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

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /

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Stefanik is the second of Trump’s Cabinet picks to have their nominations withdrawn, following Rep.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.

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Watch Our Live Inauguration Day Coverage - The Daily Signal

Watch Our Live Inauguration Day Coverage

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko /

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.

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American Tea Parties, Greek Yogurt Parties - The Daily Signal

American Tea Parties, Greek Yogurt Parties

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad /

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.

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Trump Warns Iran of Possible Strike, Urges Hamas to Disarm After Meeting Netanyahu - The Daily Signal

Trump Warns Iran of Possible Strike, Urges Hamas to Disarm After Meeting Netanyahu

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery /

PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 29 (Reuters)—U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States could support another major strike on Iran, were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programs, and warned Hamas of severe consequences if it does not disarm.

Speaking beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump suggested Tehran may be working to restore its weapons programs after a massive U.S. strike in June.

“I’ve been reading that they’re building up weapons and other things, and if they are, they’re not using the sites we obliterated, but possibly different sites,” Trump told reporters during a press conference.

“We know exactly where they’re going, what they’re doing, and I hope they’re not doing it because we don’t want to waste fuel on a B-2,” he added, referring to the bomber used in the earlier strike. “It’s a 37-hour trip both ways. I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel.”

Trump, who has broached a potential nuclear deal with Tehran in recent months, said his talks with Netanyahu focused on advancing the fragile Gaza peace deal he brokered and addressing Israeli concerns over Iran and over Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran, which fought a 12-day war with Israel in June, said last week that it had conducted missile exercises for the second time this month.

Netanyahu said last week that Israel was not seeking a confrontation with Iran, but was aware of the reports, and said he would raise Tehran’s activities with Trump.

A Second Phase in Gaza?

Trump said he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached in October after two years of fighting in Gaza, a progression that entails international peacekeeping forces deployed in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of major breaches of the deal and look no closer to accepting the much more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase. Hamas, which has refused to disarm, has been reasserting its control as Israeli troops remain entrenched in about half the territory.

Israel has indicated that if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully, it will resume military action to make it do so.

During his Monday comments, Trump heaped the blame on the militant group for not disarming more promptly, arguing that Israel had lived up to its side of the deal and warning that Hamas was inviting grave consequences.

“There will be hell to pay,” Trump warned when asked what he will do if Hamas does not lay down its arms. He has made similar statements at previous intervals during the fighting.

Netanyahu said this month that Trump had invited him for the talks, as Washington pushes to establish transitional governance for the Palestinian enclave amid Israeli reluctance to move forward.

The deployment of the international security force was mandated by a Nov. 17 U.N. Security Council resolution.

While Washington has brokered three ceasefires involving its longtime ally—between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, and Israel and Lebanon—Netanyahu is wary of Israel’s foes rebuilding their forces after they were considerably weakened in multiple wars.

Overall, Trump’s comments suggested he remains firmly in Netanyahu’s camp, even as some aides have privately questioned the Israeli leader’s commitment to the Gaza ceasefire. His comments also suggested he is willing to risk additional hostilities related to Gaza and Iran, even as Trump has taken credit for resolving Israel’s wars in both places.

Trump struck a warm tone as he greeted Netanyahu before their meeting, going so far as to say that Israeli President Isaac Herzog had told him he planned to pardon Netanyahu of corruption-related charges—a conversation Herzog’s office immediately denied took place.

Netanyahu reciprocated, telling reporters after the meeting that he was gifting Trump the country’s Israel Prize, which he said has historically been reserved for Israelis.

Next Steps in Gaza Ceasefire Plan

Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war ultimately calls for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory and for Hamas to give up its weapons and forgo a governing role.

The first phase of the ceasefire included a partial Israeli withdrawal, an increase in aid, and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian detainees and prisoners.

An Israeli official in Netanyahu’s circle said that the prime minister would demand that the first phase of the ceasefire be completed by Hamas returning the remains of the last Israeli hostage left in Gaza, before moving ahead to the next stages. The family of the deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, joined the prime minister’s visiting entourage.

Israel has yet to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, also a condition of Trump’s plan, saying it will only do so once Gvili’s remains are returned.

Trump said that he and Netanyahu did not agree fully on the issue of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but the Republican leader did not lay out what the disagreement was.

Turkey, Syria Also Discussed

Before the meeting, Trump told reporters he would talk to Netanyahu about the possibility of stationing Turkish peacekeepers in Gaza. That is a fraught subject—while Trump has frequently praised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Israel and Turkey have a much more circumspect relationship.

While the fighting in Gaza has abated, it has not stopped entirely. Although the ceasefire officially began in October, Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 Palestinians—most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials—and Palestinian militants have killed three Israeli soldiers.

Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was keen to ensure a peaceful border with Syria, and Trump said he was sure Israel would get along with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took power after longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad was deposed last year.

But Israel has been suspicious of the new leader, who was once a member of al-Qaeda, going so far as to bomb government buildings in Damascus this July.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Palm Beach, Maayan Lubell and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicut; Writing by Simon Lewis and Gram Slattery; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Howard Goller)

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  3. Not in My Own Words, But in AI’s
Not in My Own Words, But in AI’s - The Daily Signal

Not in My Own Words, But in AI’s

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson /

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.

This content was recorded by Victor Davis Hanson prior to his Dec. 30 medical operation.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’d like to talk about a different topic, if I could. It’s this new phenomenon of artificial intelligence using a person’s face or body, using a person’s voice, using a person’s background setting, and then putting in their mouths a different message that they never said, and they not necessarily would agree, and in fact, often would disagree.

And it’s kind of an intellectual, not kind of, but is an intellectual theft. It’s like plagiarism or copyright violations.

And I speak from personal anguish because there’s about six VDH channels out there where it looks—it is me and my face. It is this setting that I’m in right now, the same bookcases, same clothes, somewhat same voices, but the lips don’t quite sync, and every single thing that comes outta my mouth is something I’ve never said. I’ve never attacked Vice President JD Vance. I’ve never used the F-word in public. I don’t criticize people in the way that these videos suggest.

So, what’s wrong with what’s going on?

The first of it is, of course, it’s theft. It’s dishonest. And the people who generate this—and we don’t know really who they are. Are they people on the left? Are they foreigners? Are they just entrepreneurial people who wanna make a quick buck without any investment?

But the problem is it is theft. And you know it’s theft because if they have these ideas that they wanna promulgate, it’s a free country, why don’t they just go out and sit here like I’m talking to you and give their ideas? But instead, they’re parasitical. They want to use somebody who may have a higher profile than themselves and use their investment and steal it. That is their exposure.

The second thing they’re doing is they’re greedy. If you look at these, in my case, these VDH fake channels and fake videos—and I should ask that every single video, with one exception, the Ultra on my own website, comes from The Daily Signal. From four to five weekly, five- to six-minute videos, and four hour to an hour-and-a-half podcasts, all of them have to originate with The Daily Signal. That’s one way you know the difference.

But what they’re doing is they have huge audiences, 40,000, 50,000, 60,000, 100,000 people, and they have subscribers, and they have a big budget. So, our audience really has been fragmented to genuine people, like you who are listening, and people who think that it’s me, but they are helping profit a pirate, a thief.

The other thing about—not only are these people greedy and not only are they unlawful and amoral, but they also put ideas into my head that I would never say myself. So, they’re using—it would be one thing to say that they’re trying to amplify, like, what Victor says with maybe a cleaner presentation that’s computer-simulated or aided or adjusted, but they’re not. They’re putting their ideas. And I can tell you a lot of them I don’t agree with.

The other thing is, and this is really dishonest, for one microsecond, they flash on this little legal disclaimer that says under no circumstances are you to believe that this is the real Victor Hanson or Victor Hanson’s face or his views. We are using a technology that puts our idea—and then they make it disappear.

If they really believe that, they really believe they wanted to distinguish their videos that are fake from ours that are genuine, then they would leave that up in the corner. But they don’t. They’re just doing that because they think it gives them some legal pretension and that they can fall back and say, well, we warn people legally, and then you can’t sue them.

The other thing is they try to exploit our video. So, they will put headlines with the F-U-word, the F-bomb, and they’ll put it as the headline. Or they’ll say Hanson attacks JD Vance or Hanson does this when we don’t do that. We don’t try to get clicks by being controversial. We try to get audiences by trying to inform them and bring history, politics, sociology, literature, all within a unique package for the erudition and entertainment of our audience.

The final thing is there’s no laws against us that I can tell. I’ve had legal counsel and they’re doing their best, but X won’t take them down. And YouTube argues and Google argues. So, apparently, the Silicon Valley brotherhood feels that these people who must have learned their skills out of that nexus, they’re not doing anything wrong. They’re just taking a product.

And it’s very, it’s very ironic because, you know, all of these people have copyrights on their technologies how to do this, if Victor all of a sudden takes their technology and steals it and uses it to simulate something and doesn’t pay a fee for using it, I would be sued in a second. So, it’s very hypocritical. All of their things that they use are copyrighted or patent, but not the ideas that they steal, they apparently think.

And so, until we get some legal action to stop these people who are very greedy and making a lot of money, I don’t know what else to tell you, other than caveat emptor, buyer beware, and always look for a Daily Signal imprint.

And a final, I don’t know who they are. I do not know who they are. I do not know if they’re leftists that are trying to confuse the conservative movement. I don’t know if they’re Chinese or Russian hackers who may be angry at things we’ve said. I don’t know if they’re apolitical and they just wanna make a buck. But whoever they are, they’re doing things that are bad and wrong, and they should be stopped.

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

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Minnesota Fraud Scandal Exposes the Real Crisis Facing the West - The Daily Signal

Minnesota Fraud Scandal Exposes the Real Crisis Facing the West

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman /

The Minnesota Somali fraud scandal somehow manages to get worse and worse as the legacy media mostly ignore the issue and Democrats shrug. At the heart of this scandal lies the larger crisis facing the West.

On Friday, independent journalist Nick Shirley released a 42-minute YouTube documentary detailing his efforts to undercover what exactly is going on in Minnesota and how a ring of mostly Somali scammers squelched billions of dollars from taxpayers under the noses of Gov. Tim Walz and state authorities.

Vice President JD Vance praised the video on X and wrote that Shirley did more important journalism than all the recent Pulitzer Prize winners.

The video is certainly worth watching. Among the big findings uncovered is a series of so-called day care centers and other facilities being funded in the state that have no children in them at all.

In one of the most remarkable scenes, Shirley arrived at a location called the “Quality Learing Center.” Yes, “Learing,” which was obviously misspelled. The center had been licensed for 99 children, but none were there. In front of the building, a woman kept shouting, “Don’t open up, ICE.” Shirley informed her that he was merely a journalist, but she ignored him and kept shouting.

Amazing.

This is just the latest in what is without a doubt one of the biggest scandals in American history.

According to some estimates, Somali scammers have taken more money from taxpayers in the last few years than the entire gross domestic product of Somalia.

Also, according to the New York Post, the stolen money “accounts for roughly half of the $18 billion in total federal funds provided to the Minnesota-run services since 2018.”

It wasn’t long ago that Walz was bragging about how he was sending more money to these childcare programs in the vice-presidential debate against Vance.

Walz and most Democrats seem to be, at most, slightly bothered that they have to talk about this story at all and have tried to make this out to be a “bipartisan” issue that must simply be managed.

But it wasn’t Republicans who run the state of Minnesota, it wasn’t Republicans creating these massive entitlement programs. And while there are Republicans who embrace the kind of open-ended immigration that enabled the Somali fraud scandal, they are at least much less prominent in the age of President Donald Trump.

No, this is a problem created by the Left, one that Democrats are apparently unwilling to confront with any level of urgency.

Let’s take a step back here and get back to the rub of this Somali scammer problem at its source. It’s not just about a broken immigration system with perverse incentives, though we’ve certainly had that.

What the Somali fraudsters did was a matter of greed and crookedness, a replication of the kind of schemes that allow one to get ahead in their homeland. It’s immoral, but easy to understand in a basic sense. It’s the kind of corruption that ruins countries the world over, but it isn’t remarkable.

Now let’s say you really are an old school New Deal Democrat, who believes strongly in the power of government and a robust welfare state. You should be the most enraged by what’s happened, right? After all, these apparently well-meaning programs have become the means by which our modern-day Visigoths have essentially sacked the capital city and turned their programs into a complete mockery of the whole system.

But outrage hasn’t materialized on the Left. If anything, they’re miffed they have to talk about the Somali fraud story at all. A few legacy media outlets have covered it, including CBS News under new management, but they hardly seem to want to make this story part of the “national conversation.” Why is that?

When Fox News columnist David Marcus went to Minnesota to find out what the feeling was in the state about the whole mess, I think he got to the heart of the matter. He found mostly apathy and indifference from the local liberal voters.

 “It’s hard to care much about it when ICE is disappearing Somalis on the streets,” said “Anne,” who David described as a white woman in her mid-30s working in tech. Other people he spoke to had similar feelings.

“Just as neat, necktied Portlanders are happy to step over dead junkies en route to brunch, Minnesotans don’t feel the impact of the fraud connected to the community,” Marcus wrote.

I imagine this apathetic attitude is common among the Democratic Party’s most engaged base voters.

New Deal liberalism is dead. In its place is a warped ideology, a new religion. Many blue state programs have been converted into quasi-religious enterprises, fueling what appears to be virtually unmitigated graft the depth of which we are only beginning to understand.

The government is no longer there to give all Americans a leg up. It’s there to enact an identitarian form of social justice, to sort out the winners and losers of its largesse based on a mystical hierarchy of oppression only fully understood in the inner sanctums of the federally funded ivory tower.

That money was siphoned away by illegal means wasn’t really so terrible according to this thinking. It was just the product of a mandated secular tithe to soothe the modern liberal conscience made no less noble by its seedy application. What the oppressed groups do with the money justly given isn’t the biggest problem, after all.

This whole scheme will eventually come crashing down at some point. But for now, it can be safely ignored.

The real problem right now, so this thinking goes, is that bigoted Americans noticed the scandal and might not be so keen about bringing in waves of more Somalis, who are the real victims here.

At worst, this is a temporary embarrassment, a story that needs to just go away so they can keep up the narrative that all people brought to America are really much better than the current, unworthy occupants of our stolen land. These unfortunate, oppressed people need to be protected from the meanies on the Right by any means necessary even if it means the big government programs they created go bust.

It’s that pervasive mentality, the one exhibited by the woman standing in front of the “Learning” center, shouting about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the real, existential problem we now face.

This toxic, civilizationally suicidal impulse of misguided, self-destructive “empathy” mixed with self-loathing is costing us far more than the billions of dollars already pillaged from state coffers. In the end, it may cost us everything.

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Judge Hands Media Major Win in Charlie Kirk Murder Trial - The Daily Signal

Judge Hands Media Major Win in Charlie Kirk Murder Trial

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Utah Fourth District Court Judge Tony Graf ordered on Monday that audio and transcripts of a closed hearing surrounding Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, can be released with redactions.

In a virtual hearing, Graf ruled that the transcript of a hearing that took place in October can be issued with some redactions in the coming weeks, according to WRAL News. He detailed which lines of the transcript can be redacted, which included security measures.

The judge said that transparency to the public and media was “foundational” to the judicial system, according to WRAL News.

Lawyers for media outlets wrote in a recent filing that allowing full press access “safeguards the integrity of the fact-finding process” while properly conducting judicial proceedings, according to WRAL.

Graf previously ordered that the media could not publish photographs of Robinson in shackles and stopped a livestream of a hearing earlier in December.

