly naming CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator violated the group’s Fifth Amendment rights, he also found “ample evidence to establish” its associations with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and Hamas.

CAIR’s Lawsuits

CAIR sued Abbott on Nov. 20 and DeSantis on Dec. 15. CAIR claims that neither Abbott nor DeSantis has the authority to designate foreign terrorist organizations—only the federal government does—and that the governors violated its 14th Amendment due process rights and First Amendment free speech and free association rights.

CAIR also cites a statement that has been on its website since 2009: “We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the U.S. Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.'”

Last week, CAIR filed a public records request seeking DeSantis’ communications with Israeli officials and “anti-Muslim hate groups.”

“Ron DeSantis has a long history of close collaboration with anti-Muslim hate groups and Israeli government officials who have spent years trying to silence American Muslims who support Palestinian human rights,” CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw said in a statement. “The people of Florida and the broader public have a right to know whether Governor DeSantis collaborated with a foreign government or hate groups to launch his unconstitutional and defamatory attack on CAIR-Florida and the broader Florida Muslim community.”

Discovery will be quite interesting… https://t.co/aUtQwFwsKT
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 18, 2025

‘Dispelling Rumors’

CAIR has long disputed claims of the kind Abbott and DeSantis cited. The organization updates a web page dedicated to dispelling “rumors” and “conspiracy theories.”

CAIR admits that it was included on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case, but notes that there were more than 300 other organizations on the list.

“There is no legal implication to being labeled an unindicted co-conspirator, since it does not require the Justice Department to prove anything in a court of law,” the organization notes. “Regardless, the issue of our inclusion on the list was settled in CAIR’s favor.” The judge in the case stated, “This case is not about CAIR.”

The Biden administration distanced itself from CAIR after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. The Biden White House had previously included CAIR in its initiative to combat antisemitism.

CAIR’s claim about DeSantis working with “anti-Muslim hate groups” relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s accusations. Critics have long claimed that the SPLC falsely brands mainstream conservative and Christian groups “hate groups,” partly because they disagree with the SPLC’s own agenda. Organizations like the Center for Security Policy and the David Horowitz Freedom Center vehemently contest the accusation. CAIR has attacked Jewish groups as “anti-Muslim.”

DeSantis’ Response

When CAIR threatened a lawsuit shortly after DeSantis’ designation, the governor responded that he looked forward to accessing CAIR’s internal records in the discovery process.

“I look forward to discovery—especially the CAIR finances,” the governor posted on X. “Should be illuminating!”

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” DeSantis’ communications director, Alex Lanfranconi, told The Daily Signal in a statement this week.

War With Venezuela Could Break Trump’s MAGA Base

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. There are war drums beating about the United States and the Trump administration’s interdiction of narco-trafficking, maritime shipments to the United States, which we’re destroying.

Recently, we pulled over on the high seas a large tanker that had illicit oil from Iran that was exporting it to embargoed countries.

And it’s a general picture that the Maduro government, the communist government in Venezuela, its days are numbered. So, the media says, in other words, President Donald Trump is trying to put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and get rid of him because he canceled the last election through fraud and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been elected, was unfairly denied the victory.

And then we’ve had, in addition, about 7 or 8 million Venezuelans leaving. And he not only sends drugs to the United States, he organizes the cartels and helps them in other adjoining Latin American countries. And he emptied his jails and prisons and said: Go to the United States, basically, cause much havoc. So, we have grounds to want him out.

Should we invade? That’s another question. Let’s go back for a second to the 1983 invasion of Grenada. It was somewhat similar. President Ronald Reagan had just been in office for two years, and it came to his notice that a medical school there may or may not have been taken over by communists. Americans couldn’t leave freely.

But the main issue was that the Castro communist government of Cuba and the Cubans had a pretty formidable reputation because, as expatriate mercenaries, they were fighting as an expeditionary force under pay in Angola.

And so, there was this idea they were pretty tough, and they had taken over the island of Grenada, and this was going to be a progression, a domino, which we would see other Caribbean nations shocked by Cuba. And Reagan wanted to send a message: Don’t Ever think you’re going to take over the Caribbean. So, we invaded.

The invasion didn’t go very well. People were using a pay phone to call the Pentagon to coordinate it. It shocked us so much that it led to the Reagan reforms in the military and buildup that corrected the problems.

But my point is this, Grenada was a little, tiny island. And there were no adjoining neighbors. It was easily supplied by sea. There were no borders that people could flee back and forth across and come into.

