MICHAEL OREN: Iran has waged war on America for 47 years — time to end it

The reason a state goes to war — its casus belli — is an essential component of its campaign. Wars with a strong casus belli, such as the Civil War and World War II, are usually more popular and consistently more victorious than those with weak justifications — Vietnam, for example, and Iraq. The Trump administration’s reasons for mounting Operation Epic Fury are being attacked by both the isolationist right and the progressive left in the United States. The war in Iran, they claim, is unnecessary, unwarranted and even illegal. It serves Israel’s interests more than America’s, some say. Refuting those arguments, then, will be crucial to the operation’s success.

Criticism of the war falls into three categories. The first assails the war’s objectives. While admitting that the Iranian regime is heinous and ideally should be overthrown, detractors insist that the Islamic Republic never truly threatened America. By Trump’s own admission, they recall, Iran’s major nuclear facilities were obliterated last summer, while its ballistic missiles cannot yet reach Europe, much less the United States. By comparison, North Korea poses a much greater danger to the United States, yet no one is advocating bombing Pyongyang. And though administration officials have occasionally cited regime change as Epic Fury’s preferred outcome, no regime has ever been brought down by air power alone.

Strategically, the war will deplete American arsenals, critics warn, and embolden Russia to redouble its aggression against Ukraine and enable China to attack Taiwan. The White House has never clearly identified the war’s objectives, opponents claim, or formulated a day-after plan. As such, the war could result in the emergence of an even more radical leadership in Iran. The Middle East, meanwhile, will be destabilized.

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Finally, on a legal level, by not seeking Congressional approval for the war, the White House is acting unconstitutionally–so the critics charge. Some go further by maintaining that the attack on Iran is criminal. “A preventive strike, in which the powerful hit the weaker state,” wrote The New York Times’s David Sanger, “is considered illegal.”

While seemingly compelling, none of these arguments can withstand serious scrutiny. No, Iran does not present an imminent threat to America’s security, no more than Nazi Germany did to Britain’s in the 1930s. But, as Churchill foresaw, if left unchecked, Germany’s rapid military buildup would soon endanger Britain, as, in fact, it did. In this sense, North Korea represents the perfect cautionary example. Would the war critics prefer the United States wait until Iran had the bomb as well as the long-range missiles capable of reaching American targets? For that reason, precisely, nobody is recommending attacking Pyongyang. And while North Korea’s organizing principle is regime survival and food to feed its starving population, Iran’s is regional and ultimately global domination. The North Korean threat to America pales beside that of a nuclear-armed and ballistically-enabled Iran.

True, no regime has ever been brought down by air power, but a sustained bombing campaign by jets and sea-to-ground missiles can severely degrade the Iranian government and facilitate a successful popular uprising. Such an approach worked outstandingly well in Serbia, where, in 1999, American and allied aerial bombardments forced the withdrawal of Slobodan Milošević’s forces from Kosovo and directly contributed to his government’s collapse the following year.

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Rather than emptying America’s arsenals, the war is already speeding up America’s production of a wide range of ordnance, especially anti-missile interceptors. And instead of being encouraged by the U.S. military’s expenditure of munitions, Russia and China will likely be deterred by the display of American proficiency and resolve. After depriving China of its rich source of energy from Venezuela, Trump could also deny China its vital flow of Iranian oil.

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War, according to the military philosopher Carl Von Clausewitz, is always defined by uncertainty. The administration could surely have done a better job of clarifying its goals before launching its attack, but determining its exact outcome at this stage in the campaign is meaningless. Suffice it to say, as the White House already has, that the military action can help create the conditions under which the Iranian people can reclaim their liberty. Short of that, Operation Epic Fury aims to eliminate the gravest Iranian threats, present and future. And as for the destabilization of the Middle East — the most ludicrous of the critics’ claims — Iran has been the primary source of violence in the region for almost half a century. Neutralizing that source will open game-changing opportunities for achieving security and peace from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

The debate over the right of any president to make war is hardly new and will not be settled in this conflict. Congress will, in any case, now vote against restricting that right. And irrespective of its constitutionality, the war in Iran is in no way illegal. According to international law expert Natasha Hausdorff, the relative strength and weakness of the warring parties are completely irrelevant. “Under real international law,” she writes, “the Israeli-US strikes are lawful if they continue to comply with the laws of armed conflict on necessity, distinction, proportionality and precaution. The indicators are that now, as previously, these principles are being applied.”

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The arguments against the war are feeble at best and further weakened by their refusal to acknowledge the far stronger case for supporting it. This begins with the irrefutable fact that the Islamic Republic started this war 47 years ago by occupying the U.S. embassy in Tehran and holding 52 Americans hostage for hundreds of days. Iran started the war by torturing and executing Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, by blowing up the Marine barracks and the U.S. embassy in Beirut, and killing American soldiers during the Iraq war. The Ayatollahs started the war when their terrorist proxies launched hundreds of drone and rocket attacks against U.S. bases and ships throughout the region. Throughout, Iranian drug merchants, in league with South American cartels, have flooded the United States with deadly narcotics. Iranian assassins have targeted the Saudi and Israeli ambassadors in Washington, senior American officials, and, purportedly, the president.

The Iranian regime started this war by vowing openly and ardently each day since coming to power to destroy the United States and by assiduously developing the weapons to do so. Though Israel most certainly has an interest in defending itself from Iranian attacks, that interest is consonant with, not superior to, America’s, which is independent and critical. In what logical universe, a clearly-thinking person might well ask, does the United States not have a clear-cut casus belli against Iran?

KT McFARLAND: Operation Epic Fury proves it is both America First and proudly MAGA

Operation Epic Fury has created an epic number of critics from across the political spectrum, including within the MAGA movement. They say it betrays President Donald Trump’s pledge to put America First and risks pulling the United States into a larger regional war. They argue that what happens in the Middle East does not matter to Americans and diverts attention from economic, security and cultural issues at home. They are wrong.

President Trump’s war against Iran is quintessentially America First. It aims to preempt Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Trump administration has stated time and again that the United States has three goals regarding the Iranian regime: to stop its nuclear weapons program, to stop its missile program and to stop its support of terrorist proxies. That’s what the Witkoff-Kushner negotiations were about. That is what drives Operation Epic Fury. The world’s most dangerous regime must not be allowed to have the world’s most dangerous weapons.

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The war with Iran is not primarily about freeing the Iranian people from a brutal dictatorship or forcing regime change. Those may be noble goals, but they are not essential to America’s national security.

What does pose an existential threat to the United States are Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. A nuclear Iran would use the threat of nuclear weapons to blackmail the United States into doing its bidding. A nuclear Iran would ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The Iranian regime’s love affair with martyrdom could even lead it to launch those nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.

Preventing Iran from developing nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles capable of striking the United States is about as America First as it gets.

These are direct threats to the very existence of the United States. If we fail to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program now, it is not a matter of whether Iran will “go nuclear”; it is only a matter of when. Iran has made its intentions clear — it will never negotiate away its nuclear program. If the United States bombs its development sites, Iran will rebuild again — and again.