Robinson is charged with one count of aggravated murder, one count of felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice for hiding the rifle and discarding his clothing, two counts of witness tampering for instructing a roommate to delete texts, and one count of committing a violent offense in front of children. 

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray confirmed in September that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

During his first in-person hearing on Dec. 11, Robinson could be seen smirking while he talked with his attorneys.

The hearing focused on transparency and how much information should be shared to the public in order to ensure a fair trial, which prompted Graf to close part of the hearing to the public.

Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has pushed for the trial to be open to the public to ensure transparency.

“We deserve to have cameras in there,” Kirk told Fox News in November. “Why not be transparent?”

Two days after killing Charlie Kirk, the alleged assassin turned himself in to authorities on Sept. 12 after his parents recognized him in security footage released to the public.

Robinson then confessed to the murder and threatened to commit suicide rather than turn himself in, prompting his father to contact a youth pastor who had previously been a law enforcement official.

That former law enforcement official then contacted Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby.

Brooksby said during a Sept. 18 press conference that law enforcement promised a “peaceful” surrender as a condition for Robinson turning himself in.

Robinson then agreed and arrived at his office with his parents and the youth pastor.

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

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Experts Talk Top Midterm Election Issues - The Daily Signal

Experts Talk Top Midterm Election Issues

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams /

Public affairs experts are weighing in to highlight the top issues that will impact the 2026 midterm elections.

“Prices are going to be the top issues that voters care about. But beyond that, voters also care about safety, security, those will be top on the ballot as well,” Matt Terrill, the managing partner of Firehouse Strategies, told The Daily Signal.

Terrill is a top public affairs expert, having worked for both the National Republican Committee and the 2016 presidential campaign of then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He noted some of the positive signs in the economy under the Trump administration.

“You’re seeing inflation down. You’re seeing egg prices down,” he said. 

One notable cost that affects millions of Americans is the price of gasoline, which, according to Consumer Affairs, has declined by about 21 cents per gallon from where it was in December 2024. Diesel has also been trending downward in recent weeks. Terrill emphasized the need for a holistic approach to reduce energy costs in the U.S. 

When asked about what the GOP should do regarding messaging around those critical issues, Terrill emphasized that there would still be opportunities for Americans to receive economic relief in the upcoming months. 

“Remind Americans, if you’re President [Donald] Trump and Republican candidates in 2026, about the deregulation efforts being done under President Trump’s watch, and remind Americans about what President Trump has been doing to bring investment into the U.S. economy,” Terrill explained, also noting the tax cuts that were enacted under the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” 

“I think, obviously, the tax cuts on tips and overtime. That’s going to help with the affordability,” Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., who is running to represent Alabama in the Senate, added in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“I think part of this is just countering the narratives being pushed out by Democrats right now, and really the White House is drilling home what they’re doing to bring down energy costs, what they’re doing to bring down health care costs,” Terrill stated.

“I mean, D.C. is the only entity in America that creates inflation. And when we print dollars in D.C., it’s just, it’s ink on paper, and we can print it pretty fast, but if you’re out there trying to earn that money by the hour, our printed dollars compete against the ones that you actually earn in the market, and it just makes it difficult for families to survive,” Moore told The Daily Signal. 

Moore contended that voters would also be concerned about the recently uncovered fraud perpetuated against American taxpayers in Minnesota that could tally as high as $9 billion.

“These people are taking tax dollars and stealing them from the Treasury, and so there has to be an accountability level there,” the Alabama congressman stated.

“Some people need to be removed from this country. They need to be denaturalized as citizens. Things that we can do to show the American people that we’re going to protect the overall national security, and the funds that they’re sending to us to manage without just letting these blue states and some of these places just waste their money,” Moore said.

The congressman also emphasized the importance of combating crime as a way to alleviate costs on Americans. 

“Things that we can do to lower crime and to also lower the theft of products and services makes things more affordable in the long haul,” Moore stated. He cited Trump’s deployment of the National Guard as an example of Republican success at combating crime. Such was the resounding effect of the troops in Washington that even the city’s mayor acknowledged the subsequent decline in several categories of crime.

“When the American people are seeing National Guard members being attacked, or they’re seeing a young woman on a train in Charlotte being attacked, or what they’re seeing related to crime in Chicago, the issue of national security is top of mind,” Terrill said. 

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former State Department appointee during the first Trump administration, noted the many factors related to the affordability of housing. 

“You had COVID where you had people fleeing cities towards the suburbs, and you saw the prices go sky high. And then you had inflation. The cost of building just was tremendously high. And then combine that all with interest rates. That’s a recipe for disaster,” Bartlett said.

He contended that members of Congress would have to “incentivize this without furthering expenses or giving more to the demand side” to help alleviate the issue but also noted that much of the problem stems from local governance like permitting land use. 

“We can’t just run on the status quo. I think we absolutely need some new ideas, whether it’s from Congress, whether it’s from the White House, as to give a goal to the American voter and the American public towards the economy and society that we want to live in,” Bartlett said. 

“There’s so many other aspects, including addiction, and that continues to be a plague in society with drugs, as this White House has highlighted, whether it is fentanyl or cocaine addiction, where it starts, how it’s trafficked,” Bartlett explained.

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What Elias-Led Anti-Trump Group Is Now Suing Admin Over - The Daily Signal

What Elias-Led Anti-Trump Group Is Now Suing Admin Over

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas /

A medical group represented by a liberal legal group led by Democrat super lawyer Marc Elias is suing to force the Trump administration to pay it $12 million in taxpayer funds. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services on Christmas Eve, alleging government retaliation for opposition to administration policies. Elias is the board chairman of the Democracy Forward Foundation, which is representing the pediatric group. 

In 2025, the organization litigated 150 cases against the Trump administration, according to the recent annual impact report. The Atlantic magazine referred to Democracy Forward as the “single largest source of [President Donald] Trump’s legal troubles.”  

The AAP’s alliance with Democracy Forward is a “clear message about its true agenda,” HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart said in an X post on Saturday. 

“Democracy Forward’s client list reads like a who’s-who of radical special interests. Why were AAP’s grants canceled? Simple: the funding didn’t align with HHS’s mission or priorities,” Stuart said in the X post. 

“This is the same reason many other grants outside AAP were terminated. HHS is not obligated to fulfill AAP’s employment or spending desires with American taxpayer dollars,” Stuart continued. “The arrogance behind this lawsuit is staggering — AAP seems to believe it’s their money to spend as they please. Wrong! It’s our money, and its HHS’s duty to protect taxpayers from wasteful spending. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. The days of unchecked funding for radical causes are over.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. followed with a post saying, “Thank you, Mike Stuart, for stopping this wasteful spending and fiercely defending the interests of hardworking Americans.”

The litigation was filed in D.C. District Court just days after the HHS announced policies to prevent sex-rejecting surgeries and procedures on children under the age of 18. The AAP immediately denounced the policies and proposals. 

The HHS cut $12 million in funding from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has 67,000 members. The plaintiffs are asking the court to block the funding cuts and order restoration of the funding at least while the case proceeds. 

The lawsuit makes about two dozen references to gender, and 17 mentions of “gender-affirming care.” 

The complaint also alleges HHS agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration, retaliated by revoking federal grants because of the AAP’s advocacy for vaccines. 

The AAP asserts that the terminated federal funding supported efforts to prevent infant death, pediatric care in rural areas, and helping adolescents with substance abuse or mental health problems.

“These vital child health programs fund services like hearing screenings for newborns and safe sleep campaigns to prevent sudden unexpected infant death,” Mark Del Monte, the CEO of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a public statement. “We are forced to take legal action today so that these programs can continue to make communities safer and healthier.”

Neither the AAP nor Democracy Forward responded to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. 

In a public statement, Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said the “unlawful retaliation puts kids at risk.”

“The Department of Health and Human Services is using federal funding as a political weapon to punish protected speech, trying to silence one of the nation’s most trusted voices for children’s well-being by cutting off critical public-health funding in retaliation for speaking the truth,” Perryman said.

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Let Students Read the Whole Book - The Daily Signal

Let Students Read the Whole Book

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette /

The first time I ever cracked open a work of William Shakespeare was during my freshman year of high school, when my English teacher assigned “Julius Caesar.” It was awful.

The vocabulary was archaic, the syntax confusing. I couldn’t make sense of Shakespeare’s literary devices, and the relentless political maneuvering was nearly impossible for my 14-year-old mind to track.

But, with the teacher’s help, I fought my way through, page by page, scene by scene, until I not only finished the tragedy, but appreciated it—the powerful rhetoric, the interplay of poetry and prose, the ominous imagery and macabre foreshadowing.

When I was done, I felt as if I’d just scaled Mount Everest, and a lifelong love of literature and learning was born.

Had my teacher assigned only an excerpt from “Julius Caesar”—or a shorter work, such as a sonnet—I wouldn’t have experienced that sense of accomplishment or intellectual growth. I would have suffered the same, initial frustration without attaining that ultimate joy.

Unfortunately, frustration without joy is the norm at most high schools these days, where dispirited teachers coddle students rather than educate them.

A New York Times survey of 2,000 educators, students, and parents finds that most high schoolers read very few, if any, full-length books anymore. Citing a lack of time, short attention spans, and a compulsion to teach to standardized tests, respondents reported that most students were lucky to read one or two books, per year, from beginning to end.

The result is a debased and diminished education.

When it comes to learning, there’s no substitute for reading a difficult book. It’s an unparalleled exercise in what the business world likes to call “deep thinking”—a sustained grappling with complex ideas or problems.

Research shows that long-form reading develops brain connectivity, intellectual stamina, critical thinking, and cognition.

Long books, especially the great ones, are the antidote to the micro-attention spans wrought by social media. For a generation that’s been reared on 30-second videos and 140-character messages, they are more needed than ever.

Generous excerpts, of course, have their place. I teach at a college that studies the Great Books, nearly all in their entirety, yet even we sometimes assign shorter texts and select passages from longer ones. Still, no one would ever claim that the short story, which is necessarily limited in its depth and themes, is literature’s finest form, and excerpts can never take the place of full works.

Pluck a canto from “The Divine Comedy” and you lose the scope of Dante’s epic journey, his character’s development and the recurring themes that shape his masterpiece.

Great poets and novelists present their readers with a complete story—one with a beginning, middle, and end, punctuated by surprises and plot twists. When teachers isolate key portions, they push their own interpretation at the expense of the author’s intended meaning.

At best, excerpting the great works showcases excellent writing, but it nonetheless strips these books of their magnitude and greatness, highlighting style while foregoing substance. Studying just a few pages of “Anna Karenina” or “The Brothers Karamazov” is the literary equivalent of looking at the “Mona Lisa” through a microscope.

We do our high schoolers a disservice by assuming they can no longer handle the quantity or quality of literature routinely read in past generations. When held to high standards, today’s students can—and do—flourish.

My college offers a summer program where, in just two weeks with two hours of class a day, high schoolers read Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy,” Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” and “Antigone,” and Plato’s “Euthyphro” (plus a number of shorter items). That’s more than most high schools cover in a year.

Our students’ experience is hardly unique: As parents tire of schools that ask too little from their student bodies, classical schools—which largely devote themselves to longer-form reading—are exploding in popularity across the country.

Contrast the experience of their students to one cited in the New York Times survey, whose class studied “Romeo and Juliet” by watching the balcony scene. (Reading the play, apparently, would have been too difficult or time-consuming.) By taking the easy way out, that student’s teacher neglected to show his class how to engage with unfamiliar language, culture and sensibilities, to discern the transcendent truths and the timeless qualities of vice and virtue that permeate Shakespeare’s plays.

That high school English teacher missed an opportunity to fortify his students’ minds—to teach. I’m grateful that my own English teacher did not.

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

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‘Just Snapped’: Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect Brian Cole Jr.’s Confession Revealed in Court Docs - The Daily Signal

‘Just Snapped’: Jan. 6 Pipe Bomb Suspect Brian Cole Jr.’s Confession Revealed in Court Docs

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Federal prosecutors told a judge that the man suspected of planting pipe bombs near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in January 2021 confessed to the crime in an affidavit filed Sunday.

The Department of Justice announced Dec. 4 the arrest of Brian Cole Jr. on charges of transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.

In the filing, prosecutors note Cole said he “just snapped” and wanted to punish both political parties, adding he was inspired by The Troubles, a roughly 30-year ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland.

“The defendant explained that after the 2020 election, ‘when it first seemed like something was wrong’ and ‘stuff started happening,’ he began following the issue closely on YouTube and Reddit and felt ‘bewildered,’” the filing said.

“In the defendant’s view, if people ‘feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being—you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down.’”

“The defendant felt that ‘the people up top,’ including ‘people on both sides, public figures,’ should not ‘ignore people’s grievances’ or call them ‘conspiracy theorists,’ ‘bad people,’ ‘Nazis’ or ‘fascists,’” the filing continued.

“Instead, ‘if people feel that their votes are like just being thrown away, then . . . at the very least someone should address it.’”

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced in a May 26 post on X the pipe bomb case was one of several Biden administration-era cases the agency would review.

During a press conference announcing Cole’s arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters the case was cracked without any new tips or witnesses coming forward.

“The defendant cannot rebut the statutory presumption of detention considering the extreme and profoundly serious nature of his crimes, the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the years he has spent deceiving those around him to avoid accountability, and the intolerable risk that he will again resort to violence to express his frustration with the world around him,” prosecutors said in the filing.

“The facts and circumstances in this case compel the conclusion that there is no condition or combination of conditions that would reasonably assure the safety of the community if the defendant were released pending trial.”

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

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How Charlie Kirk’s Murder Changed Trump’s Life - The Daily Signal

How Charlie Kirk’s Murder Changed Trump’s Life

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito /

EXCLUSIVE—In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election, then-candidate Donald Trump was doing nonstop rallies, many of them outdoors despite an assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left him bloodied after a bullet struck his ear.

The rallies felt more like festivals than political events, with crowds gathering hours early amid music and pageantry.

Local heroes, union leaders, elected officials, and retired military officers cycled through as warmup speakers, firing up the audience between tracks like Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” Trump’s walkout anthem.

Despite the press often missing their aspirational quality, Trump deliberately held many rallies in places most politicians never visit—including Butler, where only he and John F. Kennedy have ever campaigned.

Years ago, when I asked him why he began doing these events, he shrugged and said, “Sometimes, things just work.”

While he was sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, I asked Trump if he missed the rallies he had staged nearly 900 times over the past 10 years.

He smiled, then fell quiet for a moment, a look of resignation settling in, before giving a blunt reply.

“The outdoor rallies. I love them, but I probably have to be careful. It’s hard. The indoor rallies you can do,” he says, reflecting on the final weeks last year, when he kept a grueling pace, often doing several a day.

“The last four months were perfect. No days off, no nothing. I did either rallies, sometimes they did two rallies in a day. But in the last week, I’d do four or five rallies in a day. We had rallies at 8 o’clock in the morning. At 11 o’clock. At 1 o’clock. It was crazy. The only thing I was worried about was, will I lose my voice,” Trump said.

Today, that is not the only thing the people around him worry about.

After surviving two assassination attempts, one of which nearly killed him, and seeing the brutal murder of his friend Charlie Kirk, Trump recognizes that returning to huge outdoor rallies is impossible. Kirk’s death, he says, has changed him, shaping not only how he thinks about security but affecting him personally as well.

“It impacted me terribly. Look, he was a great guy. He was for me all the way. All the way. It was so incredible when you heard it. I thought they must be wrong. It couldn’t be. And then when you saw the viciousness of it, but I don’t want to look at that. I mean, I got the whole picture,” he explained. It was clear he is still reeling from how the assassination of Kirk rolled out on social media.