Another American invasion in Latin America, these are Monroe Doctrine-type enforcements, was the 1989 George H.W. Bush invasion of Panama. This was very much more similar to Venezuela. Panama was a key U.S. interest because, of course, the government had been given by us the Panama Canal, and the elections had been suspended, and the elected president and prime minister had been removed by Col. Manuel Noriega, Gen. Noriega, I should say, and he had created a police narco-state. In fact, he’d be indicted in the United States.

He was doing exactly what Maduro was: cancel the elections, reject the legitimate elected officials, keep your position of power through drug money and paying bribes to the military, the oligarchy through sales of drugs to the United States, and then invite in foreign interests like the Russians, in this case; or the Cubans, in the Grenada case; or in the case of Venezuela, maybe the Iranians, Russians, and Chinese, and stir up the pot against the United States.

Both those invasions were successful. Panama went on for about 30 days. We lost 23 soldiers. The Left was very angry about it here in the United States. It was kind of a “Yankee, go home” mantra we heard.

But are those good? Are those good examples by which we can forecast what would happen if we were to take that ultimate step in Venezuela? I don’t think so.

Venezuela is the fifth-largest country in South America by size and the fifth-largest by population. It’s not a Panama, it’s not a Grenada. It’s got 30 million people. It’s got a large military. It’s probably corrupt and they probably would like to see him go, but nevertheless, if we were to use ground troops, that would be a mess.

And I understand, more importantly, it’s not like Panama and Grenada in terms of wealth. Venezuela, believe it or not, has the largest oil reserves in the world, 300 billion barrels, and large amounts of natural gas. Probably the largest, one of the top five largest natural gas.

In other words, it’s something that the world is looking at. And for the United States to go in there and have a ground removal, I think, would be unwise at this point.

So, what would be the alternative? It’s sort of what we’re doing now. We’re isolating all drug shipments, illegal transportation of embargoed oil out of Venezuela. It’s kind of a quasi-blockade/embargo. And they’re going to tighten the screws.

What is different about this strategy from Grenada and Panama is there is a viable opposition in Venezuela that I think most people would say represents the majority of the people. And these are candidates that were barred by the Maduro government. And if we ratch up the pressure and cut off the supply of illicit oil exports and illicit drugs, and just keep him tense, I think we can solve the problem without an invasion.

Finally, a land invasion of Venezuela would be seen as an optional military engagement, which is contrary to the MAGA base. So, there would be political ramifications, not just by the Pavlovian Left that anything Trump is for, they’re against, but also by the base of the conservatives themselves.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Oversight Project Demands DOJ to Act on Trump Reversal of Biden Autopen Clemency

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Oversight Project is calling for the Justice Department to keep incarcerated prisoners whose Biden autopen clemencies were voided by President Donald Trump.

The watchdog group shared a video with The Daily Signal that focused on two individuals whose sentences former President Joe Biden had commuted.

The Oversight Project was the first to call attention to the mass number of presidential actions taken via autopen.

This prompted a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee inquiry that found senior Biden White House officials were unclear if Biden was aware of the actions taken with his autopen.

AUTOPENNED "WILLIE HORTONS" SCHEDULED TO BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Biden's "null and void" autopenned commutations of gangbangers are still being treated as legitimate.

Some will be released back into the streets in the next few days. More will follow. pic.twitter.com/iNhT9s8Gv0
— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) December 18, 2025

Biden’s own words during a New York Times interview published in July reveal that he was aware of “categories” of people with clemency, but not individuals.

Three days before leaving office, the Biden White House issued a statement that said he gave clemency to “nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses” who had what they viewed as disproportionately long sentences. However, the Oversight Project later obtained documents from Biden’s own Justice Department that warned the White House against releasing some of the individuals who were violent offenders.

?Biden’s Own DOJ Threw Red Flag on Autopenned Pardons ?

NEW DOCS FROM @EagleEdMartin show Biden’s own DOJ warned against autopenned clemency awards.@realdonaldtrump should refuse to release inmates that received this illegal clemency and re-arrest those already released. pic.twitter.com/pPCYz8UD3f
— Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) August 19, 2025

The documents show a Biden Justice Department attorney raised concerns about what he called a “highly problematic” review process for what the White House characterized as nonviolent offenders.