Critics are quick to point out the risks in Operation Epic Fury; there are always risks in war.  But there are also risks in doing nothing to stop Iran, with existential consequences for America.

The time to act is now, before Iran obtains nuclear weapons. Thanks to the careful and methodical steps President Trump has taken to weaken Iran militarily, economically and diplomatically, the Iranian regime is now at its most vulnerable point in history.

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A good leader deals with crises as they arise. A wise leader prevents them. The war with Iran is a risk, but it is a calculated risk worth taking. Success will not come without sacrifice, but it will guarantee America’s security and prosperity for a generation.

Preventing Iran from developing nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles capable of striking the United States is about as America First as it gets.

Operation Epic Fury is also MAGA-compliant. It will guarantee our prosperity, not just for today but for the future. It is the final piece of a strategy that consolidates America’s dominance over the global energy supply.

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Since the dawn of the industrial age more than 200 years ago, energy has been a key driver of manufacturing and technological advancement. Countries with access to coal, oil and natural gas became wealthy.

Energy will be an even greater factor in the coming information age. The world’s demand for energy is increasing rapidly to power the computers necessary for artificial intelligence.

Trump understands this. The country that leads in artificial intelligence will lead the world.

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He has taken the shackles off the American oil and gas industries. The United States now controls the rebuilding of Venezuela’s energy industry. It has significant influence over its energy-rich Gulf Arab allies. Iran would be the final piece of the puzzle, if the United States can help develop its oil resources.

Chinese President Xi Jinping understands this as well.

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China is one of the most energy-dependent countries in the world. It does not have significant domestic oil or natural gas reserves. Xi has worked for years to guarantee China’s access to cheap oil and natural gas. China has bought much of its oil at steep discounts from three sanctioned countries — Russia, Venezuela and Iran. This has been crucial to China’s manufacturing success and will be essential to its technological dominance in the information age.

If China no longer has access to discounted Venezuelan and Iranian oil, it will be at an enormous disadvantage in the years ahead. Even if it imports all of Russia’s energy capacity at a discount, it will still be forced to purchase market-priced oil and gas to make up for the loss. As President Trump said after the ouster of Maduro, if China wants to buy oil, it can buy it from America at market prices.

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Some countries, including Venezuela, Iran and the Gulf Arab states, have oil and gas. Others, like China, have technological capability. But only the United States has both.

President Trump’s economic, trade and foreign policies are making America great again. To keep America great in the information age, the United States must dominate the global energy market. Success in Operation Epic Fury is essential to keeping America great.

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Trump’s strike on Iran deals a major blow to Putin’s war machine in Ukraine

Within hours of American munitions striking Iranian soil, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a statement that the Western press largely treated as a diplomatic footnote, but it was a signal that what happens in the skies over Tehran has a direct impact on the ground in Ukraine.

President Zelenskyy explicitly endorsed the strikes, called Iran “Putin’s accomplice,” noted that his country has absorbed over 57,000 Iranian-supplied drone attacks, and took aim at Moscow: “Whenever there is American resolve, global criminals weaken. This understanding must also come to the Russians.”

Zelenskyy’s framing of the war in Iran through the lens of Ukraine’s war is not incidental. Whatever Washington’s stated objectives, the president, who has lived through the Ukraine conflict since the 2022 invasion, understands that Iran has been an active accomplice in Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the United States has now acted against that accomplice.

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By striking the Iranian regime that provided the Shahed drones to Russia (and the ability to manufacture them) that have terrorized the Ukrainian civilian population for over four years, Washington has taken out a key Russian ally, which will negatively impact Russia’s ability to wage war in Europe.

When Iranian-provided drones began falling on Kyiv in October 2022, reducing apartment blocks to rubble and plunging cities into darkness, the world quickly learned a new word: Shahed. The Shahed-136 is not a sophisticated weapon. It is not fast (though Russian improvements have increased its capabilities significantly). It is not quite as precise as a cruise missile. What it is, and what it was always designed to be in Russia’s hands, is a weapon of civilian terror.

Russian Shahed’s targets power stations and apartment buildings. The destruction they reap contributes to the blackouts that leave families without light and heat in winter. It is the triangular silhouette Ukrainians have learned to dread in the night sky, the low distinctive buzz from its propeller that sends people running for shelters. I have watched Shaheds glide through Ukrainian airspace toward civilian targets. I have stood with interceptor teams in the darkness doing everything they could to bring Shaheds down before they found their targets. The images of these drones flying into buildings in Kyiv represent the human toll of Iran’s pernicious contribution to the war in Ukraine.

By early 2023, Iran signed a $1.75 billion contract for additional drones and complete manufacturing blueprints. Russia subsequently built its own production facility in Tatarstan. Ukrainian intelligence estimates Russia now produces up to 1,000 modified Geran drones per day using Iranian-derived technology. In essence, Tehran handed Moscow the blueprint for a terror campaign against civilians that Russia has since industrialized on its own soil.

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Beyond drones, Iran delivered nearly $3 billion in ballistic and surface-to-air missiles before and during the invasion, including hundreds of Fath-360 ballistic missiles, numerous anti-aircraft systems, and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, with total weapons value exceeding $4 billion.

Iranian munitions replenished Russia’s stockpile, dashing Western hopes that Russia might quickly run out of shells, drones, and missiles. In return, Russia offered Iran S-400 air defense systems, Su-35 fighter jets, nuclear reactor construction and geopolitical cover at the U.N. Security Council. A 20-year strategic partnership was formalized in early 2024. This was an axis built across military, nuclear, financial, and diplomatic dimensions, and due to U.S. action in Iran, this axis has crumbled in spectacular fashion. In a recent statement, Russian Foreign Minister Dimitry Peskov stated that Russia would not honor its defense agreement with Iran because he signed the agreement with Ayatollah Khameini, and Khamenei has been killed.

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However, Russia’s most important strategic partner, China, continues to supply vast quantities of microelectronics and components for Russia’s military-industrial complex at a scale Iran could not match. But Beijing has carefully avoided direct lethal hardware transfers to preserve a degree of deniability. Iran, on the other hand, filled the gap China deliberately left open: front-line weapons and production blueprints, deployed without hesitation.

Russia has fully indigenized Shahed production, even improving on the original design with the more sophisticated and expensive Geran variants. The Iranian government’s 50-year legacy of terror will live on not only in Middle Eastern states, but in Europe for as long as the war in Ukraine continues.

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With the U.S. campaign promising to last for at least several weeks, Iran’s capacity to supply additional ballistic missiles is now compromised. Its ability to upgrade drone designs at home and deliver replacement components is degraded. Moreover, every Russian asset potentially diverted to shield a battered Iran, air defense systems, aircraft components, logistics, is an asset unavailable in Zaporizhzhia or Kherson. Moscow is now burdened by a weakened, desperate partner at precisely the moment it can least afford the distraction.