Trump said, like many people, he saw something special in Kirk: “He had a mystique. He had something special over the young people attracted to him.”

Trump says Kirk’s death is so senseless: “It was just hard to believe. He was a good person. He was not like somebody that’s a bad person. He was a hard worker. His wife is very good. Charlie really loved his wife.”

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

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

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Hunter Biden’s Still Lying: ‘There Is No Laptop’ - The Daily Signal

Hunter Biden’s Still Lying: ‘There Is No Laptop’

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham /

Hunter Biden is a shameless liar.

It’s just as true today as it was in the midst of his binges on crack and hookers. It’s also true that the elitist media have long shown a deep desire to ignore him entirely, and when they couldn’t, it was a sad family tragedy, so head for the handkerchiefs.

The Daily Caller reports that Biden went on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast to unload more whoppers, and no lie was more shameless than this: “What I can tell you about the laptop is that there is no laptop. That’s bulls—.” Ryan replied, “There was no f—— laptop?”

Biden implausibly claimed, “There is an actual physical laptop that somebody had, but the guy that had, that said he had the laptop, the existence of the search for the laptop came before he was even a twinkle in Rudy Giuliani’s eye.”

He started babbling about how Lev Parnas “literally went to Ukraine” to get a laptop—four months before John Paul Mac Isaac ever even existed.

And so, what they did is they cobbled together “[a] stolen, concocted, fabricated mishmash of digital information, largely, which is, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of emails … from 25 years. I mean, no laptop could have held all of that.”

He later added: “There’s nothing in the laptop other than a record of me being a degenerate, a degenerate drug addict in my, at the worst moment in my life.”

All of this is false.

Biden brought the laptop to Mac Isaac’s shop and then forgot it there for years. It was not “stolen” or “concocted.” It contained evidence that Biden was exploiting his father’s power for personal gain, which he then wasted on drugs and sex workers.

Fox News added that Biden also claimed in their interview that the super-rich always avoid the consequences for their actions.

As if Biden didn’t avoid the consequences of his actions by having his daddy in the White House pardon him for everything that may have happened from 2014 to 2024?

Acting like an advocate for normal Americans—a category he clearly doesn’t fit—Biden said only the rich are benefitting today.

“Yeah. Not regular guys,” he told Ryan.

“Not the guys you served with, not the guys that I went to high school with, not the, you know, nobody that I know,” Biden said. “You know the people that are benefiting and the people that seem to have always some way [to] avoid the consequences and win and that’s, you know, the .1%. And it’s not even the 1% anymore.”

Biden clarified that he did not believe “all billionaires are evil” but that “every one of us” were “victims of the algorithm.”

“What we do is that we allow ourselves to be driven by our algorithms to believe things that just are not even remotely true and which then we all give up. Like you just said, nobody’s held accountable,” Biden said.

Biden is the one who’s “not even remotely true,” and yet, he’s never been “fact-checked” by the “independent fact-checkers” at PolitiFact.

There are pages for two Duncan Hunters, Todd Hunter, Tony Hunter, and Hunter Schwarz, but no Hunter Biden. This isn’t true of other presidential progeny: Donald Trump Jr. has 21 fact checks, Ivanka Trump has nine and Eric Trump has five.

Almost every elitist media operative who brays about being essential to democracy or holding politicians accountable failed to report honestly on how the Bidens exploited national office for personal gain.

Saving that mission for the Trumps alone just cements their partisan reputation.

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

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

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Minnesota Fraud Controversy Shakes Capitol Hill - The Daily Signal

Minnesota Fraud Controversy Shakes Capitol Hill

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell /

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, one of Washington’s top-ranking Republicans, says he is open to legal action against Minnesota’s Democrat leaders following the viral release of a video alleging fraud in state-funded day care centers.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Fox Report Weekend” on Sunday, Emmer praised YouTube content creator Nick Shirley’s recent report, which alleges that several state-funded day care and learning centers, largely operated by immigrants from Somalia, do not provide legitimate services.

“It’s amazing to me that a 23-year-old journalist, a YouTuber who’s now got over 80 million views on this thing, found more in a matter of hours than Tim Walz and Keith Ellison, our attorney general, found in seven years,” Emmer, R-Minn., said on Fox.

“Whistleblowers are coming forward,” said Emmer, who added that he would support the prosecution of Walz and Ellison if there was documented evidence of their retaliation against whistleblowers.

“What they’re saying is they told Tim Walz, they told Keith Ellison about the fraud when it was happening. And they not only didn’t do anything, they retaliated against them,” Emmer said.

“If that’s true, if that can be documented, these guys need to be prosecuted—held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight Committee, has already announced he intends to subpoena Minnesota state officials and whistleblowers in a wider probe of the day care fraud issue.

A spokesperson for Walz has called the oversight probe “a coordinated political attack to try to silence one of the President’s most effective critics” in a statement appearing in The Minnesota Star Tribune.

A Walz spokesperson also defended his conduct in a statement to The Daily Signal, saying, “The Governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and asked the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action.”

The spokesperson added, “He has strengthened oversight – including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He has hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”

Ellison’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.

FBI Director Kash Patel on Sunday revealed the bureau had expanded its investigation of alleged fraud schemes involving federal programs in the state.


The amount of fraudulent billing in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could be as high as $9 billion and involved “industrial-scale fraud,” Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson has said.

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Chloe Cole on Faith and Her Newfound Wholeness - The Daily Signal

Chloe Cole on Faith and Her Newfound Wholeness

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater /

When Chloe Cole’s brother shared the Gospel with her while she identified as a transgender male, she thought he hated her. Now, six years later, Cole has reembraced her God-given female identity and calls herself a Christian.

“As I’ve matured in the world and in my faith, I have realized that he pushed back out of love,” Cole told The Daily Signal. “He was fighting for me and not against me, and he wanted me to be saved just as he had. He wanted to extend the grace that God had given him in his life to me because he was my older brother and he loved me, and he wanted good things for me.” 

From the ages of 12-16, Cole tried to change her identity from female to male. She even had a double mastectomy at 15 to remove both of her breasts.  

“Over the course of my transition, I realized that it was not actually making me happy, that it was actually tearing down my life in almost every single way, from my physical health to my emotional and spiritual health,” Cole told The Daily Signal.  

Before and during her “transition,” Cole did not understand the Gospel, she said. She grew up in an agonistic family that had stopped attending church when she was in kindergarten. 

“Children are being raised with a massive God-shaped hole in their lives,” she said. Cole said that Gen Z’s breakdown of morals, family, and faith is eroding the culture.  

“As I grew up and I was trying to find something to believe in every day, I was trying to find a purpose. I was trying to find something to live for and something greater to aspire to. I was looking for role models and something to believe in. And, eventually, it was transgenderism and the transgender community that fulfilled all that for me. It swooped in and took me in its clutches. It basically made me my own God. It gave me a false idol to look to,” Cole said.  

“Transgenderism is spiritual sickness,” she continued. “It’s an endless ladder of climbing the next rung, of searching for the next high, which is why I liken it to addiction very often.” 

The only cure to this sickness is turning to God and restoring the name of Christ in the country, Cole said she believes.  

“We cannot choose the way that we are born, whether we are sick or healthy, disabled or abled, male or female,” Cole said.  

After her detransition, Cole felt abandoned by the transgender community, she said. To heal, she started her faith journey. 

“It was one of the roughest parts of my life,” she recalled. 

When Cole started speaking out about her story, many Christian men and women entered her life, such as the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. 

“[They] were good influences, who held me accountable, who were actively working my life to make me a better person and let me know that I was loved. And I think in many ways God spoke through those people to me,” Cole said. 

“But obviously, it was not the people who saved me, it was Christ,” she continued. 

For Cole, her faith in Jesus Christ is more fulfilling than anything else in her life. It healed her, she said.  

“One of the most important lessons that my faith has taught me is that God doesn’t leave anything untouched. You can lose everything, and you can still be whole, because our identity is not in what we think ourselves to be, it’s in who God has created us to be, and we have to trust in that,” Cole said.  

Cole said she believes that a person can never find true contentment in adopting a transgender identity.  

“God has a plan for every single one of us, but it doesn’t come through chasing our own desires, especially if they go against God’s design and will for us,” Cole said. “Happiness is not going to come from living a dishonest life. It’s not going to come from rejecting the way that you’re made in your mother’s womb.” 

Nonetheless, Cole thinks that every transgender-identifying individual should be viewed as a potential detransitioner that there is hope for.  

“I think it [transgenderism] is a complete lie. I think it’s a scam, and I think it is backed only by ideology rooted in falsehood, because we are not designed to change from one sex to another. Sex is a constant thing in our lives, and this is backed up not just by biblical teachings, but by science. No matter how many drugs one person takes, no matter what surgeries they get, no matter how surgeons will mutilate their bodies, it will not achieve that goal of changing sex,” Cole said. 

Cole said that one of her favorite Scripture passages is 1 Corinthians 7:18-20:

Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. 

“It says circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commandments is what counts,” Cole said. 

When she first read the verse, Cole said she grappled with the loss of her breasts and contemplated whether to undergo reconstruction surgery. 

“It just hurts that a part of me has been taken for me, especially something though so integral to my identity as an adult young woman. I think that there was something about this passage that really stood out to me, and I think it made me think about the fact that it doesn’t matter what has happened to my body, what parts have been taken, or what is still there. It doesn’t matter because I am never going to be whole, breasts or not, without God and without my faith,” Cole said.

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Somali Scammers Allegedly Stole Almost as Much in Minnesota as Entire Somalia GDP - The Daily Signal

Somali Scammers Allegedly Stole Almost as Much in Minnesota as Entire Somalia GDP

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The amount of fraudulent billing in Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could be as high as $9 billion, Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson said Dec. 18.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency was already sending additional resources in an X post Sunday, saying the deployment occurred before a 42-minute video of independent journalist Nick Shirley visiting various day care centers went viral Friday.

Thompson described the situation as involving “industrial-scale fraud,” according to CBS News Minnesota.

“When I say significant amount, I’m talking on the order of half or more, but we’ll see,” Thompson said. “When I look at the claims data and the providers, I see more red flags than I see legitimate providers.”

Somalia’s gross domestic product was $11.97 billion in 2024, according to a release from the country’s Bureau of National Statistics. Whistleblowers in Maine and Ohio have alleged that similar schemes by Somali scammers have taken place in those states.

Previously, Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after reports of at least $1 billion in fraud. Allegations that some of the stolen funds went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab prompted a probe by the Treasury Department.

In his 42-minute viral video posted Friday to X, Shirley attempted to visit multiple day care centers run by Somalis that had reportedly received state funds, in many cases not finding children.

‘What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes,” Thompson said. “It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.”

In November, a number of state employees accused Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of engaging in “systemic” retaliation against whistleblowers who warned of the fraud schemes. Walz has since criticized President Donald Trump over the administration’s response to the reported fraud.

Trump announced he would end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota in response to the allegations of the fraud scheme, and also said the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.”

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

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7 Big Border and Immigration Moves of 2025   - The Daily Signal

7 Big Border and Immigration Moves of 2025  

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen /

Seven weeks after Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump stood before America and declared the U.S. southern border secure.  

“The media and our friends in the Democratic Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president,” Trump said to loud applause during his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4.  

Now, 11 months into Trump’s second term, the administration, under the leadership of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan, has largely succeeded in the aggressive implementation of Trump’s border and immigration agenda.  

“President Trump is delivering on his promise to Make America Safe Again and deport criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal.  

“In record time, we have totally secured the border and are carrying out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history. Next year, the administration will continue to build upon our historic successes with even more deportations,” Jackson said. 

Day 1 ‘Emergency’  

Pen in hand, Trump signed an executive order during his first hours as the 47th president to declare the situation at the southern border a national emergency. The order allowed Trump to deploy additional military personnel and resources to the border.  

From January to February 2025, encounters with illegal aliens between the ports of entry at the southern border fell by over a third.  

In addition to the emergency declaration, Trump signed executive orders on his first day in office ending “catch and release” at the border, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, temporarily suspending processing of refugee applications, and more.  

Birthright Citizenship 

Arguably, the most controversial executive order Trump signed not just on his first day in office, but over the course of his first 11 months sitting back behind the Resolute Desk, was his order ending automatic birthright citizenship.  

The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

Trump’s executive order focuses on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and holds that those born to parents who are not in the U.S. legally are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and are therefore not legal citizens.   

Legal action was immediately taken to block Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, and on Dec. 5, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the case next year in what is expected to be the biggest Supreme Court case of 2026.  

No Releases 

For seven straight months, zero illegal aliens have been released into the interior of the U.S., the White House announced Dec. 15. The numbers are in stark contrast to the Biden administration, which saw about 10 million illegal aliens enter the U.S. over four years.  

Additionally, about 600,000 illegal aliens have been deported since Jan. 20, and 1.9 million have self-deported, according to DHS.  

‘Bringing Hell’ to a City Near You 

Border czar Tom Homan has championed Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in cities across the U.S. since Trump returned to office.  

From the start, Homan pledged to send additional ICE resources to Sanctuary Cities that refused to cooperate with ICE, such as Boston.  

“I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me,” Homan said during a speech in February.  

Over the past 11 months, ICE has carried out operations arresting illegal aliens in cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.  

Shot at, Bit, and Assaulted: Violence Against ICE Spikes  

Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, assaults against immigration agents have seen a 1,150% increase in 2025, according to DHS.

Agents have been threatened, spat on, hit, bit, and even shot at.  

In September, a shooter opened fire on an immigration detention facility in Dallas. An investigation revealed that the shooter was suspected of firing at agents but instead struck illegal aliens, two of whom were killed.  

The words “Anti ICE” were found inscribed on some of the recovered shell casings.  

Detention Facilities  

The Trump administration announced the opening of new illegal alien detention facilities across the U.S. in 2025.  

Upon being apprehended, illegal aliens cannot immediately be deported. Mass deportation efforts require an equal number of beds to hold illegal aliens until the proper legal and logistical steps are completed to carry out the deportation.  

Alligator Alcatraz, a tent detention facility in the Florida Everglades, opened in the middle of 2025. Multiple lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to shut down the facility.  

Additionally, DHS has announced the expansion of an ICE detention facility in Nebraska, naming it the Cornhusker Clink. In Indiana, the Miami Correctional Center partnered with DHS to create the Speedway Slammer detention facility. And in September, DHS announced the Louisiana Lockup detention facility in partnership with the Louisiana State Penitentiary.  

“Louisiana Lockup, Cornhusker Clink, and Speedway Slammer give ICE the ability to lock up some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and gang members,” according to DHS.  

Kilmar Abrego Garcia 

No singular illegal alien has made more headlines in 2025 than Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  

Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was living in Maryland when he was deported to El Salvador in March.  

The Trump administration initially said he was removed due to an “administrative error,” but later said that was an inaccurate claim.   

After a legal battle and outcry from Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., traveling to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia and demand his release, the illegal alien was brought back to the U.S. in June after a court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return.   

Abrego Garcia was released from criminal custody in Tennessee in August and returned to Maryland, where he was then taken into immigration custody. A judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting Abrego Garcia a second time, and on Dec. 11, a judge ordered Abrego Garcia released from immigration custody.

The Trump administration is appealing the judge’s decision.  

Abrego Garcia’s case is just one of many legal battles the Trump administration continues to fight on issues related to the implantation and execution of the Trump’s border and immigration agenda.  

