Political Commentary & Opinion
Analysis, commentary, and opinion essays on politics and policy from The Daily Signal’s contributors and experts.
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news
Former Islamist Extremist Describes His Escape From the Ideology and How to Help the Most Vulnerable
What leads a person to become an Islamist extremist? For one immigrant, it was not fitting in with his American classmates. Mohammed Khalid, a former Islamist extremist, described what drew him to the radical ideology and why he left it at an event last month at The Heritage Foundation. Khalid, now a scholar in cybersecurity… -
news
5 Years Later, This Organization Keeps Growing Conservative Leaders Beyond Its Borders
In a world that appears to be increasingly hostile to America’s founding principles, can conservatives have an impact without compromising their values? Five years ago, two 25-year-olds from Ohio started the Forge Leadership Network in their home state to answer that question. The Daily Signal sat down with Adam Josefczyk, president and co-founder of the… -
opinion
America Needs to Lead the Way in Free Trade
The United States is not doing enough to promote free trade and the elimination of trade barriers around the world. In fact, it’s doing just the opposite and imposing barriers on billions of dollars’ worth of imports. As a result, new trade restrictions implemented by World Trade Organization member countries have reached historic highs. Over… -
opinion
Youngest Person in US Prosecuted for Terrorism Now Fights Islamist Extremism
On today’s show, our colleagues Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis interview Mohammed Khalid, who made the record books as the youngest person in the U.S. to be prosecuted for terrorism. Khalid now is an activist who fights Islamist extremism. Stay tuned for his story. We also cover these stories: A suspect armed with what police… -
news
13 Photos of a Presidential Visit to Comfort Shooting Survivors
President Donald Trump's trip to visit survivors of the horrific shootings in Texas and Ohio, on which he was joined by first lady Melania Trump, yielded some powerful images. Here is a selection of photos provided by the White House. -
news
House Democrats Hope to Force Former White House Counsel to Testify
The House Judiciary Committee took a decisive step toward impeachment proceedings by filing a lawsuit in federal court to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before the panel. McGahn’s testimony is essential to an ongoing impeachment inquiry, congressional lawyers wrote in court filings Wednesday, since he is the primary witness to the president’s… -
opinion
What It’s Like to Travel the World With the Secretary of State
Nolan Peterson, The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent, is back in Washington after a week traveling abroad with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Today, he joins Daniel in the studio to share about the trip and the news he reported on, ranging from Russia to China to North Korea and Afghanistan. We also cover the following… -
opinion
Problematic Women: Breaking Through the Noise After the Massacres
In this week’s edition of “Problematic Women,” Amy Swearer, senior legal policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, joins us to discuss the tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. First, we discuss politicians’ and the media’s eagerness to blame everything from video games to Fox News for the shootings. We then talk… -
news
Sarah Palin Can Sue New York Times for Defamation, Court Rules
A federal appeals court gave former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a major victory in her defamation lawsuit over a New York Times editorial that tied her to the shooting of a Democratic congresswoman. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in New York ruled Tuesday that a lower court judge made a mistake by hearing testimony from… -
news
MSNBC Analyst Uses Numerology to Link Trump’s Flag Decision to Neo-Nazism
A former FBI assistant director used numerology on MSNBC to link neo-Nazism to President Donald Trump’s decision to fly the federal government's flags at half-staff to honor victims of the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Frank Figliuzzi floated the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory Monday during an interview with anchor Brian Williams. Figliuzzi, an MSNBC… -
opinion
Why Can’t We Unify in the Face of Evil?
This should be easy. We’re all on the same side. When a white supremacist terrorist shoots up a Walmart filled with innocents in El Paso, Texas, we should all be on the same side. We should be mourning together; we should be fighting together. Instead, we’re fighting one another. We’re fighting one another for one… -
news
Kenyan Nonprofit Discovers a Way to Curb Africa’s Orphan Crisis
The East African nation of Kenya is home to 3 million orphaned and street children. The majority of these kids have living relatives, which in the late 1990s came as a great surprise to one local nonprofit. Agape Children’s Ministry is based in Kisumu, the third-largest city in Kenya. The Christian nonprofit says it has… -
opinion
After the Shootings: Look to Culture, Not Politics
The nation must now endure another gut-wrenching tragedy, with 31 having been senselessly gunned downed in Texas and Ohio over a weekend. This following a week where three were gunned down in California. My appeal is to consider these tragedies a crisis of culture and not to turn them into politics, which is already happening…. -
opinion
How ‘Medicare for All’ Would Impact Our Lives
Obamacare is old news for the political left. Now, the big item is “Medicare for All”—a single-payer, government-run health care system. But what kind of impact would that have on Americans’ lives? In this episode, we discuss that and more with the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma, who joins… -
opinion
A Plan to Fix Baltimore
Former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has urged President Donald Trump and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to stop exchanging insults over conditions in Baltimore. Haley scolded Trump for his recent tweet that appeared to mock Cummings for an attempted break-in at the congressman’s Baltimore home, tweeting: “This is so unnecessary.” She added:… -
opinion
How a Few Liberal Lawmakers Upended North Carolina Law to Appease LGBT Activists
North Carolina officials have made a deal with the transgender lobby. Last week, they reached a settlement determining whether transgender-identifying individuals can use bathrooms that match their “gender identity” in public buildings. The settlement allows these individuals to use the bathroom of their self-professed gender identity within buildings owned and operated by the state government,… -
news
US Taxpayers Foot $2 Billion Bill for 30,000 Public Employees in Baltimore
American taxpayers have paid for nearly $2 billion in federal aid to fund 30,000 public employees in Baltimore at local and federal levels, an audit shows. Baltimore reportedly has 13,522 employees with a combined payroll that exceeds $821 million annually. The mayor’s office paid $7 million in 2018 for the salaries of 111 employees and $1 million… -
opinion
Terror in El Paso and Dayton
Back-to-back mass shootings over the weekend left the nation in deep mourning and grasping for answers. In today’s episode, we take a close look at exactly what happened as we’re joined by Heritage Foundation senior legal analyst Amy Swearer. Plus: 22% of millennials say they have no friends. We give our millennial takes. We also… -
opinion
Baltimore Is a Mess. Here Are 3 Big Issues the City Faces.
Baltimore is dysfunctional. This is essentially what President Donald Trump tweeted out in less pleasant terms that became a national story. In a series of tweets, Trump lambasted Rep. Elijah Cummings, D.-Md., and his congressional district in Baltimore, calling it a “dangerous and filthy place.” Trump also said, among other things, that the district was…