This represents a different kind of pressure on Russia than sanctions or battlefield aid — one that works through the partnership networks and supply chains that have sustained the Russian war effort. Zelenskyy’s prescient statement that every act of aggression ultimately meets a just response was directed towards Moscow and Tehran. While Ukraine was not Washington’s primary consideration when President Trump decided to strike Iran, the calculus of the war in Ukraine will become more complicated for Russia, and that’s a good thing for Ukrainians fighting for their very right to survive.

All 4 Iran war assumptions dead wrong — Trump proves experts got fooled again

In these early days of Operation Epic Fury, while much remains unknown, one thing has become clear: how little the conventional wisdom about foreign policy in Washington, D.C., has to do with the realities taking shape on the battlefield. Traditionally, four things were assumed to be near inevitable if the United States and/or Israel were to take significant military action against Iran:

1. Iran’s supreme leader would be untouchable.
2. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would deploy its terrorist proxies to ignite a regional war.
3. Israel would be isolated in the Middle East and vulnerable to attack from Arab neighbors.
4. The United States would be isolated on the world stage and limited in what it could do to support Israel, which would benefit Russia and China.

All four assumptions are dead wrong.

Obviously, the supreme leader was not untouchable. He was eliminated in one of the opening strikes of the mission, along with much of Iran’s senior leadership. His arrogant foolishness in gathering that leadership together was in fact the opportunity that prompted Epic Fury in the first place.

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But that did not prevent the survivors from organizing a succession meeting on Tuesday, March 3, which was in turn targeted. The demoralized remnants of the regime are now attempting to re-establish command and control with little in terms of structure or internal communications.

In addition, the predicted mass regional attack on Israel has not materialized. Because of Iran’s disastrous decision to launch missiles against its neighbors — even those who had been acting as its mediators, such as Qatar and Oman — the region has unified not against Israel, but against Iran.

There are even reports of Arab nations potentially participating in the strikes on Iran. The Abraham Accords, although under strain since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, have held.

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Iran’s terrorist proxies, rather than rising up to attack Israel, have been remarkably inactive given their patron’s desperate straits. Hamas in Gaza has been all but silent. Hezbollah in Lebanon have fired some rockets, but nothing like the overwhelming barrage of precision-guided missiles that was once feared. The Houthi in Yemen have stuck to threats rather than attacks. None of them appear to be interested in a multi-front war against the combined might the U.S. and Israel have demonstrated.

While it is true that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have put out strong statements condemning the American action, they have actually done precious little to support their supposed ally Iran, which is reportedly registering complaints about the quality of the missile-defense systems they supplied.

Obviously, the supreme leader was not untouchable. He was eliminated in one of the opening strikes of the mission, along with much of Iran’s senior leadership.

And America, rather than being isolated, is re-established as the pre-eminent military power on the planet, while Russia and China hardly look like reliable partners. Even our originally timorous European allies have come around to supporting the mission.

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Of course, this is a real war, and no one is claiming it will be neat or simple. It’s a difficult mission that has already and will continue to cost American lives and treasure to successfully prosecute. But there’s no denying it is very different from what the so-called “experts” have predicted for the last 47 years.

So, while success is far from guaranteed, this new reality presents several opportunities as well as risks, and should prompt a reassessment of other assumptions that have constrained American action against Iran for so long.

President Donald Trump has a history of doing things in the Middle East that had been declared impossible. Experts knew that moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would cause a massive regional attack on Israel. Eliminating Qasam Soleimani would ignite a regional war. Additional regional normalization between Israel and regional neighbors could not be reached until there was a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

See what I mean?

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Another piece of conventional wisdom Trump seems poised to disprove is the so-called “Pottery Barn Rule” for regime change — “you break it, you buy it.” This dictate that the U.S. had to rebuild a hostile country once its government was removed — even if that government had supported a vicious attack on our own soil — led to catastrophic mission creep in Afghanistan and Iraq as, after the success of those military campaigns, attempts to remake those countries dragged on for decades and ended in failure.

Iran’s terrorist proxies, rather than rising up to attack Israel, have been remarkably inactive given their patron’s desperate straits. 

America should not repeat this error. Presumably, Trump will want to bring the kinetic phase of this mission to a close as soon as his objectives are achieved. Then we will see if the Iranian people will take advantage of the best opportunity they have had since the revolution to reclaim their government.

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Iran is, after all, a country, not a piece of crockery in a store, and President Trump’s mission is not nation-building. It is to give the American people the opportunity to go through the next half-century freed from the deadly threat of the Islamic Republic, especially if that regime were to acquire a nuclear weapon.

It would be even better to go through that period with a prosperous and secure partner in what the new Iran becomes. And that future will ultimately be for the people of Iran to secure.

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SEC TURNER, GOV SANDERS: Why HUD’s proposed rule is a springboard to the American Dream

Public Housing and Section 8 rental assistance in America were created to provide a temporary helping hand to families during times of hardship, not to trap them in long-term dependency. Yet almost half of non-elderly, able-bodied households getting support from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) didn’t have a single person working in 2024. It’s time for a change.

We got here because well-intentioned federal policies drifted away from their original purpose, leaving many people stuck in subsidized housing for years, sometimes decades, while millions of families sit on waiting lists with no help at all.

HUD’s proposed rule aims to correct that drift by restoring a simple, commonsense principle: HUD housing assistance should encourage work, self-sufficiency, and upward mobility while keeping a strong safety net for the elderly and disabled. Under the Trump administration’s proposed regulation, no longer would able-bodied, able-minded individuals be allowed to waste away on welfare with no hope or dignity.

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Arkansas became the first state in the nation to bring work requirements to the forefront in state law after I, Governor Sanders, signed the Housing Welfare Reform Act of 2023 into law. This commonsense law ensures that an individual who is able to work is required to work, train, or volunteer if they’re living on the taxpayers’ dime. Public housing authorities, however, have not been permitted to require work or limit time under current rules. Without HUD’s proposed rule, Arkansas is unable to enforce the law on the books.

Public housing was never meant to be a hammock, but a springboard to a life of self-sufficiency. Federal housing assistance, as currently structured, disincentivizes work and leads to a long national waitlist for housing assistance for those who need a hand up.

Capable adults receiving assistance are staying longer and longer on welfare. Recent evidence presented to Congress shows that nearly 90% of able-bodied Section 8 voucher recipients will spend more than five years in subsidized housing, and half will spend more than 15 years. It is not uncommon for multiple generations of a family to live in subsidized housing over decades. We must break this hopeless cycle.

There is extensive real-world evidence supporting work requirements and/or time limits on public housing benefits. Across the country, nearly 40 Moving to Work housing agencies have tested work requirements or time limits, showing America that these programs can change lives.

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This proposal would finally allow Arkansas to empower all public housing agencies and Section 8 residents in the state to move towards self-sufficiency, as the law intends.

Arkansas will set the example for more states to follow because the Trump administration is empowering state and local leaders who best understand their residents and communities to decide whether and how to implement these policies, within clear regulatory bounds. No longer will there be a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington.

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HUD estimates that under our proposal, between 19,000 and 79,000 families nationally will move out of subsidized housing in the first year, opening doors for new families in need. This is a win-win situation. The families leaving assistance will earn more, contribute more to their own rent and stand on firmer financial ground, while the families finally getting assistance will receive the help they’ve been waiting on for years.