Related posts:

  1. Unlike Biden, Trump Really Is Addressing the ‘Root Causes’ of the Border Crisis
  2. DHS Encourages Illegal Aliens to Go ‘Home for the Holidays’ With $3,000 Stipend
  3. CNN’s Dana Bash Admits Border Is ‘Story of Accomplishment’ For Donald Trump
Republicans’ 2025 Rollercoaster Comes to an End. Or Is It Just Beginning? - The Daily Signal

Republicans’ 2025 Rollercoaster Comes to an End. Or Is It Just Beginning?

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell /

Halfway through the 119th Congress, it’s time to take a look at Republican leadership’s report card.

With razor-thin majorities in both Houses, Republicans have succeeded in extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and defunding public broadcasting and foreign aid.

But there are storm clouds on the horizon. Democrats are looking to take back the lower chamber in the 2026 midterms, while Republicans are engaged in a health care policy push, the fate of which is very uncertain.

With the new year upon us, it’s worth looking back at the moments when Republicans have triumphed and struggled in getting results out their unwieldy coalition.

Johnson’s Reelection Bid

The first item on the agenda for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., was getting reelected as the chamber’s top-ranking member in January.

Just as the gavel was difficult to come by when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in 2023, it was difficult to maintain.

In the first round of votes, Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Keith Self of Texas, and Ralph Norman of South Carolina all cast their votes against Johnson, while Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, defiantly abstained from voting.

Eventually, after communication with the White House and with Johnson, enough holdouts agreed to elect him, but with the understanding that he would commit to fiscal conservatism.

After Johnson was reelected, fiscal hawks made clear they expected an aggressively conservative approach from Johnson throughout the Congress. 

“I think we had some reservations that are sincere, based on the speaker’s past 15 months as the speaker,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told The Daily Signal in a phone interview at the time. “But we have steadfast support of the president and his timely certification, and so we don’t want to imperil that. And so, it’s a balance. But we also wanted to send a signal that business as usual around here is not going to stand.” 

He added, “The speaker is on notice that if he’s going to continue to lead like he has over the last 15 months, it’s not going to end well,” he continued.

The ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” stands as the most important piece of legislation passed in the 119th Congress thus far.

The first few months of President Donald Trump’s new administration were consumed by feverish debates over a budget reconciliation bill that would extend and expand on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, put work requirements into the Medicaid program, and reverse much of President Joe Biden’s green energy policies, and fund mass deportation efforts.

The bill started out in the House, where for months leadership faced pressure from various camps within their narrow majority. The benefit of a budget reconciliation bill is its immunity to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, allowing leadership to focus solely on acquiring Republican votes.

On the one hand, there was the SALT faction. These blue-state Republicans demanded an increase to the cap on state and local tax deductions for their constituents, which allow Americans to deduct their local taxes on their federal tax returns.

The SALT faction emerged with a win, as the bill boosted its deduction cap up to $40,000 a year, up from $10,000 in 2024.

Then there was the House Freedom Caucus, which exerted pressure on the speaker every step of the way. From the beginning, they made their demands clear: matching new tax cuts to spending cuts to make up for potential revenue losses, ending the subsidization of green energy, and cost-saving reforms of Medicaid.

The House was able to perform a balancing act between these and other factions, sending the bill to the Senate before Memorial Day.

Left to right: House Freedom Caucus Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland, and Clay Higgins of Louisiana. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In the Senate, leadership had a shorter time frame for turning the bill around. Surprisingly, the Senate included new conservative health care provisions, such as capping the health care provider tax—a tool used by states to extract more federal funds.

Additionally, the Senate expanded on the House’s tax cuts, making some conservatives in the House nervous about a departure from the House’s insistence on matching tax cuts with spending cuts.

On the other hand, the Senate aggressively cut out green energy tax incentives in the big, beautiful bill.

Ultimately, there were winners and losers in the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., voted against it due to the provider tax cap, and subsequently announced he would not be seeking another term when Trump threatened a primary challenge.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also voted against it due to complaints over its increase to the debt ceiling, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted nay due to its entitlement reforms.

Others emerged with wins that ensured it passage, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who voted for the bill after a number of Alaska-related provisions were included, such as a tax deduction for Alaskan whaling captains. 

At the end, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., succeeded in getting it across the finish line when Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote allowed it to pass by a 51-50 margin.

The bill then made it over to the House, where, despite significant changes in the Senate that made both moderates and hardliners uneasy, it finally passed on July 3 and was signed into law on Independence Day, July 4.

The Shutdown

This Congress made history for the wrong reasons this year, too.

Democrat demands over health care for illegal aliens and an extension of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19-era increases to premium tax credit levels resulted in the longest federal government shutdown ever.

The shutdown spanned 43 days from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12.

Republicans, under the leadership of Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., refused to the very end, arguing the subsidies are inflationary, prone to fraud, and prop up a broken system.

What ensued was weeks of repeated voting on a government funding stopgap mechanism.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., compared the ordeal to the movie “Groundhog Day,” as Republicans continued to put funding bills on the Senate floor and Democrats continued to reject them.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

There were many unusual things about this shutdown, though. For one, Johnson decided to keep the House out of session up until the end. 

Additionally, Trump’s trolling of Democrats went into overdrive with the president posting artificial intelligence-generated videos of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both D-N.Y., in sombreros demanding health care benefits for illegal immigrants.

The shutdown eventually came to an end when a coalition of Democrats agreed to pass a funding package consisting of a clean funding extension combined with a package of appropriations bills and a promise of a vote on extending the premium tax credits.

It was soon thereafter passed by the House and sent to the president, ending a shutdown which strained every part of the federal government.

An Inconclusive Finish

It is an awkward moment for Republicans at the halfway point in this Congress, and especially in the House.

Although Democrats eventually gave in to Republicans in the shutdown battle, they did succeed in turning the Capitol’s focus towards the issue of the expiration of premium tax credits.

Therefore, it is still an open question who won the messaging battle during the shutdown given the health care emphasis has triggered both parties to propose health care cost solutions to close out the year.

Democrats are seldom confronted with the fact that they voted twice—without any Republican support—to have the current health care premium credits expire.

But Republicans still need to get a premium-slashing piece of health care legislation to the president’s desk. On Dec. 17, the House passed a health care package by a vote of 216 to 211 that could lower premiums by more than 10%.

There are potential signs of unease ahead of the midterm elections.

Having been consigned to a background role for the first half of the year, Democrats priorities have now retaken the Capitol Hill spotlight—namely, government subsidized health care.

What’s more, House GOP members have started to regularly go behind Johnson’s back to sign on to discharge petitions—a mechanism used to bypass leadership and force consideration of a bill. 

Multiple bills have already passed the House after being advanced by petition—a bill to compel the release of files on the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and another restoring federal workers’ union rights.

On the Wednesday before Christmas break, a group of moderate Republicans signed on to a petition backed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., which will force a vote on a three-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits.

In some ways, the House is operating as one would expect it to with such narrow margins. The Republican party is an ideologically diverse coalition, yet leadership has done a relatively effective job of calming intraparty drama up to this point.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

There have also been high-profile announcements of retirements in the House. 

The most prominent was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., once one of Trump’s favorite House members before an ugly falling out. Greene will resign her seat on Jan. 5, 2026.

Midterm Madness

Heading into 2026, expect affordability to be the top concern on Capitol Hill leading up to the 2026 midterms.

On Dec. 17, Trump spoke directly to the American people in a televised speech from the White House, in which he touted the Republicans’ success in slowing inflation, as well as securing the border.

The speech followed rallies held by both Trump and Vance in important Pennsylvania swing districts.

What comes next is a mystery, but historically, the party in the White House suffers in the midterms.

However, there is no clear indication Democrats have mended the fractures in their coalition that were exposed in 2024—which saw Hispanic and Middle Eastern voters shift to the Republican Party, as well as dismal turnout for Democrats from black voters. 

Democrats also saw their positions on immigration and transgenderism thoroughly rejected in 2024, while narratives on abortion access and Trump as a threat to democracy did not yield results.

Additionally, the House map includes many more Democrat-represented districts won by Trump than Republican-represented districts won by Kamala Harris. 

Republicans also have a Senate pickup opportunity in Michigan, where former Rep. Mike Rogers narrowly lost in 2024, as well as in Georgia, where they hope to unseat Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff. There are also very real Democrat pickup opportunities in Maine and North Carolina.

The onus is now on Republicans in Congress to pass popular legislation and effectively counter Democrat messaging. 

Should they fail and lose control of one chamber in Congress, the results are predictable: impeachment efforts, congressional investigations of the administration, and an inability to advance conservative legislation.

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell contributed reporting.

Related posts:

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  3. Republicans Try a New Strategy to End Shutdown
Victor Davis Hanson Shares Health Update Ahead of Medical Operation - The Daily Signal

Victor Davis Hanson Shares Health Update Ahead of Medical Operation

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey /

Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson announced on his popular podcast that he will have a major medical operation this week. His show will continue with co-host Jack Fowler as Hanson recovers.

“I’m having a major operation, and I’ve been presented with a serious problem, but I’m going to do all I can to solve it. And that’s all I can do and trust in the power of prayer, and faith—and in a wonderful surgeon,” Hanson said. “I finally ended up going to the best medical center that I know, Stanford Med, and the people there have been absolutely wonderful. It’ll work out one way or the other.”

Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marcia Buske distinguished fellow in history at Hillsdale College. He joined The Daily Signal as a senior contributor earlier this year, providing daily video commentaries.

His popular podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” is available four times throughout the week. At the start of Friday’s episode, Hanson announced that he would have an operation Tuesday to address an ongoing health problem.

“I don’t want to talk about my own problems, but I’ve had people call me and say, ‘You don’t look well, you’re hoarse, or you’re coughing.’ But it’s been a nine-month odyssey because the problem I had for a nonsmoker and nondrinker was a rare type and very hard to diagnose, so it’s no one’s fault other than my own perhaps for not realizing why I was not getting well,” Hanson said.

After recently having a biopsy, Hanson decided to proceed with an operation that will interrupt his work—but hopefully not for long, he said.

“I’ll be fine. At least I’ll do my best for everybody,” Hanson said. “I think I have an obligation to all of our readers and listeners from whom I get wonderful letters expressing support and good wishes; our listeners and viewers are extraordinarily kind people.”

Fowler noted that Hanson’s legion of fans left hundreds of comments offering their prayers. In addition to his podcast and syndicated column, Hanson writes exclusive content for his website, Blade of Perseus, at victorhanson.com.

While he is recovering, Fowler will continue to host the show in Hanson’s absence.

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12 Shows Dominated Cable News in 2025—Here’s Who Led the Pack - The Daily Signal

12 Shows Dominated Cable News in 2025—Here’s Who Led the Pack

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon /

As the year draws to a close, Fox News Channel once again dominated its cable news competition—and challenged broadcast networks for ratings supremacy.

Leading the way, Fox News’ popular 5 p.m. show, “The Five,” claimed the top spot for the fourth consecutive year. “The Five” averaged 4.1 million viewers in 2025. This year marked the show’s best performance since its 2011 launch.

The show features hosts Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jesse Watters, Jessica Tarlov, and Harold Ford Jr., along with rotating guests, who discuss the day’s top news stories. Not only did “The Five” trounce other cable news shows, but it also beat broadcast programs like CBS’ “Hollywood Squares” and “The Neighborhood” and ABC’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”

Overall, Fox News delivered its highest ratings in a non-election year in the channel’s history. It marked the network’s second-best year ever with an average of 3.2 million weekday primetime viewers—beating NBC and rivaling ABC and CBS, even though those networks are more widely available.

Throughout the week, average primetime viewership on Fox News reached 2,718,000 viewers, a 14% increase from 2024, according to according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel.

MS Now dropped 25% in 2025, reaching an average of 923,000 primetime viewers. CNN finished down 15% and averaged 580,000 viewers.

The decline of its cable news rivals gave Fox News a commanding 64% of the cable news audience in primetime and across the day—its highest audience since since its launch in 1996.

Fox News not only dominated on TV but also expanded its reach on YouTube, garnering 4.3 billion views across the platform. These numbers also outpaced MS Now, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS, according to Emplifi.

“Delivering another record-breaking year, outpacing broadcast networks, and reaching new highs on YouTube is a testament to the strength of our brand and our ability to meet the audience where they are,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said.

“I am incredibly proud of our unrivaled team on and off camera, whose journalism, global newsgathering skills and powerful voices continue to set the standard in news and connect with Americans nationwide,” Scott added.

The top 1,080 cable news telecasts in 2025 were aired by Fox News. The network also produced the top 12 most-viewed cable news programs:

  1. “The Five”
  2. “Jesse Watters Primetime”
  3. “Hannity”
  4. “Special Report with Bret Baier”
  5. “Gutfeld!”
  6. “The Ingraham Angle”
  7. “The Will Cain Show”
  8. “Outnumbered”
  9. “The Faulkner Focus”
  10. “America’s Newsroom”
  11. “The Story with Martha MacCallum”
  12. “America Reports”

Each of the 12 shows had double-digit year-over-year growth with viewers.

Fox News also has the most politically diverse audience in cable news, serving as the choice for more Democrat and independent viewers than its competition, according to Nielsen/MRI Fusion.

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If Change Is Inevitable in Venezuela, Will Cuba and Nicaragua Soon Follow? - The Daily Signal

If Change Is Inevitable in Venezuela, Will Cuba and Nicaragua Soon Follow?

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun /

For millions of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans living in South Florida, the question is no longer whether change will come to their homelands, but when—and at what cost. As United States pressure intensifies on Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, the potential collapse of one regime could reshape the future of all three.

The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean has exposed Venezuela’s role in the drug trade contributing to 100,000 American deaths annually since 2021.

But at minimum, Cuba is an enabler, providing thousands of intelligence, military, and other security “advisors” to Venezuela and despot Daniel Ortega’s government in Nicaragua. Cuba also exports its doctors to Venezuela and other countries, selling their forced services (aka “modern day slavery”) for billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

As brought to light in recent days with the U.S. seizure of a sanctioned tanker on its way to Cuba, Venezuela also sends cheap oil to its two allies to keep those regimes in power.

The three regimes, under a banner of faux socialism, are actually a criminal alliance of entitled groups of civilian and military elite profiting from greed.

Researcher Juan Antonio Blanco calls the criminal element in Cuba a “modern day mafia” holding billions of dollars in secret accounts during a time when Cuba blames the U.S. embargo on a financing shortfall for annual food imports. Human rights atrocities and collapsed living conditions have systematically erased any lingering public support for Fidel Castro’s Marxist-Leninist Cuban policies, the “21st century” Venezuela socialism of Hugo Chavez, and Ortega’s Sandinista revolution.

Not surprisingly, along with Haiti, the three countries have the highest rates of extreme poverty in the hemisphere.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the faux socialist “triad” of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela share a common tactical playbook: harassment of religious communities, legal obstruction, favoritism toward certain religious groups, and closure of civic space.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says they are among “the most flagrant violators of religious freedom worldwide” and international observers say the violations amount to “crimes against humanity.”

The regimes’ motive for these abuses? Faith leaders and churches, who defend human rights and democracy, are far more respected than these corrupt government leaders—as such, the regimes feel compelled to silence their voices.

These regimes continue to thumb their noses at religious rights advocates. On Dec. 10, Venezuela detained Cardinal Baltazar Porras, a staunch regime critic, and banned him from leaving the country.

The next day, in Cuba, a Mexican priest, Father José Ramírez, who led feeding programs for senior citizens, was expelled from the country after he rang church bells in solidarity with community members protesting intolerable living conditions.