Prison sentences commuted, apparently by autopen, include inmates who carried out violent crimes. Others were apparent gang members. The video highlights two individuals whose sentences Biden commuted and who were to be released days after Christmas.

“Enough is enough. The American people want accountability and results. President Trump has been emphatically clear that autopenned actions are null and void,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell said. “The Trump administration should not allow these gang-bangers to roam American streets with an autopen pardon or commutation in their back pocket, probably right next to their gun and drugs.”

“It is the opposite of law and order and I know that President Trump does not want that,” Howell continued.

He added: “I’m sick of seeing these gangbangers being released by this Department of Justice. Arresting those released and refusing to release any more gangbangers would be a great result and entirely justified legally.”

The Oversight Project’s video references two individuals who received clemency.

Kewaannee Williams was sentenced to seven years and six months. His sentence was commuted to under three and half years just ahead of Biden’s departure. Williams is set to be released on Dec. 28, according to the Oversight Project.

Williams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deal crack cocaine and other offenses.

The Oversight Project referenced court records showing the Justice Department initially sought a sentence of 120 months because Williams was a leader in a New York City gang that dealt drugs.

The attorney for Williams, Benjamin Zeman, told The Daily Signal the U.S. attorney’s office negotiated the case and that his client didn’t plead down. Frequently, felons plead down to a lower offense.

“He pleaded guilty to what he took responsibility for,” Zeman said.

In a July 2022 sentencing memorandum with the Southern District of New York, Zeman wrote: “We submit that, given the unstable circumstances of Mr. Williams’s early life, his substance abuse history, the promise of his young and hopeful family, the voluntary withdrawal from this behavior more than a year-and-a-half before his arrest and his willingness to accept responsibility for this criminal activity, a sentence to 60 months incarceration is justified in this case and sufficiently balances the various goals of sentencing.”

The Oversight Project video also references Jason Gonzalez, who was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Gonzalez, who was sentenced in 2022, is set to be released on Dec. 27. The federal government initially sought a 136-month sentence based on his alleged role in a gang and owing to a previous conviction of attempted murder, according to federal court documents referenced by the Oversight Project.

The attorney for Gonzalez, Thomas Ambrosio, said guidelines are not mandatory, and there were many mitigating circumstances.

“Mr. Gonzalez had a longstanding drug addiction. The crimes he committed were driven by his drug addiction,” Ambrosio told The Daily Signal.

The July 2022 sentencing memorandum that Ambrosio wrote to the Southern District of New York acknowledged that his client at age 19 shot someone in the leg. He added that the attempted murder was charged in a New York state court.

“People plead to attempted murder in New York without ever saying they tried to kill someone,” Ambrosio said. “They’re told ‘time served if you agree to plead guilty to attempted murder.’”

Earlier this month, Trump announced on Truth Social: “Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorized ‘AUTOPEN,’ within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect. Anyone receiving “Pardons,” “Commutations,” or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect.”

During Biden’s four years in office, the White House issued 4,245 acts of clemency. That’s more than the previous record of 3,796 held by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Of those, 96% were granted between Oct. 1, 2024, and Jan. 20, 2025.

SCOOP: ICE Agents Are Becoming Burned Out as Trump Administration Pushes for More Deportations

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are becoming burned out, according to multiple sources.

ICE agents are “maxed out,” a senior Trump administration official told The Daily Signal, and yet there is “frustration” within the administration that deportation numbers aren’t higher.

“I think it is just an enormous challenge to get 20 million people out of this country,” the official said, referring to an estimation of the number of illegal aliens living in the U.S.

The administration has deported over 600,000 illegal aliens since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, according to the Department of Homeland Security. An additional 1.9 million have self-deported, but the White House is not satisfied, according to sources familiar with the situation.

“ICE is under major pressure from the White House,” another senior Trump administration official told The Daily Signal, adding, “That’s public information. A bunch of people got transferred and fired … in ICE because they’re not hitting the numbers that they want them to hit.”

In October, The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration planned to reassign a dozen directors of ICE field offices and replace them with Customs and Border Protection or ICE officials.

ICE Under Pressure

While the pressure is mounting to make more arrests and conduct more deportations, a retired ICE officer with knowledge of the current administration says agents are being affected by the demands.

ICE agents are glad they can do their job, but the pace of the job is causing “a little bit of burnout” he said, adding that the increased pay for overtime work only goes so far when agents’ marriages are feeling the weight of the demanding work schedule, and they are not seeing their children.