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Most importantly, this is about dignity. Work is a pathway to meaning, independence, and stability. Study after study shows that prolonged unemployment erodes well-being, worsens health, decreases life expectancy and harms children’s prospects. By contrast, when adults work, families are healthier, communities are stronger, and futures are brighter. A rising tide lifts all boats

We believe in the potential of our fellow Americans. By restoring federal rental assistance to its intended role as temporary support, we can help more American families build brighter lives and better futures.

DAVID MARCUS: Timothée Chalamet’s right, the Left ruined ballet and opera

Timothée Chalamet is under fire this week and losing traction in the best actor Oscar race for saying just about the most obvious thing in the world: Nobody cares about ballet or opera in 2026.

Here is the exact quote from the “Dune” and “Marty Supreme” star during a recent CNN town hall: “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”

The backlash was swift and severe. According to the BBC, Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny described Chalamet’s comments as a “disappointing take” while, American artist Franz Szony wrote, “Two classical art forms that have been around for hundreds of years, both of which take a massive amount of talent and discipline this man will never possess.”

But to today’s pretty boy of Hollywood’s point, who the hell are these people?

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When I was 10 years old, the greatest ballet dancer in the world was Mikhail Baryshnikov. He was as famous as Larry Bird or Doc Gooden, as was the greatest opera singer of the time, Luciano Pavarotti. That is gone today.

Today, almost no American has the slightest idea who the greatest ballet dancer or opera singer alive is, because it’s not for them any more. The fine performing arts have become a bubble of progressive intolerance. They don’t even want us unwashed non-believers involved.

The fine performing arts are the last trench that the sad wokesters are hunkered down in.

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In the 1950s, there were published collections of the great works of the West. You may have seen some of these leather-bound volumes in your grandparents’ houses. They were very expensive, but publishers couldn’t print them fast enough.

The middle class ate it up.

On any given night in those 1950s and 1960s on television, one could see a Shakespeare play, or Leonard Bernstein describing symphonies or great philosophers of the day lecturing. But by the 1970s, it was decided that this was a bit much for the masses.

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The Pavarottis and Baryshnikovs would linger through the 1990s, but by the turn of the millennium, that was over. The leftist elites had rendered opera and ballet their own private dominions, a dwindling and now dying domain that Chalamet rightfully calls out.

The problem for opera and ballet, and indeed for straight theater and musicals as well, is that they stopped looking for audiences and started looking for grants. A bunch of woke, rich White people can give you money to produce the first Inuit opera but it doesn’t mean anybody wants to see it.

That includes Inuits.

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Part of what Chalamet is realizing here is that opera and ballet have spent 50 years being protected. But protected from whom? 

The drive to diversify and move away from the standard repertoire that everyone loves — for a reason — made these art forms a delicate flower for the elites among us, not a strong crop that feeds the soul of the masses.

Now, the same people who refuse to attend their supposedly beloved opera and ballet won’t grace the door of the Trump Kennedy Center performances as their own performance protest, the upshot of which is that now there is no audience for these forms.

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Sad to say, opera and ballet may truly be dead. There may be nobody left in those art forms who can breathe life back into their morose, woke corpses, but Chamamet knows that maybe movies can avoid this fate. Maybe.

I suspect that Hollywood’s new non-offensive “it guy” will walk this all back, making me long for the days of movie makers like John Cassavettes who know how to tell the industry and elites to stick it where the sun don’t shine.

But his point stands. It’s absurd to even argue. Ballet and opera have rendered themselves irrelevant by placating the shibboleths of wokeness and obeying its rules. Until that stops, they will remain dying forms.

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I think Chalamet has probably learned his lesson here, and his chastisement may well stick. But they can’t chastise us, and when they want to invite us back into the fine arts, we will be here. 

But the makers and shakers of opera, ballet, theater, painting and sculpture should be warned that while you fritter away your legacy of centuries, we might just be starting our own.

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What would Jesus say about AI? Are we building another golden calf?

If you don’t choose a religion, a religion will choose you. It’s somehow in our makeup. We need to worship something. The latest thing seems to be AI.

Talk about false idols. I log on to my computer, and all these voices are screaming out at me, sometimes using the exact same words Jesus did, asking me to “follow” them. “Follow them?” I ask myself. “Aren’t I supposed to follow you, Lord?”

I wonder: How much of all that talking is simply generated by AI? How much of what I read comes via AI? (I hope you don’t have to wonder if this was written by AI.) “Jesus,” I ask, “what would you think of all this?”

Sure, it’s convenient. If I’m looking for a Bible verse, I can click on ChatGPT and speak into my phone. The answer comes back in seconds — chapter and verse. It couldn’t be easier.

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If God is all-knowing, AI looks super-knowing. Sometimes it can be wrong. Occasionally, it is shockingly prejudiced. But then, where did it get what it knows? From us. From what it was fed. Similarly, where did we get what we know of Jesus? From his followers. From the stories they told and retold and finally wrote down.

It’s worth thinking about how our practice of faith has evolved as the means of communicating it have evolved. Back in Jesus’s day, few people could read, but they could listen to something read in a synagogue and remember it, reflecting on it, lodging it forever in their brains.

Over time, Jesus’s words were copied by hand onto parchment and passed along that way until the advent of printing in the 15th century. Believers could then get printed Bibles. With new translations into the vernacular, they spread like wildfire. When someone read from the Scriptures, you could follow along in your own copy. You could share it with them.

DR MARC SIEGEL: WHY GEN Z IS TURNING BACK TO GOD, MIRACLES AND REAL-WORLD COMMUNITY

So isn’t AI just one more evolution in communicating the Word? Like I said, it’s much easier to find a particular Bible verse or passage using AI than thumbing through a concordance or flipping through dozens of pages. I don’t even have to ask for someone’s help. My phone or computer can do it for me.

And yet, I fear something is lost. Some of it is the experience of community. I can ask all sorts of questions through AI, sitting by myself on my sofa at home, typing away on my computer or speaking into my phone. But what about the wonder that comes when I’m with other believers in church, or when we come together for Bible study — even one on Zoom? There are always those enlightening moments when someone says something that clicks. Didn’t Jesus say, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them?”

What I also fear about AI is the way it’s changing our brains — changing mine. I used to remember people’s phone numbers easily enough. They were lodged in my head. But now that they’re stored in my phone, I don’t have to memorize them.

And I can’t live without my phone.

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It makes me think about what Jesus did before he launched his ministry. He went into the wilderness for 40 days, something we celebrate every year at Lent. He went without food and drink and didn’t have any friends hanging out with him. He was tempted by the devil. But he had to depend wholly on God. That’s all he had, and that was more than enough.

What do I think Jesus would say about AI? He understands us, and he understands the world far better than we do. He’s seen how innovations can improve our lives. But he’s also able to share something AI can never communicate — that deep, mystical side. A friend of mine asked ChatGPT if it had a soul. The reply: “I’m not programmed to have a soul.”