In Nicaragua, the Ortega government crushes freedom of religion, imprisoning and deporting Catholic and evangelical leaders, confiscating their schools and other property, and shutting down over 2,000 faith-based organizations.

The Venezuela regime’s days may be numbered, and with it may go Cuba’s junta as it runs out of regional supporters.

As well, last month the U.S. Trade Office surveyed stakeholders on a proposal to eject Nicaragua from the U.S. trade agreement with Central America, CAFTA-DR, possibly in early 2026.

A forced exit could be a deathblow to Daniel Ortega’s tenuous relationship with Nicaragua’s business community.

In the unlikely scenario that Maduro survives the next few months, Venezuela should be added to the U.S. Department of State’ list of Countries of Particular Concern for its “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom,” joining Cuba and Nicaragua on the list since 2022.

My organization, Outreach Aid to the Americas, has defended religious freedom and provided for the humanitarian needs of persecuted peoples in the region, working through our extensive faith community networks, for more than 30 years.

While we promote peacebuilding and non-violent solutions, we recognize the tragedy of totalitarian rule in these three countries and the regimes’ firm lock on power.

As such, we fully stand by tougher measures to end these criminal operations and restore democracy and essential human rights for the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

Originally published by The Washington Stand.

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

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5 Chaotic Gubernatorial Races to Watch in the New Year - The Daily Signal

5 Chaotic Gubernatorial Races to Watch in the New Year

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—While the 2026 midterm elections have garnered widespread media attention for the fierce battle to control both houses of Congress, voters in three dozen states will also head to the polls to elect governors.

Of the 36 governor’s mansions up for grabs in the midterms, half are controlled by Democrats and half by Republicans. With more than 10 months to go before Election Day, primary season is already in full swing, and several gubernatorial races across the country have been marked by unpredictability and drawn significant attention.

Florida

Incumbent Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022, is term limited and cannot run for a third consecutive time—paving the way for a contested GOP primary to succeed him.

Long-regarded as a hotly-contested swing state, Florida is now a Republican stronghold that Trump carried by 13 points in 2024. Therefore, it is widely believed that the candidate that emerges as the party’s nominee for the governor’s mansion following the Aug. 18, 2026 primary will win the November general election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the Sunshine State’s contest as “Solid R.”

Trump had endorsed Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds for governor in February—five days before Donalds entered the race—cementing the 47-year-old congressman as the race’s early odds-on frontrunner. In addition to the president, Donalds also has received the support of Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a handful of his congressional colleagues, multiple members of Trump’s cabinet and billionaire Elon Musk.

DeSantis, however, has yet to make an endorsement and may still back another GOP primary candidate. An anonymous source familiar with Florida politics told the Daily Caller in November that the state’s sitting governor is “point-blank trashing” Donalds to donors. Donalds, along with the vast majority of Florida’s congressional Republicans, notably endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. 

Republican Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a key DeSantis ally whom the governor appointed to the state’s No. 2 job in August, has signaled that he is open to entering the gubernatorial race but has also yet to either declare his candidacy or decline to run.

Early in 2025, observers speculated that DeSantis’ wife Casey DeSantis may run to succeed her husband, but such talk has subsided. Mrs. DeSantis has yet to state her intention either way.

Donalds’ only current primary challenger to have held electoral office is former Florida state House Speaker Paul Renner, a self-styled “pro-Trump, pro-DeSantis Republican.” Despite this, DeSantis has come out in vocal opposition to Renner’s longshot campaign, calling his former legislative ally’s decision to run “ill-advised.”

Also in the GOP primary race is James Fishback, the 30-year-old CEO of investment firm Azoria Partners and a vocal critic of H-1B visas, who is campaigning to Donalds’ right. Fishback in February came under scrutiny after proposing the viral idea that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency  send $5,000 dividend checks to households using money saved by the initiative.

Stopping short of entering the race, Collins in a Nov. 20 X post took a dig at Donalds writing, “In my first 100 days as Lieutenant Governor, I’ve already outperformed the guy in Congress still trying to convince people he’s ready to lead Florida.”

In response to a user asking him to say Donalds’ name, the lieutenant governor replied “H1-Byron,” appearing to repeat a line of attack also used by Fishback to paint the Trump-endorsed candidate as too lenient on the issue of immigration.

Democrat candidates vying to succeed DeSantis include former Republican Florida Rep. David Jolly—a former MSNBC contributor widely associated with the “Never Trump” movement—and Jerry Demings, deep-blue Orange County’s mayor and former sheriff. The Democratic Party has not won Florida’s governor’s mansion since 1994.

Ohio

Similar to Florida, Ohio is a former swing state that is now firmly in the Republican column, with Trump carrying it by double digits in 2024. The Buckeye and Sunshine states are also similar in that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, like DeSantis, is term-limited and cannot seek reelection.

However, unlike Donalds, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump-endorsed candidate seems to have cleared the GOP field, with the Ohio Republican Party opting in May to endorse him. Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump and DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has also received the endorsements of Musk, Vice President JD Vance—a native Ohioan—and both of Ohio’s senators. 

Trump originally announced that Ramaswamy would work with Musk to jointly run DOGE, but as the president began his second term, Ramaswamy instead pivoted to running for governor and never ended up joining the initiative.

The businessman currently is the only well-known GOP candidate running for Ohio governor. Republican Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost have both in the first half of 2025 dropped out of the GOP gubernatorial primary with the former endorsing Ramaswamy.

On the Democrat side, former Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton seems poised to win the nomination as Democrat Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan passed on a run and Sherrod Brown announced a bid to return to the upper chamber instead. Acton notably presided over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020—which many critics have slammed as too heavy-handed.

When asked by Daily Caller Senior Editor Amber Duke if she had regretted closing Ohio’s schools in the name of COVID, Acton replied, “No, actually, what we were following was the pandemic playbook.”

Ramaswamy has himself hammered Acton on the issue, writing in a June post to X, “Dr. Amy Acton, the Chief Lockdown Officer of Ohio, led us to be the *first state in the nation* to close our public schools, while private schools remained open. … Acton owes our public school students an apology & shouldn’t come anywhere near the levers of power again.”However, recent polling shows that despite Ohio’s strong Republican lean, a Democrat upset in what many are saying is shaping up to be a “blue wave” year may just be on the horizon. A December 2025 Emerson College poll found Acton with a one point lead over Ramaswamy, with 46% of support to his 45%. Emerson College’s poll from four months earlier showed Ramaswamy with a 10-point lead over the Democrat, 49% to 39%.

Cook Political report rates the race as “Likely R.”

California

As term-limited Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom likely gears up to mount his highly-anticipated 2028 presidential run, the state has the potential to elect a Republican to succeed him in 2026.

Although California is a heavily Democrat state, its top-two primary could conceivably result in an all-Republican general election matchup if a crowded Democrat field splits the vote, allowing top GOP candidates—Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton—to finish first and second. 

No clear Democrat frontrunner has emerged, with just six months before voters cast their ballots in the June 2, 2026 all-party primary. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s failed 2024 presidential nominee, announced in late July that she would not seek the California governorship two years after losing the race for the White House—something Richard Nixon tried and failed to do in 1962.

A handful of well-known Democrats remain in the race to take up Newsom’s mantle including, most notably, former Democrat Rep. Katie Porter—who made headlines for appearing to abuse her staff and for allegedly dumping scalding hot mashed potatoes on her then-husband’s head—and Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell—a prominent Trump foe who announced his candidacy on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in late November.

Swalwell was absent for more House votes than any one of his current colleagues, according to data analyzed by the New York Post. The Trump administration in November referred the congressman to the Department of Justice for alleged mortgage fraud.

Other Democrats vying to replace Newsom include former Joe Biden-era Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, to name a few.

While multiple recent polls show the possibility of a fiercely split Democrat primary field locking the party out of the general election, Cook Political Report still rates the race “Solid D.”

Bianco told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a December interview that the lack of a Democrat frontrunner shows that the party is in “shambles” and has “no leadership.”

“If you look back in history, there’s always a secession plan. There’s always someone else in line. That’s how Newsom got in there,” Bianco added. “But the problem for them [Democrats] now is Newsom is the biggest narcissist, probably, in the world and, in his eyes, there is no one capable of filling his shoes.”

Arizona 

Meanwhile, California’s neighbor Arizona, the adopted home state of slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, presents the Republicans’ best chance to unseat an incumbent Democrat governor.

Democrat Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking a second term in office after defeating her Republican opponent by only 17,000 votes in 2022. Hobbs has faced numerous controversies while in office, including a “play-to-pay” campaign finance scandal and her reported lack of transparency about her legal donations.

In addition, the vulnerable governor had a dismal 39% approval rating, compared to a 40% disapproval, according to an Emerson College poll released in mid-November.

Hobbs will take on the winner of what is now a three-way Republican primary, scheduled for Aug. 4, 2026. Cook Political report rates Arizona’s gubernatorial race a “Toss Up.” 

The three Republicans currently vying for the GOP nomination to take on Hobbs in the general election are Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson and Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert. Trump has co-endorsed Biggs and Robson while Kirk had solely endorsed Biggs prior to his Sept. 10 assassination. Schweikert entered the race months after both of the other two candidates.

Emerson College’s mid-November poll showed Hobbs trailing the two Trump-endorsed candidates by one point each and Schweikert by four points. Biggs had a massive lead over both of his primary opponents with 50% of support compared to Robson’s 17% and Schweikert’s 8%, according to the same poll.

In an interview with the Daily Caller’s Ashley Brasfield at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in December, Biggs said that he is “acting like I’m the only one that has [Trump’s] endorsement,” highlighting his close relationship with the president.“Trump and I go back to the first election … he knows I’ve been in the foxholes,” Biggs, who’s been in Congress since 2017, told Brasfield. “I’ve gone through two impeachments with him and about five investigations where I was one of the lead defense counsels, so to speak, for him on all of those. And he knows that. And even know he’ll call me and we’ll talk and we have that relationship ongoing.”

“You can say anybody’s endorsed by you but if you don’t have a relationship with him, it doesn’t really matter,” the GOP frontrunner added.

Michigan

Finally, Michigan proves another prime chance for Republicans to flip a governor’s mansion from blue to red—but this time because of a left-leaning independent candidate who might play spoiler.

Democrat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, like Newsom, is both a rumored potential 2028 White House candidate and barred from running for a third term due to term limits. Cook Political report rates the race to succeed Whitmer as a “Toss Up.”

The open Democrat primary to succeed the incumbent governor features three main candidates, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. Whitmer has stated she has no plans to endorse any candidate in the primary.

Meanwhile, Republican Michigan Rep. John James is the heavy frontrunner to capture the GOP nomination, with his most prominent intraparty rival being former Republican Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.

Trump has yet to endorse a candidate in the GOP primary, but has previously endorsed James during his successful runs for the House as well as his unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate in both 2018 and 2020.

However, the presence of independent Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan—a former lifelong Democrat who left the party in 2024—on the ballot may swing the race in James’ favor.

A Plymouth Union Public Research poll released in mid-October showed James in the lead with 35% of support among likely voters, compared to 31% of support for a generic Democrat and 12% for Duggan. Similarly, an EPIC-MRA poll released in early November showed 34% of support for James, 33% for Benson and 20% for Duggan.

Duggan blasted his former party in October, telling Politico, “Everything the Democrats have to say is terrible about Republicans.”

“I am waiting for the Democratic Party to step forward and say, ‘Here’s our affordable housing proposal. Here’s our mental health treatment proposal,’” the independent gubernatorial candidate added at the time. “It’s just been so frustrating to watch the Democratic Party lose its way.”

Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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5 Trump Moves From 2025 You Didn’t Hear About From Legacy Media - The Daily Signal

5 Trump Moves From 2025 You Didn’t Hear About From Legacy Media

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /

About 70% of Americans said they didn’t have “very much” or any trust that news outlets would fairly cover President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a YouGov poll.

Media Research Center found that 92% of the major network media coverage of Trump during his first 100 days in office was negative.

As Trump’s second administration nears its one year anniversary, here are five stories about the president’s achievements that you won’t find in legacy media coverage.

1. Pardoning the FACE Act Prisoners

On Jan. 23, Trump pardoned the 23 pro-lifers who were convicted for actions including praying outside abortion clinics and encouraging women in unplanned pregnancies to choose life.

“They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted,” the president said.

The predecessor Biden-Harris administration’s Justice Department had brought criminal or civil cases under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against at least 50 pro-life advocates. Twenty-three were convicted. Ten were released from prison after the pardons.

The Daily Signal spoke to several of the pardoned pro-life advocates, who thanked the president for setting them free.

“I’m very thankful to the Lord to be pardoned and to get back into the fight against baby-murdering and to serve the Lord and to be with my family,” Calvin Zastrow, 64, told The Daily Signal.

“I really believe that President Trump saved my life,” Paulette Harlow, 75, told The Daily Signal. “Because if I had ever gone to prison, I don’t think I would have made it. And I certainly would not have been able to have my back surgeries and everything that I needed to have and have taken care of.”

2. Expanding the Mexico City Policy

On Jan. 24, President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy after President Joe Biden rescinded it.

The State Department announced in October that it was working to expand the scope of the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars for foreign abortions.

“The department will soon take additional steps to close loopholes that allowed taxpayer funding for promotion of abortion in previous iterations of the Mexico City Policy and expand the scope of the policy to ensure every penny of U.S. foreign assistance prioritizes American values, not the woke agenda,” a senior State Department official told The Daily Signal.

The expanded policy will prohibit U.S. funding for gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. For example, the State Department is ending a $2 million grant to fund gender-affirming operations in Guatemala.

The new provision restricts a broader range of nongovernmental organization programming, such as those for HIV/AIDS, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, maternal and child health, nutrition, and infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

This scope of the policy will apply across all non-military foreign assistance.

Trump also renewed America’s membership in the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a 40-nation coalition of countries that declare that there is no international right to abortion.

3. Classifying Transgender Procedures for Kids as Human Rights Violations

As of November, the State Department is classifying “destructive ideologies” formerly promoted by the Biden administration in the United States as human rights violations.

The State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices will now account for transgender procedures for minors, DEI hiring, attacks on free speech, and state-funded abortions, a State Department official told The Daily Signal.

The State Department submits Human Rights Reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.

Member states will be required to count the number of abortions taking place in their countries, and they will be denounced for funding abortions or the distribution of drugs which end an unborn baby’s life.

4. Ending Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for Illegal Migrant Children

The Department of Health and Human Services is moving to roll back a Biden-era regulation that allows taxpayer dollars to pay for unaccompanied illegal alien children in the U.S. to travel to get abortions, The Daily Signal first reported.

HHS is cleaning up the Biden administration regulation so that it is in compliance with the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions, HHS officials told The Daily Signal. 

“HHS is reviewing the relevant regulations and guidance to ensure they align with all applicable laws, including the Hyde Amendment,” an HHS official told The Daily Signal in a statement.

On Nov. 10, 2022, the Biden administration proposed the “Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule,” which required the Office of Refugee Resettlement to “ensure unaccompanied children have access to medical care, including transportation across state lines and associated ancillary services if necessary to access appropriate medical services, including access to medical specialists, family planning services, and medical services requiring heightened ORR involvement.”

The Biden rule violates the Hyde Amendment, the 1976 law prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions, according to a July memorandum of opinion from Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel, a branch of the Department of Justice. 

Now, the Department of Health and Human Services is undergoing the task of challenging a final rule on a topic with a history of court precedent. 

