National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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  • news

    GOP Senate Leaders Criticize Biden Team for Prioritizing Social Justice Over Working Americans
    Three top Senate Republicans have voiced concern to the Biden administration's Labor Department that it is prioritizing social justice above the interests of American workers. Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mike Crapo of Idaho, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania—the respective ranking members of the Senate's Labor, Finance and Banking committees—wrote a letter Thursday responding to…
    Thomas Catenacci
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  • opinion

    The Social Cost of Carbon and Climate Sensitivity Is Model Manipulation at Its Finest
    The “social cost of carbon” is a calculation that the Biden administration is looking to use to justify stringent regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt—joined by Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah—have now filed a lawsuit, arguing that the use of this metric in…
    Patrick J. Michaels | Kevin Dayaratna
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  • opinion

    Why Is Our Military Choosing New Enemies?
    The U.S. military has turned its wrath inward on Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressed his “revulsion” after Carlson questioned the role of women in combat. Keeping women mostly out of combat had been the U.S. military’s centuries-long orthodoxy until just a few years ago. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby even…
    Victor Davis Hanson
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  • opinion

    Don’t Let the Department of Defense Become the Department of Distraction
    One of the fundamental roles of a leader is organizing people—knowing how to direct people’s efforts and where to allocate resources. Failing to establish clear priorities leads to wasted effort or, worse, mission failure. A famous maxim warns leaders: “If everything is important, nothing is.” No one should envy the job of Lloyd Austin, President…
    Thomas Spoehr
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  • opinion

    Fact-Checking DHS Chief’s Dishonest Statement on Border Crisis
    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released a factually challenged and misleading statement Tuesday about the crisis on the border. As specialists in immigration policy at The Heritage Foundation, we’re going to correct the record here on eight of Mayorkas’ erroneous claims in a comprehensive response. (The last name after each section identifies which of us…
    Chad Wolf | Mark Morgan | Lora Ries
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  • opinion

    China Hikes Defense Budget Again as US Weighs Flatlining Pentagon Spending
    Trying to preserve a veneer of democratic legitimacy, the Chinese government goes through the political theater of a meeting of its rubber-stamp Congress every March. As part of the process, Beijing releases the figure that will be spent on its military for the year. The Chinese fiscal year runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31,…
    Frederico Bartels
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  • news

    Pentagon Prepared to Extend National Guard’s Presence at Capitol
    The Pentagon is prepared to extend the National Guard’s presence at the U.S. Capitol for an additional two months, defense officials said Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to give final approval, though Pentagon officials told The Associated Press that final details were still being discussed. Capitol Police requested last week that the National Guard continue to provide…
    Andrew Trunsky
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  • opinion

    Let’s Be Clear: ‘For the People Act’ Would Benefit Leftist Politicians, Not the People
    Almost a year after its initial passage, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has once again passed HR 1, the For the People Act. However, there’s one major difference this year—this misleadingly named bill is no longer dead on arrival in a Republican Senate or White House. Now that leftists hold the reins of power, Democrat…
    Rep. Brian Babin
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  • opinion

    Why ‘Social Cost of Carbon’ Is Most Useless Number You’ve Never Heard Of
    On his very first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order resurrecting the Obama-era social cost of carbon, intended to quantify the economic impact of climate change.  The administration on Feb. 26 issued an interim estimate reporting that these damages are approximately $51 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Dubbed by…
    Kevin Dayaratna
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  • opinion

    Rare Earth Elements Aren’t That Rare, but They’re Vital to National Security
    For one-third of the price of one F-35 Lightning II, the Pentagon made a key investment to ensure its supply of rare earth elements. The Department of Defense earlier this month announced that Lynas USA LLC was awarded a $30.4 million technology investment agreement under Title III of the Defense Production Act. With that award,…
    Maiya Clark | Ryan Williams
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  • opinion

    Privatizing Social Security Would Help Families Become Better Off
    A recent Reuters headline read, “Yellen, Rice tout economics as key to fixing American inequality.” According to Susan Rice, President Joe Biden’s new domestic policy adviser, “The evidence is clear, investing in equity is good for economic growth.” Our new Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, says, “I believe economic policy can be a potent tool to…
    Star Parker
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  • opinion

    Call Transportation Bailouts What They Are: More Welfare for Labor Unions
    Congress is moving full steam ahead on ramming through a bloated, wasteful, and debt-exploding $1.9 trillion legislative package. Although it’s supposedly justified by the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the spending is designed to appease progressive ideological causes and politically connected interest groups. A prime example is the $57.5 billion currently earmarked for various parts of…
    David Ditch
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  • opinion

    Socialism Delivers Misery
    People hate America’s big disparities in wealth. It’s a reason why, among young people, socialism is as popular as capitalism. The Democratic Socialists of America want a country based on “freedom, equality, and solidarity.” That sure sounds good. But does socialism bring that? My new video debunks several myths about socialism. One reason for socialism’s…
    John Stossel
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  • news

    4 Things to Know About Biden’s Pick for Homeland Security Secretary
    The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Alejandro Mayorkas, who has kept a high, occasionally controversial political profile in California and Washington since the 1990s, is the son of Cuban immigrants. Mayorkas, 61, is an alumnus of Beverly Hills High School who graduated…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Biden Orders End to Private Prisons in Package to Achieve ‘Racial Equity’
    Denouncing what he called “systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long,” President Joe Biden signed executive actions Tuesday aimed at “racial equity,” including a measure to end the use of private prisons to hold federal inmates.  “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation and the simple…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    Americans Should Condemn Political Violence in All Forms
    As law enforcement pursues those responsible for the riot Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, authorities are arresting and charging individuals from extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers. Meanwhile, on Inauguration Day, Antifa and Black Lives Matter continued their riots, violence, and destruction in Portland, Seattle, and Denver. Let’s be clear: There is no…
    James Carafano | Lora Ries | Mike Gonzalez
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  • opinion

    EU’s New Investment Deal With China a Blow to Transatlantic Alliance
    The European Union and the People’s Republic of China reached a comprehensive agreement on investment Dec. 30, and it has already elicited a storm of disapproval from advocates of transatlantic cooperation in both the U.S. and Europe. For good reason. Instead of forging a common course of action on the China challenge, Brussels used it…
    Walter Lohman | Nile Gardiner
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  • news

    Twitter Purges Over 70,000 Accounts Sharing ‘Harmful QAnon-Associated Content’
    Twitter has reportedly purged over 70,000 accounts from its platform for sharing “harmful QAnon-associated content.” The social media website began cracking down on Twitter activity after rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday, committing acts of vandalism and postponing the certification process as members of Congress were forced to evacuate the building. …
    Mary Margaret Olohan
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  • opinion

    Some Realtors Fear Association’s ‘Hate Speech’ Ban Is Built on a Slippery Slope
    In what some consider one of the most far-reaching social-policy moves in the corporate world, the National Association of Realtors—called the nation’s largest trade organization—has revised its professional ethics code to ban “hate speech and harassing speech” by its 1.4 million members. Under the new policy, real estate agents who insult, threaten, or harass people based…
    John Murawski
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  • news

    House Homeland Security Chairman Wants Capitol Rioters Placed on No-Fly List
    The chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., on Thursday urged the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI to place certain members of the Capitol mob on the no-fly list. “Given the heinous domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol yesterday, I am urging the Transportation Security Administration [TSA] and the…
    Jake Dima
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