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AI may seem all-knowing, yet it is in unknowing that we come to know Jesus. As he said, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

That’s my message to myself for Lent. Put away the phone for a while (it doesn’t have to be 40 days — even 40 minutes would be something). Turn away from the computer. Listen for and feel Jesus’s love. It’s bigger than anything AI can do or say. I don’t have to type it into ChatGPT. I can close my eyes and speak to the heavens: “Jesus, help me follow you.” He knows what I want more than I could possibly realize.

Rare, historic US documents traveling country on ‘Freedom Plane’ ahead of America’s 250th anniversary

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Some of the documents that helped shape the United States are temporarily leaving Washington, D.C., ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, giving many Americans a rare chance to see them in person.

The “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation” – launched by The National Archives – is bringing founding-era records out of the nation’s capital and into communities across the country.

The nationwide tour kicked off Friday at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, where visitors can walk through a specially prepared exhibit room to see several historic documents up close.

The historical records are traveling around the country on what organizers call the Freedom Plane, a specially marked aircraft for the tour.

RARE AND ORIGINAL AMERICAN FOUNDING DOCUMENTS TO FLY ON FREEDOM PLANE ACROSS NATION

Boeing pilot Joe Seymour, who helped fly the Freedom Plane, said the mission carried special meaning. 

“These are the Founding Fathers of the United States, and there’s a great pride that comes with that. To say it’s a privilege or an honor would really be an understatement,” Seymour said.

Jesse Kratzer, a historian with the National Archives, said many of the records rarely leave the National Archives building, giving the public an unusual opportunity to view history closer to home.

Among the documents featured in the exhibit are the Articles of Association from 1774; George Washington’s oath of allegiance from 1778; oaths of allegiance signed by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1778; the Treaty of Paris from 1783; a tally of votes approving the Constitution from 1787; a secret printing of the Constitution in draft form from 1787; and an 1823 engraving of the Declaration of Independence.

Kratzer said some of the documents allow visitors to see the founders’ handwriting up close.

“When I touch this piece of paper, I’m touching the same piece of paper that Alexander Hamilton touched,” Kratzer said. “He signed it Alex Hamilton.”

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The documents are displayed under carefully controlled conditions in a dimly lit room designed to protect the centuries-old paper.

“We have them wrapped in mylar and then they are also encapsulated with plexiglass,” Kratzer said. “So basically they’re in their own microclimates.”

The exhibit tells the story of the nation’s founding, tracing the events that led to the creation of the United States government.

“This exhibit itself is really a history of the American Revolution, the creation of our government and then the creation of the Bill of Rights within one small space,” Kratzer said.

READ: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Museum leaders say the exhibit brings together pieces of American history that many people have only read about in textbooks.

“These fundamental documents record all those happenings as our forebears sought to define who we were and who we wanted to be as Americans,” said Matthew Naylor, president and CEO of the National World War I Museum and Memorial.

Kansas City was chosen as the starting point for the national tour, a decision Naylor said highlights the importance of bringing the exhibit to communities beyond the East Coast.

“Why not for them to be in the heartland, in the Midwest as the beginning of this tour,” Naylor said.

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The exhibit will remain in Kansas City through March 22 before the tour moves to Atlanta and other cities across the country. It will end in Seattle in August.

A full schedule of tour stops and dates is available on the National Archives website.

DAVID MARCUS: Passing the Save America Act to save Cornyn is a fair deal

The most important thing to know about this week’s primary results in Texas is that nearly 60% of Republican voters told sitting Sen. John Cornyn that they do not want him returning to Washington, and it will take more than an endorsement from President Donald Trump to change that.

On Thursday, Cornyn’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, made an interesting offer to avoid an ugly and costly runoff election in May. Put simply, if the Senate approves the Save America Act, requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, then Paxton will drop out.

It is an elegant solution that had been suggested by some commentators, including myself, once it became clear that neither Cornyn nor Paxton had cleared the 50% hurdle to avoid a runoff, and it would save Trump from having to swoop in and make an endorsement.

The president said Friday that he would make a decision on whom to endorse “fairly shortly,” but added that he wants “the full and complete Save America Act” passed, the first time he explicitly connected the two.

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

The offer to Senate GOP leadership, desperate to hang on to their old buddy, seems to be, “You pass the Save America Act, and I’ll save John Cornyn.” And even Paxton is on board.

This solution is a perfect one, specifically because the Save America Act is a microcosm of everything that frustrated GOP voters hate about the Republican establishment that runs the Senate. It polls at 70-80% approval, and yet it can’t get passed.

Why did 60% of Republicans send this stinging message to Cornyn and the GOP on Tuesday? Because, for all their big talk, men like Majority Leader John Thune and his inner circle of exceedingly careful lawmakers can’t get anything done, even when it’s something as popular as Santa Claus.

KEN PAXTON BELIEVES HE’LL CRUSH ‘FAKE JOHN CORNYN’ EVEN WITHOUT A TRUMP ENDORSEMENT

Tellingly, over the weekend leading up to Tuesday’s election in the Lone Star State, the most prominent ads on TV were not for any particular candidate but rather a pro-Save America Act spot that broke down exactly how senators, like Cornyn, could vote to protect U.S. elections.

I heard about the issue directly from voters, including one man from El Paso who told me, “If they can’t pass things that 80% of us want, then what is the point of all this?”

If Cornyn wants to regain the trust of the Texas GOP voters who rejected him on Tuesday, there would be no better way to start than to champion, and even whip for the Save America Act.

HARDLINE CONSERVATIVES DOUBLE DOWN TO SAVE THE SAVE ACT

Cornyn and all of the Rinosuars of the upper chamber need to show they are not just going to sit around doing nothing for another six years.

The Save America Act is actually so popular that it could potentially get the vote of at least one Democrat. 

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told me on Thursday, when asked if he could support using the standing filibuster to pass the bill with a simple majority, “GOP is greedy on it. Make it simple: legit ID to vote for any federal elections.” He went on to suggest Wisconsin’s law as a model and said, “If that did happen, I would support it.”

ONLY ONE HOUSE DEM VOTED IN FAVOR OF VOTER ID, PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IN US ELECTIONS

In fact, Fetterman argues such changes would “flip the narrative into the Dem’s lap,” forcing them to tell 80% of Americans their position is “outlandish,” or “Jim Crow.”

The point here is that when something is as popular as voter ID is, there is simply no excuse for not getting it, or some version of it, across the finish line. 

It is hard to describe how demoralizing it is for GOP voters, especially in deep red states, when controlling the Senate feels meaningless.

GOP WARNS DEMOCRATS USING DHS SHUTDOWN TO STALL SENATE VOTER ID PUSH

Since Tuesday’s lackluster results, in which Cornyn, to be fair, did better than many expected him to, his campaign has been in full attack mode against Paxton, making an argument that only Cornyn is electable. It’s not enough.

When 60% of your own party’s voters want to send you packing, you have to listen to them and find out why. It is not sufficient for Cornyn to simply cross his arms and say it’s me or James “God is non-binary” Talarico.