The retired ICE officer said he believes the Trump administration does care about the well-being of the agents, and stressed that he supports the administration’s immigration agenda, but said ICE agents are “not robots.”

“And you know, when you make them tired and you keep them working, that’s when mistakes are made, and mistakes are dangerous when you carry guns,” the retired officer said.

The Department of Homeland Security is currently working to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 new ICE agents, which will help the workload, according to the retired ICE officer, but new agents won’t have the institutional knowledge and background of longtime agents. The concern is that seasoned agents may start leaving ICE if the pressure and demands don’t change.

DHS says some of the new hires are already in the field.

“Many of ICE’S new recruits are former law enforcement officers, military, or former ICE officers who retired or quit under President [Joe] Biden because they were frustrated about not being able to do their jobs,” a DHS spokesperson told The Daily Signal.

“The vast majority of new officers brought on during the hiring surge are experienced law enforcement officers who have already successfully completed a law enforcement academy. This population is expected to account for greater than 85% of new hires,” the DHS spokesperson added.

A Trump administration official says while he has not witnessed the burnout of ICE agents, “it’s like a question of when, because you can only be going at 100 miles an hour for so long before you it gets to you.”

White House Response

Asked about the concern of burnout, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal that the “American people are deeply appreciative for the heroic work being done by ICE agents. They make American communities safer and protect American families, all in the face of unrelenting smears from Democrats.”

“The Trump administration will continue supporting our great ICE agents and ensuring they have the resources they need to be successful in and out of the workplace,” Jackson added.

Trump administration officials, including the president, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and border czar Tom Homan, speak highly of ICE agents and have repeatedly expressed their gratitude for the hard work of the men and women of ICE.

“The Trump administration is not tired of winning—and neither are our brave law enforcement officers,” a DHS spokesperson told The Daily Signal. “Thanks to the leadership of the secretary and president, the U.S. has seen more than 2.5 million illegal aliens leave the U.S.”

Reporting Deportation Numbers

The Trump administration is remaining highly focused on deportations headed into 2026 and deportation numbers are expected to grow higher. To this end, a senior Trump administration official says, the media should not be surprised when illegal aliens without a criminal record are also arrested and deported.

The Trump administration “said the ‘worst first,’ not only the worst of the worst,” the senior official noted, adding, “obviously, there’s some other category that’s going to be second and third.”

While ICE is occasionally releasing deportation numbers, it is not reporting regular deportation numbers in the same way that Customs and Border Protection reports border encounter numbers every month. One possible reason for the lack of reporting might be because there is dissatisfaction over the numbers not being higher, two senior Trump administration officials told The Daily Signal.

ICE also does not have a good system for tracking and reporting deportation numbers, according to one of the officials.

“Nobody’s on the same page about what statistics are important and also what they mean,” the senior official said, explaining that if ICE assists the Texas Department of Public Safety in making an immigration arrest, it is not clear if ICE or Texas DPS, or both law enforcement agencies, count the arrest.

Bed space also limits the number of arrests ICE can make since DHS must have a space to hold the illegal alien while paperwork and logistics are completed ahead of deportations.

Furthermore, as a Trump administration official explained, ICE is smaller than CBP and likely has fewer resources to dedicate to data collection and reporting.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS law enforcement officers are delivering on the mandate to Make America Safe Again,” the DHS spokesperson said, adding that arrest and deportation numbers have “already shattered records.”

The Orwellian Excuse the Congressional Black Caucus Gave for Trying to Block My Congressional Testimony

When the Congressional Black Caucus and 260 left-leaning organizations sent letters trying to prevent me from testifying before Congress, they claimed to be opposing efforts to “undermine civil institutions” and to prevent the use of “government power to silence people.”

This is deeply ironic because the House Judiciary Committee had invited me to testify on how the Southern Poverty Law Center, which demonizes conservatives and Christians in an effort to silence their opinions, influenced the Biden administration, leading to government attacks on nonprofits, such as the notorious FBI memo targeting “radical-traditional Catholics.”

I testified alongside leaders of organizations that had been targeted for violence after the SPLC put them on a “hate map” with Ku Klux Klan chapters. The hearing, “Partisan and Profitable: The SPLC’s Influence on Federal Civil Rights Policy,” focused on a key aspect of my writing and reporting, work that has distinguished me as an expert on the SPLC’s tactics.