5. Upgrading Human Trafficking Hotline

The Trump administration has chosen a new provider to run its human trafficking hotline after complaints that the Biden administration’s provider failed to answer calls from victims, The Daily Signal first reported.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families announced a five-year, projected $35 million grant to Compass Connections to run the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

HHS received complaints from victims and state attorneys general that with the previous provider under the Biden administration, wait times were too long, calls were dropped, and victims could not rely on the hotline to deliver the necessary quality of service.

“State attorneys general were telling us that third-party tips were not getting delivered to law enforcement, so their investigations into human trafficking were hindered,” acting Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison told The Daily Signal, “and they had a much harder time getting criminals off the streets of human trafficking, to get information where it needs to go on time in an accurate way, so that law enforcement can make arrests and end human trafficking.”

The award includes an increase of $1 million annually and will bring annual funding to $7 million, showing Trump’s commitment to protecting survivors of human trafficking, according to Gradison.

This article was originally published Dec. 27, 2025.

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The ‘Swamp Fox’ Who Put the British Lion on the Run and Changed War for a Century - The Daily Signal

The ‘Swamp Fox’ Who Put the British Lion on the Run and Changed War for a Century

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell /

A quarter of a millennium ago, a “Swamp Fox” and his rag-tag group of compatriots put the lion of the British Empire on the run—and changed how wars were fought on the North American continent for a century.

This Swamp Fox was Francis Marion. Marion was born in Berkeley County, South Carolina, during the 1730s. The South Carolinian, like many in the area, was the descendant of Huguenots—French Protestants forced out of their country after they lost the right to practice their religion.

Although Marion’s war-fighting experience predated the American Revolution—he was a veteran of the French and Indian War—Marion earned his nickname and his notoriety for his service in the American Revolution. 

After the fall of Charleston to the British in May of 1780, Marion would become a principal leader of the resistance in South Carolina. The disastrous surrender essentially left the colony in the hands of the British.

In the name of reclaiming South Carolina for the Americans, Marion would pioneer a style of guerrilla warfare

He galvanized and organized groups of rag-tag part-time soldiers to destroy British boats and disrupt British supply lines.

Marion’s war against British and loyalist forces would play a major role in keeping the revolution alive in South Carolina.

However, his irregular militia was not the most dependable fighting force.

Gen. Nathanael Greene wrote in a letter that Marion and fellow South Carolinian Thomas Sumter were “brave and good officers, but the people with them just come and go as they please.”

Greene, however, was tasked with reinforcing the mission to reclaim South Carolina. His arrival in late 1780 turned the tide of the war in the Americans’ favor.

Marion’s forces fought alongside Henry Lee III, better known as “Light Horse Harry,” the father of future Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. In April and May of 1781, the Swamp Fox’s militia and the Virginian patrician’s Continental Army troops carried out successful sieges on Fort Watson and Fort Motte, which hastened the withdrawal of the British from the state.

At Watson, Marion’s men constructed a tower, from which they fired rifles into the fort, forcing its surrender.

After the siege, Greene thanked the war-worn swamp fox for his years of service against all odds.

“History affords no instance wherein an officer has kept possession of a country under so many disadvantages as you have; surrounded on every side with a superior force; hunted from every quarter with veteran troops, you have found means to elude all their attempts, and to keep alive the expiring hopes of an oppressed Militia, when all succour seems to be cut off,” the April 1781 letter read.

At Fort Motte, a plantation mansion repurposed as a British fortress, Lee and Marion made use of flaming arrows to set the fort ablaze and force the British out. Lee did get permission from the owner, Rebecca Motte, to burn down the house. Motte not only assented, but, according to Lee’s memoirs, personally supplied her own bow and arrows imported from India to set on fire and burn down the house.

In the final major battle of the Carolinas theater, Marion fought in September of 1781 alongside Lee at the Battel of Eutaw Spring, which occurred during the lead-up to America’s decisive victory in Yorktown, Virginia.

With American independence secure, Marion returned to his plantation only to find it destroyed. Though he did not sign the Declaration of Independence, to that cause he too had pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor. He died in 1795.

According to the writings of his comrade William James, an epitaph placed above Marion’s gravestone read, “This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected in commemoration of the noble and disinterested virtues of the citizen; and the gallant exploits of the soldier; Who lived without fear, and died without reproach.”

When a different question of independence plunged America into a war that pitted brother against brother, combatants found inspiration in Marion’s successes during the revolution.

The inspiration drawn from the South Carolinian was especially felt in the south.

Marion was a strong influence on John Mosby, the “gray ghost” of the Confederacy who waged a similar style of warfare to great effect against Union troops in Northern Virginia, assisting the strategy of Light Horse Harry Lee’s son Robert E. Lee.

Mosby’s praise of Marion shows the swamp fox’s importance in the development of a style of guerrilla warfare that would continue into the Civil War.

“I remember how I shouted when I read aloud in the nursery of the way the great partisan hid in the swamp and outwitted the British,” Mosby writes in his memoirs of reading a biography of Marion as a child. “I did not then expect that the time would ever come when I would … take part in adventures that have been compared with Marion’s.”

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What Unfinished Business Congress Will Face in January - The Daily Signal

What Unfinished Business Congress Will Face in January

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—After its Christmas break concludes, Congress is set to return in January with a host of unfinished business that could shape the political terrain of 2026. 

A short-term funding bill that ended the historic government shutdown in November expires on Jan. 30. Legislators have yet to implement healthcare reform following a new public focus on affordability in a GOP-controlled Congress bracing for the 2026 midterm elections.

“When I became the majority leader, I made it very clear that I was committed to funding the government through the regular order of consideration of appropriations bills, not through an omnibus or long-term [continuing resolution], oftentimes written behind closed doors,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in his session-closing remarks on the Senate floor on Dec. 18.

“The regular order process gives senators from both parties the fullest chance to make their voices and the voices of their constituents heard. Which is why I’m disappointed that we’ll not be moving to our second package of appropriations bills tonight. Republicans were ready to go. But, unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues are not there yet. Hopefully, they will get there.”

The Senate, facing a Jan. 30 funding deadline, is preparing a package of five funding bills that would bring Congress closer to completing its annual budget process.

This package was the subject of much negotiation prior to the Senate’s Dec. 18 departure. That week, Democrats were calling for votes on dozens of amendments, a list had been negotiated down to a set of 15 amendments by the close of Congressional business, according to reporting from The Hill.

After the Senate approves the package, it will be sent to the House, and if the lower chamber passes it, the measure will then go to President Donald Trump’s desk for approval. This will leave only a handful of departments remaining to be funded before Jan. 30.

These bills, or another stopgap spending bill, must be passed within 24 days—and even fewer legislative days—to avoid another government shutdown. 

“Democrats want to get our work done to finish the bipartisan appropriations process. Our goal is a bipartisan bill that funds the government through fiscal year 2026,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the upper chamber’s floor on Dec. 18.

“It will still take some time for us to work through our amendments so that we can finish the minibus in January … It’s not easy. Obstacles always remain. No side is going to get everything they want.” 

The appropriations process has highlighted a central issue in the current Congress—healthcare reform. On Nov. 12, Trump signed a short-term funding package approved by both chambers of Congress to reopen the government. A standoff over the issue of enhanced Obamacare tax credits set to expire on Dec. 31 sparked the 43-day shutdown, the longest in U.S. history—with Democrats voting 14 consecutive times to prolong it.

The House passed a reform plan introduced by Republican Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Dec. 17. Miller-Meeks’ legislation, if approved by the Senate, would attempt to lower costs by expanding association health plans and targeting pharmacy benefit managers. The bill, which does not extend the tax credits, is the only legislation approved by either chamber of Congress addressing healthcare reform since the shutdown.

On the same day, a petition led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries secured a majority of signatures forcing a vote on a three-year extension of the enhanced Obamacare tax credits. This petition, though, had to “ripen” for seven legislative days, allowing Speaker Mike Johnson to delay the vote until returning for the new year. 

In the Senate, a cascade of competing proposals circulated among the Republican conference throughout November and December. A single GOP proposal, a joint effort from Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, was brought before the Senate on Dec. 11, the same day Democrats brought a three year Affordable Care Act extension deal to the floor. Both proposals were shot down.

“Because of Republican total inaction on health care, huge damage has already been done, and nothing we do after January 1 can undo so much of that damage,” Schumer said on Dec. 18.

“As I’ve said before, the toothpaste is out of the tube. However you want to say it, the point is this—because of Republicans, it is now impossible, sadly, to prevent people from having to pay hundreds, if not thousands more, on their premiums next year. It’s going to start January 1.”

“Even if we can figure out a way to stop the bleeding next year, that’s a very big if, Republicans are still in shambles and have no plan themselves,” Schumer said. “For too many people, it’s going to be too late, because Republicans chose to let these ACA [Affordable Care Act] tax credits expire. They had an easy opportunity to join us in our three-year clean extension of the ACA credits, and they refused.”

With a government funding deadline looming and health care premiums set to climb, both parties return to Washington in January knowing the next few weeks could shape not just federal policy, but the political battlefield of 2026.

Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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10 Major Incidents of Left-Wing Violence and Threats in 2025 - The Daily Signal

10 Major Incidents of Left-Wing Violence and Threats in 2025

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil /

This past year, the Left crossed a Rubicon in normalizing political violence.

The year opened with many on the Left praising a man who allegedly murdered a health care CEO, and it ended with Virginia Democrats overwhelmingly voting for a man who fantasized about shooting his political opponent and wished death on his opponent’s children.

Jay Jones, now Virginia’s attorney general-elect, made the most bloodcurdling endorsement of political violence I have ever seen from an elected official, and he justified it with this sentence: “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

Jones apologized for the remarks, but he remained in the race, and he even shared a stage with none other than former President Barack Obama. I had hoped my fellow Virginians would reject this message in November, but Jones won the election—setting a horrifying precedent for American politics.

Jones’ election victory highlights the negative partisanship in America, and it comes at the end of a truly horrifying year of left-wing violence. Here are 10 incidents of threats or violence aligning with the Left’s attacks on Trump and his party.

1. Targeting ‘Nazi’ Pete Hegseth

On Jan. 28, Capitol Police arrested Riley Jane English, 24, after she told officers she was carrying a folding knife and two Molotov cocktails. English traveled to Washington, D.C., intending to kill War Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom she referred to as a “Nazi,” or House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a police affidavit. She also reportedly mentioned wanting to burn down The Heritage Foundation.

This attack followed media reports claiming that Hegseth had a tattoo “associated with white supremacist groups,” when the tattoo merely features the Jerusalem Cross. It also followed a year of false claims about Project 2025, a policy project The Heritage Foundation led.

2. Tesla Vandalism

As the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, cut wasteful and ideological spending in the early months of this year, vandals targeted Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations. Agitators burned vehicles to the ground, and protesters marched with a banner reading, “Burn a Tesla, Save Democracy.”

Some agitators even published a map claiming to plot the location of every Tesla owner across the U.S., suggesting users should attack them.

3. New Mexico GOP Vandalized

In April, the Justice Department charged Jamison Wagner, 40, for two attacks: an arson attack on two Tesla vehicles in February featuring swastikas and the graffiti “Die Elon”; and an arson attack on the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters, featuring the graffiti “ICE=KKK.”

“Hurling firebombs is not political protest,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time.

4. National Jewish Museum

In May, a gunman yelling, “Free Palestine,” shot and killed a Jewish couple—Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim—outside the National Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Elias Rodriguez, 31, faces local and federal murder charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Rodriguez had previously been associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, though the party said he has not been involved with the group since 2017.

5. Boulder Molotov Cocktail Attack

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces 12 hate crime charges for allegedly using Molotov cocktails on June 1 to attack people who marched in solidarity with the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. He shouted, “Free Palestine!” during the attack, and reportedly described Israel as a “cancer entity.” Soliman allegedly wounded 12 victims, one of whom died from her injuries the next day.

6. Apparent Revenge for Hortman

In June, Vance Boelter, 57, allegedly murdered former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, her husband, and shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, both of whom survived. Boelter appears to have been motivated by opposition to abortion, and he targeted Democrats. The Center for Strategic and International Studies categorized the attack as right-wing.

A few days after the assassination, a Democratic Party lobbyist reportedly sent text messages to a former friend of an opposing political viewpoint. The lobbyist wrote, “Excited to have my gun at the capitol and blow somebody’s f—ing face off.”

The Minnesota State Patrol reported in October that it has investigated 50 threats against Minnesota state commissioners, lawmakers, and the governor’s office, more than double the 19 from last year. These threats targeted Republicans, as well as Democrats.

7. Alvarado ICE Attack

On July 4, 10-12 people wearing black clothing started shooting fireworks at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, spray painting “Ice pig” and “F— you pigs,” on cars and structures, according to prosecutors. When Alvarado police arrived at the scene, one of the agitators allegedly shot one of them in the neck.

About 18 people face federal and state charges for the attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Four defendants pleaded not guilty in December.

Joshua Jahn, 29, killed two ICE detainees at a Dallas detention center before taking his own life in a September shooting.

In November, the Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE and Customs and Border Protection have faced nearly 100 vehicular attacks this year, more than double the amount for 2024.

Attacks on federal law enforcement follow years of leftist demonization, comparing ICE to the KKK and the Nazi Gestapo.

8. Annunciation Church Shooting

On Aug. 27, a man who legally changed his name to affirm a transgender identity shot and killed two children and injured thirty others at a school mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis.

Other offenders who identified as transgender have also targeted Christians for threats and shootings.

9. Kirk Assassination

On Sept. 10, a man in a relationship with another man who identifies as transgender allegedly murdered Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. The shooting came a few months after the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is notorious for comparing mainstream conservative and Christian groups to the KKK by putting them on a “hate map,” added Turning Point USA to that map.

Many on the Left celebrated Kirk’s death.

10. Arson Attempt

The Kirk assassination sparked more violence. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota filed charges against a man who allegedly made violent threats in retaliation for Kirk’s death.

On Sept. 17, police in El Paso, Texas, arrested 35-year-old Marynka Marquez and charged her with arson against a place of worship, specifically Beth El Bible Church.

According to police, Marquez “had gone to the church, placed a large bag against the outside wall of the church, set it on fire, and then fled the scene.” The pastor had been leaving the church, so he spotted the fire and put it out.

On Sept. 18, the day after the attack, Beth El Bible Church held a vigil honoring Charlie Kirk.

Many Kirk memorials also faced vandalism.

Political Violence

Neither the Left nor the Right has a monopoly on political violence, as this list demonstrates. Both conservatives and liberals need to condemn these violent attacks.

That said, the normalization of political violence seems particularly worrying on the Left. A YouGov poll conducted in October found that self-identified Democrats are more likely to have a favorable view of Antifa (+15%) than they did in September 2022 (-5%) or even in March 2025 (-7%). The Proud Boys, a right-leaning group that has engaged in street brawls with Antifa, finds no such popularity among self-identified Republicans (-20%), though it is, of course, even less favorable among Democrats (-59%).

While conservatives must remain vigilant to threats from the Right, the Left cannot merely dismiss political violence as a “far-right” or even a “both sides” problem.

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The Common Faith of Elise Stefanik and Erika Kirk - The Daily Signal

The Common Faith of Elise Stefanik and Erika Kirk

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker /

Rep. Elise Stefanik, Republican candidate running to unseat New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, announced she is pulling out of the race and will not seek reelection for her congressional seat, in which she is now serving her sixth term.

It’s been a rough couple years for Stefanik. 