Sometimes in life, a rebuke can be a good thing in the long run, a wake up call. And Cornyn certainly got one of those this week.

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If Cornyn wants to keep his seat, he needs to grab the bull by the longhorns and get something done, show the voters he isn’t just along for the ride. And there could be no better accomplishment than to help secure our nation’s elections.

It is time for Cornyn to lead, to earn his seat, not to fall backwards into it with a Trump endorsement. Passing the Save America Act is the best and most important way he could do it.

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America’s boys need noble masculinity — not lowered expectations

Throughout the country, states are moving to curb student phone use in schools. From New Jersey’s push for a strict bell-to-bell ban to tighter rules in Indiana and Florida, lawmakers are responding to a growing consensus among parents and educators: constant distraction is harming children – and boys are often taking the hit hardest.

But phones are not the real story, they are just a symptom. Across America, something is wrong with too many of our young men. They are not stupid, and they are not hopeless, but too many are drifting, less resilient, less anchored and less prepared to carry adult responsibility when life stops being more negotiable than previous generations. 

As a university president, I see the consequences up close. Young men arrive with talent and ambition, yet too many struggle with the disciplines that make success possible, such as sustained focus, perseverance, teachability and the maturity to control impulses instead of being controlled by them. 

I have sat across from students who were bright enough to thrive and motivated enough to dream big – yet were repeatedly undone by ordinary responsibilities we all take for granted. They fell behind not because they lacked intelligence, but because they could not sustain attention, accept feedback without taking it as a personal attack or treat deadlines as real until they had already passed. By the time a university sees that pattern, it is not a campus issue alone, but a problem years in the making.

WELCOME TO THE DATING RECESSION: WHY YOUNG AMERICANS ARE GIVING UP ON LOVE

The broader evidence points in the same direction. In October 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that among recent high school graduates aged 16-24, 69.5% of young women were enrolled in college, compared with 55.4% of young men.

Gallup reported in 2025 that 25% of U.S. men aged 15-34 said they felt lonely a lot of the previous day. A Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis found that labor force participation among men aged 20-24 fell from 82.6% in 2000 to 73.1% in 2022, with a further decline to 68.2% projected by 2032. 

Higher education is a powerful avenue for preparation, yet it is one of several honorable paths. Our country depends on builders, tradesmen, entrepreneurs, service members, skilled workers and professionals alike. But every young man does need a path that builds discipline, competence and purpose. When boys become men without durable friendships, meaningful work and mentors who not only inspire them but also know their names, the consequences do not stay private, they surface in families, workplaces and communities that depend on dependable men.

BILL MAHER SYMPATHIZES WITH YOUNG MEN WHO STRUGGLE WITH DATING, BUT TELLS THEM TO GROW UP

We should not be surprised by what we are seeing, because our culture has weakened the conditions that help boys become men. We have mistaken love for the removal of hardship, lowered standards in the name of compassion and avoided hard conversations in the name of sensitivity. Empathy matters, but empathy that never expects growth becomes surrender. Boys often rise or fall to expectations, and when expectations disappear, many do not become stronger, they become fragile. 

We have also outsourced too much of boyhood to screens and then wondered why attention, patience and self- control have eroded. Used without restraint, a phone becomes a training ground in impulse, distraction and endless stimulation. A boy formed by constant gratification will struggle with the unglamorous habits adulthood requires, such as showing up, sticking with difficult tasks, finishing what he starts and doing the right thing when nobody is watching. 

We have also made a serious mistake in the way we talk about masculinity. In condemning what is genuinely destructive in some expressions of manhood, we have too often treated manhood itself as suspect. Boys hear what not to be, but too rarely hear what they should become. That vacuum fills with apathy, anger or counterfeit bravado that imitates strength while evading responsibility. The answer to toxic masculinity is not hostility toward masculinity. It is noble masculinity, strength under control, courage in service of others, restraint over appetite and honor that does not need applause. 

If we are serious about changing this, we do not need to wait for a perfect federal plan or another national commission. Families, schools, churches, employers and civic leaders can begin now by rebuilding the conditions that form boys into men. That means mentorship must become normal again.

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I have sat across from students who were bright enough to thrive and motivated enough to dream big – yet were repeatedly undone by ordinary responsibilities we all take for granted.

Every school community, church, civic club and neighborhood should be able to say, with integrity, that no boy grows up here alone. Boys need sustained contact with good men who showcase integrity, hard work, restraint and responsibility, and who challenge them, correct them and pull them into real life through service and honest conversation. 

It also means restoring standards that actually mean something, including respect for women and for authority figures. Schools should enforce conduct codes that protect learning and require decency. Coaches should bench talent that will not respect teammates. Employers should reward reliability and correct immaturity. Parents should insist on chores, punctuality and integrity at home and teach boys early on that strength is never an excuse to demean, objectify, intimidate or manipulate women. 

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This is urgent, and we should stop pretending otherwise. The window to form boys into men does not stay open forever. Habits are learned early, reinforced often and either strengthened or neglected with every passing year. If we keep debating this as theory while boys continue drifting in real time, we will lose another generation, and the repair will be longer and harder than the prevention. 

America does not need more commentary about young men. It needs adults willing to rebuild the conditions that form them. Families, churches, schools and communities all have a role, and at universities like mine, we are taking up that responsibility by helping shape not only capable graduates, but men of character. Do it now, before drift becomes the default and before another generation is damaged in ways we will spend decades trying to undo. We are not simply trying to move boys into adulthood. We are trying to raise noble men. 

BROADCAST BIAS: From ‘without evidence’ to war panic, the media target Trump and America

In his second term, President Donald Trump has been more aggressive in attacking America’s enemies than he was in his first term. But whenever this commander in chief approves military action, the broadcast networks reflexively attack it and seek to undermine the effort. This certainly happened when America and Israel took military action against Iran on Feb. 28.

One sickening impulse is the networks offering a propaganda platform to the enemy, as they did repeatedly with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi. On ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., called host George Stephanopoulos out for it when the host repeated the Iranian line that the American attack was “unprovoked.” Lankford began by quipping, “I would hope that Iranian TV is carrying Marco Rubio today, the same as you all just carried the Iranian foreign minister today.”

It’s obvious that it’s more controversial within these liberal networks to provide a platform for Trump than to interview a Baghdad Bob–like figure in the decapitated theocracy in Iran.

TRUMP SAYS US ‘DOING VERY WELL’ IN IRAN NEARLY 1 WEEK INTO JOINT ACTION AGAINST TEHRAN

On Monday morning, an ABC White House correspondent broke out the “without evidence” line against the president. Trump “has yet to make a robust case for war to explain why Iran presented an imminent threat to the U.S.” and has “insisted, without evidence, that a rebuild of their nuclear program was happening fast.”

NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel claimed Trump justified the military actions on the basis of “a theoretical threat . . . that if, in the future, Iran were to expand its ballistic missile program, it could threaten the United States. . . . He was talking about a theoretical future threat, and the rest was past grievances from the Iraq War.”