When Rep. Chip Roy’s subcommittee announced the hearing, Democrats and leftist groups sent at least three letters condemning it.

The Congressional Black Caucus

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., sent a letter expressing “grave concern” about the hearing, claiming that it is “not a good-faith exercise of oversight” but rather a “deliberate effort to intimidate and discredit an institution that has spent decades defending civil rights, exposing hate, and advancing opportunity for all Americans.” (Note how her framing endorses the SPLC’s “hate” accusations.)

Clarke claimed the hearing aimed “to chill and silence all who challenge this Administration’s efforts to roll back civil rights and normalize discrimination.”

The Congressional Black Caucus leader said the hearing represented “our government being weaponized to perpetrate cycles of oppression,” a weaponization “rooted in anti-black racism, discrimination, fear, and control.”

She said the hearing “undermines the very civil institutions that give everyday people voice, protection, and power,” and said a discussion of the SPLC’s negative influence is “dangerous, violates fundamental democratic norms, and must be rejected unequivocally.”

Nowhere did she even suggest that the SPLC might also be undermining any “civil institution.”

Congressional Black Caucus Letter Download

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights organized 258 left-leaning groups to condemn the hearing, including unions like the AFL-CIO and activist groups like the Center for American Progress and the Human Rights Campaign.

The letter claims that the hearing “is not about any single organization—it is about a broader effort to use government power to silence people.”

“At stake is whether people—regardless of their viewpoint—can express themselves without fear of government retaliation,” the letter states. “If we don’t speak out against these attacks, it will clear the path for the dismantling of freedom of speech and civil rights and the repression of dissent.”

National Council of Nonprofits

Two more left-leaning organizations condemned the hearing.

“While the title of today’s hearing may name only one organization, its potential to chill the speech of organizations throughout our sector is much greater,” wrote Akilah Watkins, president of Independent Sector, and Diane Yentel, president of the National Council of Nonprofits. “It is part of a pattern of actions to subject perceived political opponents to harassment in the name of oversight.”

While Watkins and Yentel condemned political violence, they added, “We are equally opposed to hate in all its forms.”

National Council of Nonprofits Letter Download

My Response

If these Democrats and activist groups truly cared about “repression of dissent” and the chilling of free speech, they wouldn’t line up so readily to defend one of the worst offenders in American society.

The SPLC isn’t some noble civil rights group that represents the little guy in court. It’s a massive behemoth—with a $786 million endowment—that routinely defames mainstream conservatives and Christians, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan by putting them on a “hate map” with the worst hate groups in American history.

A terrorist used this map to target the Family Research Council in 2012, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk came mere months after the SPLC added Turning Point USA to the “hate map” in May.

Among its many ties to the Biden administration, the SPLC advised Justice Department prosecutors on the “anti-LGBTQ movement.” The SPLC brands as “anti-LGBTQ hate groups” a broad swath of peaceful, law-abiding nonprofits, such as the law firm Alliance Defending Freedom; nonpartisan groups of doctors like Do No Harm and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine; and even lesbian and gay groups like Gays Against Groomers.

To use Clarke’s words, these are “the very civil institutions that give everyday people voice, protection, and power.” They just happen to represent conservatives, Christians, and others who disagree with the SPLC. Therefore, these leftists seem not to consider them parts of “civil society.”

During the hearing, the Democrats’ witness refused to say whether she stands by the SPLC’s accusations against these groups. Yet Clarke praised the SPLC’s record of “exposing hate,” suggesting she has no such compunction.

?REVEALING@RepBobOnder asks Democrat-invited witness Amanda Tyler whether she stands by the SPLC's "hate group" accusations against @ADFLegal, @TPUSA, @FRCdc, @FocusFamily, @prageru, and @CIS_org.

Tellingly, she refuses to adopt or defend the accusations. pic.twitter.com/yNLiGzTVUM
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) December 17, 2025

By protecting the SPLC from scrutiny, the Congressional Black Caucus and its 260 allied leftist groups are abetting the chilling of speech, specifically conservative speech. Furthermore, none of these letters expressed an iota of concern about the Biden administration using the SPLC to target conservatives, suggesting they’re fine with government silencing people—just so long as it’s not their people.

I’d like to thank Chairman Chip Roy, R-Texas, for refusing to buckle to these hypocritical attacks, and letting me expose how the SPLC undermines civil institutions and collaborated with the government to silence people. It seems some on the Left don’t want me to be able to share this message.

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