After President Donald Trump’s reelection, she was named to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. However, this never happened because she returned to the House to alleviate the thin Republican majority to get the One Big Beautiful Bill passed

Last month she announced her bid for the governorship, thinking she would be the Republican nominee. Now a local county Republican official has entered the race, necessitating a primary. 

Stefanik decided to call it quits. 

She says she’s decided what is critical in her life now is to spend time with her family and raising her young son.

“I believe being a parent is life’s greatest gift and greatest responsibility,” she said.

Some jaded cynics may see this as an excuse for giving up. I don’t.

Stefanik is anything but a shrinking violet.

Winning her congressional seat at age 30 made her the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress.

She entered the national spotlight with her incisive and persistent questioning of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania in House hearings on antisemitism. The ordeal they went through with Stefanik led both to step down from their positions. 

Contrary to the dour view of those who live secular lives, whose struggles take place in a backdrop of meaninglessness, those of faith know each critical node to which we arrive is not random.

Even the great physicist Albert Einstein noted, “God does not play dice with the universe.”

The challenges we face, those critical forks in the road to which we arrive, cause us to take stock and get our priorities clear.

The model that Stefanik now sets could influence our country far more than she ever might as a congressional leader or U.N. ambassador.

Erika Kirk, taking over as CEO of Turning Point USA, assuming the leadership of her late husband Charlie, has noted her interest in bringing the Christian values of marriage and family to young women as her husband did with young men.

Our country is experiencing both a marriage crisis and a children crisis.

At a recent press briefing at the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called our declining fertility rate a “national security threat.”

The fertility rate—the number of births per woman—is now 1.6. To maintain the population at its existing level requires a rate of 2.1. Kennedy noted that when his uncle John F. Kennedy was president, the rate was 3.5.

The Washington Post reports that the number of women between 25 and 44 that have never given birth has risen from 18.2% in 1976 to 34.6% in 2022.

And, per Pew Research, the percent of 40-year-old Americans who have never married has risen from 6% in 1980 to 25% in 2021.

It’s worse with women than men. Per Pew Research, in 1993, 83% of 12th grade girls said they were likely to get married. By 2023, this was down to 61%. Among 12th grade boys, 76% in 1993 and 74% in 2023 said they were likely to get married. 

Why materialism and secularism have taken a greater toll among young women is open to speculation.

But RFK Jr. is right. This is a national security threat.

So now let’s use the awe of Christmas to recall and celebrate that our scripture tells us to “choose life.”

And let’s pray that our examples of transforming the isolation of pain into the joy of meaning and giving and creating will touch our troubled nation.

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

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

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How Illegal Immigration and Government Failure Fuel Identity Theft - The Daily Signal

How Illegal Immigration and Government Failure Fuel Identity Theft

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney /

More than a million Americans may unwittingly hold second jobs—because that work is being performed by an illegal alien using their stolen social security number.

News of the identity theft can come as a rude shock to citizens like the Minnesota factory worker who had crushing tax bills because of a thrice-deported illegal immigrant in Missouri who was working under his name for years. Or Iowa taxpayers who learned that the superintendent of the Des Moines school system was an illegal immigrant facing a deportation order.

More likely, they may never know that their identity was pilfered, perhaps by one of the 70 illegal workers accused last summer of stealing more than 100 identities so they could work at a Nebraska meatpacking plant, or by one of the 18 individuals charged with “aggravated identity theft, misuse of Social Security numbers, and false statements” in March.

While the crimes may seem innocuous or something committed more in cyberspace than in everyday life, they are far from victimless law-breaking. Studies show that identity theft can often lead not just to financial pressures, but also emotional and physical stress. 

“There are real victims involved in this. When someone gets your or your child’s Social Security number, that is no longer a victimless crime,” said Ron Mortensen, a retired Foreign Service Officer and former human resources director with the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.

A RealClearInvestigations analysis has found that the federal and state governments bear some responsibility for this harm to American citizens because of their failure to address long-acknowledged weaknesses in the primary tool used to limit this identity theft—E-Verify.

Established in 1997, the federal E-Verify system allows employers to establish whether the information applicants provide on their Form I-9 is valid. It is not infallible—it confirms information by checking it against various federal records, but doesn’t confirm if that information belongs to the applicants. Still, most experts consider it an effective deterrent. 

“E-Verify isn’t foolproof, but it’s actually pretty good for a government program,” according to Mark Kirkorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “It doesn’t screen a large part of the illegal immigrants in the country, but you have to commit a felony to fool it.”

Nevertheless, while it is mandatory for those working on federal projects or contracts, only nine states also require its use for all larger private employers, according to I-9 Intelligence, an E-Verify compliance company. In most other states, the system, administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, is voluntary. California actively restricts its use; Illinois discourages it. 

Although it is against the law to employ those who are ineligible to work in the U.S., the fines are relatively modest, rising to criminal charges only with repeated violations. Consequently, the net that E-Verify might throw over the illegal immigrants seeking employment has rips. In the Iowa incident, the head of the Des Moines school board told the New York Times that it does not use E-Verify to check applicants’ work eligibility. 

From time to time, a bill has been floated in Congress—most recently by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley—to mandate E-Verify, but none have approached the 60 Senate votes necessary to pass. Mortensen believes E-Verify could be implemented via an executive order, but acknowledged that, like virtually all steps taken by President Donald Trump, it would be sure to face a legal challenge. 

It is unclear how effective that move would be, as there are hiccups in the system. As of Tuesday morning, the government’s E-Verify website was full of broken links regarding “Hiring Sites, FY2025 Cases, and Usage past 365 days by state.”

Even without a federal mandate, however, E-Verify usage has increased. In 2011, barely a quarter of a million employers nationwide checked potential hires via E-Verify, but the most recent figure for 2025 shows the number of employers that have entered into what is termed an E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding has topped 1.4 million.

As might be expected given the patchwork legal requirements, the figures vary wildly from state to state. E-Verify use is widespread in states that have made it mandatory, such as Florida, with 2.4 million checks in 2025, or South Carolina, where there have been more than half a million. Even in California, there have been more than 2.6 million E-Verify checks this year, according to federal figures.

How It Works

The E-Verify system is free for employers, although it does require some training, and businesses with many employees often outsource the job. When an employee begins work, they are expected to complete Form I-9, which includes their name, Social Security number, date of birth, and other relevant information. That is the same information entered into the E-Verify system, which then checks it against various federal records. 

But the process involves only the employer and the computer; it doesn’t alert a U.S. citizen whose personal information has been checked in the system. It simply ensures that the pieces of information match those on record for the name of the person entered into the system.

The exact number of Americans whose Social Security numbers might be available to fool E-Verify isn’t clear, but authorities agree it’s large. The information is relatively easy to purchase on the dark web, and there have been some huge data breaches. In 2013, a breach at Yahoo may have touched 3 billion people, and last year, a class action lawsuit was filed against a now-defunct company, National Public Data, alleging identity information on some 2.9 billion people had been breached.

In FY 2024, the Social Security Administration’s inspector general received 78,588 allegations of misuse of numbers, while between April 1 and Sept. 30, 2025, it got another 26,822.

Another indicator of fraud is the rapid growth in the Social Security Administration’s “Earnings Suspense File,” which reflects the amount of taxes paid to the fund that can’t be matched with a U.S. citizen. The fund—which for many years was dominated by women whose maiden names did not match their married names—has skyrocketed in recent years largely because of illegal immigration. Between 1937 and the end of FY2021, the amassed money stood at $1.9 trillion. By the end of FY2023, the latest year for which numbers are available, that total had jumped more than 20%, to $2.3 trillion.

Even as identity theft has grown over the years, cracking down on it has become harder as a unanimous Supreme Court has whittled down the ways in which the Justice Department can charge people with aggravated identity theft. In 2009, the court ruled the person using stolen ID information had to have knowledge that the information had been stolen, and a 2023 decision said “aggravated identity theft is violated only when the misuse of another person’s means of identification is at the crux of what makes the underlying offense criminal.”

Nevertheless, the dockets of U.S. Attorney’s offices show multiple cases of aggravated identity theft in Florida, Arizona, and elsewhere. RealClearInvestigations asked the Justice Department and several U.S. Attorneys’ offices about the frequency of such cases and how they are trending in terms of time and geography. The Justice Department did not respond, while the different offices declined to comment.

Employers not using E-Verify can be easily fooled, according to several experts, as fake documents have become increasingly sophisticated and artificial intelligence is helping criminals, too.

“It’s no longer a cottage industry, it’s a mansion industry,” said Bob Griggs, the chief executive and founder of Verify I-9, a company that handles I-9 audits and E-Verify entries for employers. 

Eva Velasquez, a former law enforcement officer who is now chief executive of the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center, says personal information can be captured from lost wallets, stolen mail, online fraud, calls from conmen, and more. Children’s identity is especially attractive to thieves, and because they do not file quarterly reports, the scope of it all remains uncertain.

“There are IDs now where it’s almost impossible to detect they’re bogus just by looking,” she told RCI. “The overall figures ebb and flow, but the level of sophistication and variety of ways they are finding to steal identities is increasing exponentially, and the way we use data is increasing exponentially.”

Why It Isn’t Used

There are ideological reasons behind some states’ refusal to mandate E-Verify, such as left-wing lawmakers in California and Illinois, but opponents also advance economic arguments against it. Employers who prefer a low-wage labor market have never been enthusiastic backers of the system: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed it until 2021, when the Supreme Court upheld mandated use in Arizona. The Chamber of Commerce declined to comment on the issue to RealClearInvestigations.

One argument is that E-Verify raises many false flags, and it does so disproportionately against immigrants. Pro-immigration groups, including the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, cite errors as grounds for opposing the system, although the study most often cited found E-Verify returns a “Tentative Non-Confirmation” in just one of 400 cases.

That small fraction is hardly an indictment of E-Verify, according to Mortensen and others who compared it to issues women might have if they choose to change their last name after marriage.

California also contends that an E-Verify mandate would have an adverse impact on the state’s unemployment rate and drive already skittish immigrants further underground. Thus, E-Verify could actually hurt the state’s economy, especially in agriculture and other sectors that often rely on a transient workforce.

But those negative developments have not occurred in states that do mandate E-Verify. For example, South Carolina mandated E-Verify in 2012 when its gross domestic product was $21.4 billion, and its unemployment rate stood at 9.9%. By 2024, South Carolina had a GDP of $34.3 billion, and its unemployment rate in August was just 4.3%.

The same is true in Georgia, where E-Verify has been required for companies with 10 or more employees since 2013. Since it made the move, Georgia’s GDP has doubled, and its August 2025 unemployment rate was 3.4%, according to Federal Reserve Bank figures.

Florida, perhaps surprisingly given its long-time Republican majority in Tallahassee and the governor’s mansion, did not mandate E-Verify until 2023, when it became required for all businesses with 25 or more employees. The move came one year after an illegal immigrant using a fake identity to get a construction job wound up killing an off-duty Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy in a heavy machinery accident. The Honduran national in that incident, 35-year-old Juan Ariel Molina-Salles, was sentenced last week.

That incident infuriated the community. “This company is employing a bunch of illegals, and they are all out there lying and giving us fake names, fake IDs, a lot of fake IDs out of North Carolina that really frustrated this investigation,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at the time. 

RealClearInvestigations reached out repeatedly to officials at economic departments in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Arizona, asking about their experience with E-Verify, but none responded to questions.

Improving the System

Aside from an elusive federal mandate, perhaps the biggest improvement that could be made to E-Verify would be connecting it with state motor vehicle records. That way, a photo of the person’s driver’s license would provide a visual ID the system currently lacks. In some states, however, illegal immigrants can obtain valid driver’s licenses—there have been high-profile fatalities this year caused by immigrants given valid driver’s licenses—although the duplication would still raise a flag.

Another step to buttress E-Verify would be the more aggressive use of “no match letters,” according to Kirkorian. If the Social Security number does not match up on a tax return, the IRS is supposed to notify employers, and those letters, accompanied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids like the one in Nebraska earlier this year, would likely induce more widespread use of E-Verify.

“If you take these steps, and an employer does not fire unresolved identities, then there is proof someone is knowingly employing illegals,” Kirkorian said.

Installing additional layers of identification is also necessary to combat counterfeiters’ growing skill, according to Griggs.

“All of this is more related to industry than geography,” he said. “Somebody has found a counterfeiter and they’ve told their buddies and then you see it in clumps. We recently had a case where there were more than a dozen driver’s licenses in which the people had on the exact same black suit, the same white shirt and the same tie.”

Originally published by RealClearInvestigations.

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Republicans Erased Record Number of Biden Regulations in 2025. Here Are the Worst Ones. - The Daily Signal

Republicans Erased Record Number of Biden Regulations in 2025. Here Are the Worst Ones.

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney / Adam Pack /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Congressional Republicans capped off 2025 with one notable accomplishment: overturning a record number of regulations enacted under former President Joe Biden.

Republicans undid 22 regulations issued in the final months of Biden’s presidency that restrict fossil fuel production, phase out the sale of gas-powered cars and limit access to credit in the name of capping overdraft fees.

The record number of resolutions of disapproval, used to block regulations, signed into law by President Donald Trump is the most of any Congress since the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was enacted in 1996.

GOP lawmakers rescinded 14 Obama regulations during Trump’s first term in 2017.

The CRA allows Congress to rescind recent administrative rulemakings with a simple majority vote in both chambers, along with the president’s stamp of approval.

“By reining in Biden’s heavy-handed bureaucrats, we are saving Americans $180 billion,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in a floor speech on Dec. 17. “That pencils out to over $2,000 in savings for each and every family.”

1. Banning New Gas-Powered Cars

Congressional Republicans successfully undid a Biden-era waiver in May allowing California and any state that adopts its stringent standards to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The Republican-controlled Congress also rescinded two California vehicle emissions rules requiring the sale of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and effectively banning diesel engines.

Republicans—and some Democrats—warned California’s aggressive electric vehicle (EV) mandate would undermine consumer choice and devastate Americans employed in the automobile industry.

“These job losses will not be confined to California, but they will be spread all across the nation,” Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a speech on the Senate floor prior to the upper chamber voting to nix the waiver.

Trump frequently called for the repeal of EV mandates during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Though the push to rescind the rules hit several procedural roadblocks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune kept his conference united before the window to nix the waivers closed.

2. Ending Coal Leasing in America’s Top Coal Region

GOP lawmakers voted in October to repeal a Biden-era rule restricting millions of acres of land in the Powder River Basin—spanning Montana and Wyoming—from future mining.

Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines argued the Biden administration’s move to end coal leasing in the resource-rich region following the 2024 election amounted to a “midnight rule” with little political support among the affected states.

Daines alongside fellow Republican Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy and Reps. Troy Downing and Ryan Zinke spearheaded the successful effort to nix the heavy-handed resource management plan.

“The American people have rejected the left’s radical climate hysteria and removing this harmful rule will help protect our energy dominance and our national security,” Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines told the DCNF prior the resolution of disapproval’s passage in the Senate.

Biden sought to restrict coal production and pledged to shut down coal plants “all across America” in 2022. More than 40% of the country’s coal production comes from the Powder River Basin, according to analysis published by the Energy Information Administration in 2019.

The Republican-controlled Congress also overturned a Biden plan restricting coal leasing on Wyoming public lands in November.

3. Blocking Energy Production in Alaska

In December, Trump signed into law two resolutions of disapproval overturning Biden-era rules restricting energy production in Alaska. The Biden regulations, finalized after the 2024 election, blocked oil and gas leasing across 13 million acres across Central Yukon in the name of conservation and restricted future energy production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain (ANWR).