The Trump administration has made the case that the theocracy in Iran has been at war with the United States since it took American hostages in 1979. That argument is dismissed as “past grievances.” Iran’s campaign of killing American soldiers in Iraq with roadside bombs, which was downplayed in real time, is now just “past grievances.”

It’s obvious that it’s more controversial within these liberal broadcast networks to provide a platform for Trump than to interview a Baghdad Bob–like figure in the decapitated theocracy in Iran.

Then there’s the theme of economic blowback. On Tuesday night, ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir warned, in his typically clipped verbiage, “Amid this war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz essentially shut down where 20% of the world’s oil passes through. Tonight the stock market plunging, oil and gas prices already up. The Dow plunging more than 1,200 points today before clawing back some of its losses.”

MILLER SAYS TRUMP ‘UNLEASHED’ MILITARY FROM ‘WOKE PENTAGON’ CONSTRAINTS AFTER YEARS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

ABC News reporter Elizabeth Schultze echoed the gloom: “Tonight, growing fears of prolonged war sending the stock market tumbling and oil prices surging.” Then, on the same broadcast, came the cherry-picked “analysts,” who warned that “higher energy prices will ripple across the economy.” Economist Ryan Sweet argued, “The consumer can’t catch a break. So you’re going to see it in food prices, you’re going to see it in air fares. Overall, inflation is going to perk up a little bit over the next couple of months.”

Notice how neatly this matches the Democratic argument about affordability in a midterm election year. The dark clouds forever hang over everything Trump does. The “news” is manufactured to keep the bad weather rolling indefinitely.

The networks also reported polling results to insist the president launched an “unpopular war.” On Thursday’s “Today” show, guest host Hoda Kotb touted, “A new NBC News poll shows that most voters, 52 percent, say the U.S. should not have taken military action against Iran.” The numbers — 41% backing the war, 52% against — pretty closely match the current polling on President Trump’s approval rating. The broadcast networks are pushing the idea that this could hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.

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This week, the “PBS News Hour” turned to a contributor in Iran, Reza Sayah, who has pushed the Iranian regime’s perspective. 

On Monday, he announced, “Just keep in mind, from Tehran’s point of view, there’s no trust. This is the second time they’re in the middle of negotiations. Without warning, they have been under attack. … So they’re projecting resilience, toughness.”

On Tuesday, PBS anchor Amna Nawaz asked if there was an uprising afoot. Sayah wasn’t having it: “Obviously, when the death of the Supreme Leader was announced, there were pockets of celebrations throughout the country. But millions of others came out to mourn his death.”

Without discussing the recent murders of thousands of Iranian protesters, Sayah added that there was “no sign of any mass protests, mass uprising, and no indication of an organized opposition with a clear leader. If, in the coming days, it so happens that people come out, it is very likely that armed security forces are going to be waiting for them.”

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These networks love to pose as the saviors of democracy in America, but they’re not coming across as favoring democracy in Islamic countries. They warn of “Christian nationalism” on the rise in America but have no problem with Islamic nationalism in Iran. They have compared Trump to Hitler while ignoring the Iranian regime’s Holocaust deniers who want to end the nation of Israel.

There’s a reason so many Americans have tuned these networks out.

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MIKE DAVIS: Virginia returns to the Confederacy with a seditious conspiracy against ICE

Immigration enforcement is a core federal power. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the duty to write our federal immigration laws. Under Article II, the President has the duty to enforce them. States cannot meddle and certainly not obstruct. Unfortunately, many Democrat states, especially Virginia, are on a deadly collision course with the federal government.

American voters gave President Trump and the Republican-led Congress a broad electoral mandate to reverse the disaster the Biden-Harris border policy caused in every state in America by mass importing as many as 20 million illegal aliens, including the worst of the worst around the world. 

Activist judges and other Democrat politicians and election deniers have done everything they can fathom to thwart Trump’s constitutional duty to expel these dangerous illegal aliens.

TRUMP URGES DHS, ICE TO PUBLICIZE ARRESTS, SAYS CRACKDOWN IS ‘SAVING MANY INNOCENT LIVES’

The latest example is Virginia, which is passing a series of unconstitutional laws that would dangerously and illegally obstruct ICE. These proposals include criminal penalties, meaning that state law enforcement would attempt to arrest and jail ICE agents for simply doing their jobs. 

This effort is seditious, insurrectionist, extremely dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. For the sake of the Republic, the Justice Department must immediately and aggressively quell this Virginia seditious conspiracy.

Fairfax County District Attorney Steve Descano is the Soros puppet Democrat prosecutor in the DC suburb, an uber-wealthy Democrat enclave that is an albatross around Virginia’s neck. Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien who invaded our country in 2012. Jalloh settled in Virginia and began wreaking havoc on the good citizens there, racking up a whopping 30 arrests. These included one for rape and four charges for stabbing Americans. 

Yet, thanks to the willful ineptitude of Fairfax County’s Democrat regime, Jalloh only had one felony conviction. He violated his probation, spent three months in jail and went free because of a deal between his lawyer and Descano’s office. Sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County do not notify ICE when detaining or releasing illegals like Jalloh, who had a final order of removal from 2020. 

Police in Fairfax repeatedly warned Descano’s office via email that Jalloh’s release would endanger the public, but the pleas fell on deaf ears. Earlier this week, Jalloh allegedly stabbed to death 41-year-old innocent mother Stephanie Minter at a bus stop.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate Democrat. But after her inauguration this year, she immediately showed her true leftist colors. She issued an order prohibiting cooperation between state officials and ICE. 

Several anti-ICE bills await Spanberger’s signature: (1) a prohibition against ICE arrests at courthouses (where these alleged dangerous criminal illegals visit daily); (2) a prohibition against ICE arrests within 40 feet of polling places (where illegals violate federal criminal laws by voting); and (3) criminal penalties for ICE agents who wear masks (because they don’t want to get doxxed and killed).

If Spanberger signs these unconstitutional state laws, the Trump Justice Department should immediately sue and seek to enjoin them in court. A Virginia federal judge should issue an injunction, following the lead of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which fully stayed California’s unconstitutional prohibition against ICE agents’ use of masks.

But civil enforcement is not enough. Virginia Democrat officials plotting to arrest ICE agents for doing their jobs (seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384) — and especially those who cause the arrests (insurrection under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, assault, kidnapping, harboring, conspiracy, and more) — must go to federal prison for their serious federal felonies. If anyone gets killed in a deadly standoff between these new Virginia confederates and ICE, these Virginia Democrat officials must face felony murder charges.

VIRGINIA LAWMAKERS UNLEASH ON VCU NURSE FIRED OVER ‘HEALTHCARE TERRORISM’ ENCOURAGING HARMING ICE AGENTS

Former President Biden and his missing-in-action border czar Kamala Harris allowed millions of illegal immigrants, including the most violent and dangerous criminals in the world, to pour across our borders. Trump is doing everything in his power to fulfill his broad electoral mandate and undo the damage by arresting and deporting these illegals.

Virginia’s proposed laws do not merely prohibit communication between state officials and ICE; rather, they criminalize federal law enforcement actions that are plainly within the scope of federal immigration enforcement power.