“When we unlock Alaska, we are strengthening America’s national security and economic posture in this generation and for generations to come,” Republican Alaska Rep. Nick Begich told the DCNF in December. “These bills are not isolated. They are representative of a long-term strategy to rebuild our energy strength, reconstruct our critical mineral inventory, and ensure that America—not China—controls the supply chains that power our economy.”

Alaska’s congressional delegation and many tribal communities within the Last Frontier State argued the Biden-era regulations tamping down energy production were economically devastating.

“The economy in the North Slope is oil and gas activity,” Begich also told the DCNF. “The building blocks of communities—schools, health care, roads and running water —exist due to the “economic base our early leaders ensured that we had access to.”

4. Instituting Price Controls on Overdraft Fees

Republicans voted in spring 2025 to undo a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that limited most bank overdraft fees to $5, far less than the $35 average. The Biden administration approved the controversial rulemaking capping the amount banks can charge their customers when they overdraft their checking accounts in December 2024.

GOP lawmakers and the banking industry warned the overdraft fee rule would reduce the amount of credit that banks can provide to low-income customers, who would be forced to turn to payday lenders that typically charge higher interest rates. Opponents of the rule also slammed the agency for overstepping its authority to regulate checking accounts.

“The Biden administration’s ill-conceived rule imposing new price controls on overdraft services provided by banks and credit unions harmed the very consumers the CFPB is supposed to protect,” Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Scott said in May. “The rule would have reduced access to credit and important financial services and resulted in more unbanked Americans.”

5. Driving Up Costs for Commercial Appliances

Trump approved two resolutions of disapproval in May canceling Biden regulations that imposed stringent energy efficiency standards on walk-in coolers and freezers and a separate rule targeting commercial refrigerators and freezers.

Republicans argued the Biden-era rules imposed a high cost burden on the small businesses who would have to comply with the new standards and limited consumer choice.

“This regulation, which had an estimated cost of a billion dollars, would have been crippling for businesses throughout the country, especially in rural areas,” Republican Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice, the sponsor of one of the resolutions of disapproval, said in a statement in March. Republicans also successfully nixed a Biden Department of Energy rule banning some gas water heaters by 2029.

Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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CNN’s Dana Bash Admits Border Is ‘Story of Accomplishment’ For Donald Trump - The Daily Signal

CNN’s Dana Bash Admits Border Is ‘Story of Accomplishment’ For Donald Trump

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney / Adam Pack / Harold Hutchison /

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—CNN host Dana Bash admitted Thursday that President Donald Trump had turned around the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border in his first year since returning to the White House.

Upon taking office, Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. Bash put up a series of charts showing the difference on the border between the Joe Biden administration and the Trump administration. 

“One of the things that you—many things that you’ve been covering in a very detailed way this year, Zolan, is what’s going on with immigration,” Bash told CNN political analyst Zolan Kanno-Youngs. “And our producer, Tess, put together a fantastic illustration of the difference in what’s happening in the border now versus what happened just in the year beforehand, which was Joe Biden’s presidency. Joe Biden’s presidency is green and Donald Trump’s is the yellow.”

“I mean, that tells a story of an accomplishment for the president, one that he definitely ran on,” Bash continued. “He definitely made a promise there, and yet there hasn’t been a lot of focus on that because of what he has been doing in the interior of the country, which he also promised to do, which is apprehend people who are in the United States illegally and deport them.”

The Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, many of whom were released into the United States. The Trump administration touted in a Dec. 15 release that no illegal immigrants had been released into the United States for seven straight months.

The Department of Homeland Security announced that over 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States, of which 1.9 million elected to self-deport, in a Dec. 10 release.

DHS also noted in a Dec. 19 release summarizing operations for the entire year that it had accounted for over 129,000 unaccompanied minors that the Biden administration had been unable to account for, while also touting operations across the country, including those in the areas of Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Victor Davis Hanson: Why I’m Tired of Mitt Romney’s ‘Fake Magnanimity’ - The Daily Signal

Victor Davis Hanson: Why I’m Tired of Mitt Romney’s ‘Fake Magnanimity’

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney / Adam Pack / Harold Hutchison / Victor Davis Hanson /

In this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler take on the “fake magnanimity” of billionaires like Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett suggesting they pay more taxes.

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: You read that Tom Steyer, the left-wing Stanford-area activist guy who ran for president, who made his fortune funding financing coal plants in Indonesia, says, “I need to be taxed more.” He’s worth about three billion.

And then Mitt [Romney] came out. Remember Mitt? Mitt said that he thinks that people should be taxed more, and he wants to pay. No, you’re not a big humanitarian, Mitt. You’re almost worth a billion dollars.

So, what you’re saying at the end of your life, you think that you should pay a few hundred thousand more out of your multi-billion-dollar fortune or hundreds-of-million-dollar fortune. But young Mitt didn’t say that. And young people who are making 80, 90, 100,000 and trying to buy a house don’t say that.

Getting so tired of this fake magnanimity, humanity by these very wealthy, wealthy people who say they need to be taxed more. [Like] Warren Buffett, then pay it. Pay it. All you have to do is write a check to the government and say, “I’m undertaxed.”

Well, Victor, that wouldn’t cover everybody. Well, don’t worry about anybody. Sit by your moral example. Open up a foundation and say, pay 60%. Join me. You can do it. Just do it.

But don’t tell Joe Smith out there who’s driving a tractor all day long and then goes to a forklift night job so he can make $80,000 that he needs to pay more taxes. It’s disgusting. And in California, of the 40 million people here, 1% of the households pay 50% of the taxes. And they’re leaving. They’re leaving.

Joel Kotkin has a great article out. He writes variations of it, but they’re all unique and original, and he’s just pointing out that the whole blue state model—Minnesota, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York—is imploding, four or five million people a year are leaving.

JACK FOWLER: This Joel Kotkin? That’s who you’re talking about, right? Where did he write? He writes all over.

HANSON: I’m not sure, I just read it this morning at 4.30 in the morning so I can’t remember where, but it’s listed in realclearpolitics.com, so you can all go there. And it’s a very good article.

It just points out what he’s tried to warn people that the blue state model allows young people not very much job opportunities, no housing opportunities, gas, electricity, all highly regulated by very wealthy people who are up in the attic looking down at you, and they pulled up the ladder.

That’s what the whole psychology is.

FOWLER: I don’t think they’re in the attic. I think they’re in the penthouse looking down.

HANSON: Exactly. You know, it’s depressing to see this fake magnanimity by very, very blessed people who now suddenly want to pay more taxes and yet they don’t.

FOWLER: Yeah, they do have that Buffett-[Bill] Gates effort with quote unquote, “It’s not charity, it’s philanthropy,” where they could be addressing real issues, poverty, whatever they want, local, but instead they’re more interested in spending money on abortion overseas.

HANSON: I have a better idea. I would tell Buffett and would tell Mitt, you made enough money. Don’t make any more money. You want to pay any taxes? Don’t worry about the taxes, Mitt, just don’t keep investing all the money you have. You’re trying so desperately to get 8% here and 7%, 10%. Why not just put it in, I don’t know, Bank of America at 4% and just relax?

And then you wouldn’t feel so guilty because you wouldn’t be making so much money without physical labor. And then you wouldn’t have to worry. This idea that you made all this money, and you had this elite lifestyle, and you’re still an investor, and all of a sudden you decide … don’t pay capital gains. Just take your money, Mitt, and pay it at the income tax rate.

Just say, “You know what? It’s a technicality. This is income tax. This is money that came from capital gains, but I’m going to pay the income tax rate just like Joe Blow.” You can see what happened to the Republican Party. I know there’s internal divisions and rifts in the Republican Party today, but the Bob Dole, the McCain, the Bush, the Mitt model did not have a lot of empathy for the working middle class. George W. Bush had more than the others, but not a lot of empathy.

This is what also I think bothers us, because I pick up the Wall Street Journal, I know people who write there, I like it, it’s a great, but their news division is not their op-ed. You look at almost every person who is writing now for the Wall Street Journal and just hit their name and go down on their bio.

It’s the Atlantic, it’s Politico, it’s Washington Post, it’s New York Times. That’s where they came from.

And I always say it’s Monday now. They’ve had the weekend to digest last week’s good economic news that inflation is down to 2.7 from the 3% that Trump inherited, that there is a lot of strong forecasts that the economy may grow 4% in the first quarter, could even go up to 4.5.

And job growth, unemployment went a little higher, but job growth was much higher than expected. But more importantly, this is really the first jobs report where all the growth came from legal employment and not illegal immigrants. Two million people who were largely on the dole are gone.

I thought, “Well, they have 48 hours now.” And sure enough, you pick it up. And it’s Trump, it’s not working. The terror’s not working. Nothing’s working. It’s bad.

And then by the end of the week, they will be forced to report a good economic data point and then they’ll have the weekend to revision it.

Monday, you’ll see how bad everything is.

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

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‘GROW OUR FAMILY’: Karoline Leavitt Makes Major Announcement - The Daily Signal

‘GROW OUR FAMILY’: Karoline Leavitt Makes Major Announcement

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney / Adam Pack / Harold Hutchison / Victor Davis Hanson / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that she is expecting a baby girl to be born in May.

“My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,” she wrote on Instagram. “My heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for the blessing of motherhood, which I truly believe is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.”

Leavitt and her husband Nicholas Riccio welcomed their first baby, Niko, in July 2024. 

Leavitt thanked President Donald Trump and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “for their support, and for fostering a pro-family environment in the White House.”

“2026 is going to be a great year and I am so excited to be a girl mom!” she said. 

Leavitt becomes the first U.S. press secretary in history to hold the post while expecting a baby. 

An administration official told Fox News that Leavitt plans to remain in her White House position.

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A post shared by KAROLINE LEAVITT (@karolineleavitt)

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The Subtle Threat of Democrats’ Sophisticated Crudity - The Daily Signal

The Subtle Threat of Democrats’ Sophisticated Crudity

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Andrea Shalal / Maayan Lubell / Gram Slattery / Victor Davis Hanson / Jarrett Stepman / Nicole Silverio / Jacob Adams / Fred Lucas / John Goyette / Harold Hutchison / Salena Zito / Tim Graham / George Caldwell / Quinn Delamater / Harold Hutchison / Virginia Allen / George Caldwell / Rob Bluey / Virginia Grace McKinnon / Teo Babun / Anthony Iafrate / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / George Caldwell / Caden Olson / Tyler O'Neil / Star Parker / James Varney / Adam Pack / Harold Hutchison / Victor Davis Hanson / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Victor Davis Hanson /

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. It’s been a lot of attention to President Donald Trump’s rallies and his interactions with reporters, political reporters, impromptu press conferences. And the gist of it is that Donald Trump can say things that are cruel. It’s true. He can.

No need to call Rep. Jasmine Crockett a low-IQ person or a reporter dumb or stupid or fatty. And I would call that crass crudity. And it’s something that Trump does and probably should not do, and people have probably reminded him of that.

But there’s another type of crudity, I would call that crudity refined crudity. Crass crudity is openly overt, transparent, and condemned. But it’s also rhetorical. It doesn’t affect policies. It’s the ways one reacts to criticism in Trump’s case. But what is refined crudity? I wanna tell you, give you some examples, very different examples of what I would call refined crudity.

The University of Southern California School of Journalism, the Annenberg center, gives a prize for the top journalist in the nation. This year they gave them to Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart. That’s refined crudity.

Rachel Maddow said almost every night that she was on the air, Russian collusion, Russian collusion, Russian collusion. And when that was exposed as a fraud, she went right into Russian disinformation, Russian disinformation, Russian disinformation.

Jon Stewart is not a journalist. He may be entertaining, he’s funny, but he blows up and screams and yells about the lockdown.

Does anybody really believe that these are even in the liberal tradition of Walter Cronkite, the eponymous prize for which it’s named, or Edwin R. Murrow? That’s crude.

How did Claudine Gay ever become president of Harvard? That’s the flagship university in the world. Who appointed her? Why would you appoint somebody that had a very thin academic record, almost was denied tenure at Stanford University, came to Harvard, had no notable publications, and the publications that she did were under suspicion, and she was a known plagiarist?

And then she got before the country in very refined tones and basically said that antisemitic acts, which were occurring with increasing frequency under her tenure, would be punished given the context she couldn’t identify.

Can I give you another example of refined crudity? Refined crudity is allowing some 60 to 70 Somali immigrants to embezzle $1 billion from the people of Minnesota, and then have the attorney general, Keith Ellison, who lectures everybody about racism say what’s the big deal, they buy stuff? As if it’s OK to steal money just because you buy consumer products for yourself. Luxury cars, vacations, send money back home.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in reaction to the—I want more Somali immigrants. Not, we have to look at this community and we have to make sure they’re following the law. And I’m worried that 75% of them are on state, local, or federal assistance.

That’s crude, what they did. That’s an insult to the people of Minnesota and to cloak it with this kind of enlightenment rhetoric or call people racist is even cruder.

Then we get into the lawfare. You know what is really crude? For people like Alvin Bragg and Letitia James and Fani Willis and Jack Smith and E. Jean Carroll to use this law to try to destroy a political candidate.

Doesn’t matter what Trump did, it doesn’t matter whether you like him or hate him, you can’t, in the United States, cook up 91 indictments and try to destroy a person with $500 million of aggregate funds and try them in blue precincts and hope to get juries that are prejudiced against him with judges that we know were biased. And this is in conjunction with raiding his home and going through his wife’s underwear drawer.

And yes, Jamie Dimon, they did debank the Trump family members. They really did. You can say it was just normal, but I think no one believes that.

And then this is in addition to sober and judicious and refined and sophisticated lawyers saying that Donald Trump should not be on the ballot in 25 states. The Supreme Court found that—that is refined crudity.

You know what else is a refined crude thing to do? If you’re Mark Milley and you’re chairman of the Joint Chiefs, it is to diagnose, as if you’re a psychiatrist, your commander in chief as unhinged, to call up your Chinese counterpart and warn him that if you were to get an order from your own commander in chief and you felt, you, Mark Milley, in your, I don’t know, expert opinion as a psychiatrist felt was unhinged, you would first call the Communist Chinese.

If you don’t think that is crude, how about calling in regional commanders and saying that I’m going to break the chain of command in my advisory role, and you’re not to do what the law says and report to the secretary of defense. If you get an order from him that’s transmitted from the commander in chief, you’re gonna go for me and I’m going to either approve it or reject it.

What is that? That’s almost a coup.

And finally, if you’re the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and as you leave office, do you really want to keep saying again and again that your former president of the United States is a fascist? Had he said that just a few months earlier, when Donald Trump was president, he would’ve been subject to a court-martial under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

And finally, you know what is crude? For six elected representatives and senators to tell a 1.3 million-person active-duty military that they, in their considered opinion, should question very carefully every order. There’s literally millions of orders that are issued a day. But these people were telling our active military—at great danger to their own careers because that’s a very, very rare phenomenon that anybody objects and refuses to obey an order and is found to be judicious and proved right in that decision, almost never occurs. If it were to occur too frequently, we wouldn’t have a military.

But to say all this under the guise of the Constitution and to have Mark Kelly get out and give these sober and judicious assessments of how lawful and proper all this is, when it was really a rank call for disruption in the military with one professed aim, and that was to attack Donald Trump.

And you know what was even cruder, to finish? When asked, can you please identify one order that Trump or his subordinates have given that you think would qualify anybody in the active military to refuse, what did the “Seditious Six” say? No, I can’t. In other words, it was a cheap political stunt cloaked with elevated and lofty rhetoric about the Constitution, but yet another example of refined crudity.

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

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