States do not have to help ICE by, for instance, providing law enforcement resources to assist in ICE apprehensions of illegals. But states certainly cannot subvert or obstruct these federal efforts. This is especially true of Virginia’s attempt to arrest ICE agents in the line of duty, which could justify their use of deadly force.

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Virginia’s attempt to subvert and obstruct federal law must fail. We fought the Civil War because the Confederacy, headquartered in Virginia, sought to nullify federal law with respect to slavery. Today’s Virginia Democrats are reverting to their confederate roots. 

Just as the federal government did during the Civil War and for a century after when segregationist states continued their efforts to nullify federal law, the federal government now must stand strong against Virginia’s sedition and insurrection. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution makes plain that federal law is supreme in areas where the federal government has authority.

If Virginia gets away with effectively nullifying federal immigration enforcement, other states can nullify any other federal law that it finds distasteful. Let’s hope Abigail Spanberger comes to her senses and vetoes this insanity. If she does not, the federal government must use all tools at its disposal, including the Insurrection Act of 1807 and other federal criminal statutes, to preserve federal law. 

Virginia state officials must go to federal prison for engaging in seditious conspiracy, insurrections and other very serious federal felonies. Anything less would threaten the existence of the Republic.

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DAN GAINOR: As troops face danger abroad, media wage war on Trump at home

America is in the midst of kicking the snot out of an enemy that has dominated Middle East headlines for nearly 50 years. Naturally, some in the press are targeting President Donald Trump with ridiculous new allegations buried in the depths of the Epstein files. 

Why? Because journalists still believe they can drag Trump through the mud, even in the middle of a war, and win elections for the D team.

If this sounds familiar, it sure as heck should. This has been the media strategy since Trump first decided to campaign as a Republican and ruin the left’s plans for global domination. The press has run with every phony claim it could find: the Russian collusion allegations, “mostly peaceful” riots and claims that the Hunter Biden laptop was 100% fake. 

MORNING GLORY: LEGACY MEDIA DIDN’T LOSE READERS, IT DROVE THEM AWAY

Remember this Politico headline from Oct. 19, 2020, just in time to influence the presidential election? “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”

Now we know the laptop was real and full of scandalous information about President Biden and his family, which is why the truth was buried under a mountain of lies from Trump haters and the journalists who love them. They were protecting their guy — “the Big Guy,” from laptop fame. 

So big, in fact, that he ended up pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, before he left office. The 51 intel officials all lost their security clearances, but they did the damage they wanted. And the press — along with social media companies — hid the truth.

Even notorious NPR lefty CEO Katherine Maher admitted during congressional testimony that the outlet had screwed up in 2020.

“I do want to say that NPR acknowledges we were mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner,” she said.

Of course, Biden still got the White House, NPR conveniently got funded and the GOP got defeated. NPR won the trifecta.

That’s the context for yet another claim of a Trump scandal. Everywhere the media went this week, the goal was to include two names in the headlines together: Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an allegation — an old and unproven one, at that. Why bother to hold back? All that matters is trying to hurt Trump.

And the press was on board for every bit of it. There are the bitter folks at NPR, now vastly poorer thanks to Trump, offering up this headline: “Justice Department publishes some missing Epstein files related to Trump.” Or Radar Online with the tabloid-style headline: “‘Missing’ Epstein Files Containing Explosive Trump Assault Claim Released by Pam Bondi Hours After She Was Subpoenaed by Congress.”

DAN GAINOR: TRUMP DEFEATED THE PRESS LIKE DAVID SMACKED GOLIATH. CAN THEY RECOVER?

Some of them just can’t hide who they are. The leftist Daily Beast ran multiple pieces on the story, including this classic: “Creepy Nicknames Trump Allegedly Used With Epstein Revealed by Accuser.” It included a subhead worthy of a gender studies major: “EWWWW.” 

The author of that story, Daily Beast reporter Catherine Bouris, was an American studies major, according to her website, and it shows. Consider this quote: “I understand feeling powerless when faced with the looming spectre of the patriarchy.”

Or her pro-trans complaint in another one of her articles: “Babes In TERFland.” Bouris at least doesn’t pretend to be neutral. From that piece: “I do not pretend to be an impartial witness, much like I’m not impartial when it comes to other forms of bigotry. I do not think journalism (or whatever this it is that I’m doing here) needs to be neutral in the face of oppression and injustice in order to be effective.”

That’s an important perspective as journalists grab their pitchforks and torches for the billionth time, convinced this time they will take down Orange Man Bad.

One interesting point is how some in the press are now terrified of Trump — or, more likely, his lawyers. Trump has scored two massive lawsuit victories against both ABC and CBS since he returned to the Oval Office. The two networks agreed to pay many millions in legal settlements. Now, when outlets cover Trump, they’ve grown more careful. Several opted to use the word “uncorroborated” in their articles, which I’m sure made their lawyers and accountants happy. The Los Angeles Times, CBS News and The Associated Press all fell into that category.

Other news organizations went with some form of “allegation,” another lawyer-preferred safe word. That included our friends at CNN, The Guardian and The Hill. MS NOW really covered its bases with “unsubstantiated Trump allegations.” That’s a double-word score in Scrabble — The Legal Edition.

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That kind of institutional CYA (cover your allegations) shows that this latest batch of stories isn’t worth the paper they’re mostly not even printed on.

Back during the heyday of the press actively censoring the Biden laptop story, The Washington Post ran an opinion piece arguing that we couldn’t trust claims either way. It was what that same outlet would have called a non-denial denial in the Watergate years. Here’s the headline: “Insisting that the Hunter Biden laptop is fake is a trap. So is insisting that it’s real.” Schrödinger’s propaganda, for the nerds out there.

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It was the subhead from that op-ed that really applies almost 10 years later: “The lesson of 2016 is to be even more careful with potential disinformation in 2020.” That’s what we’re dealing with here, in the midst of war where our enemies have turned the internet into a battleground, trying to endanger our troops and bombard us with lies. 

Where thousands of American lives are on the line every second, where the men and women who protect us are risking everything to do so. Because President Donald Trump and America are at war with Iran. And the press is at war with Trump. 

The late, great President Ronald Reagan used to advise us to “trust, but verify.” We should update that warning for the legacy media: “Distrust — they’ve earned it.”

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I’m the only man in America who wants to keep daylight saving time

Every March, we grumble, we groan, we post memes about “losing an hour,” and we collectively curse daylight saving time. Lawmakers threaten to abolish it. Health experts warn about sleep disruption. Social media treats it like a national injustice. As for me? I love it, and I look forward to it because it makes me better.

People look at the time change all wrong. What if it’s not an attack on our routines, but a gift?

I don’t just study time. I’ve had to master it. I spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy operating in high-stakes environments where conditions changed without warning, and hesitation wasn’t an option. Today, I see daylight saving time as something most civilians completely miss: a built-in annual stress test for our lives.

In the Navy, we never waited for perfect conditions. We adapted. We executed. We moved. Losing an hour of sleep isn’t a crisis. It’s controlled adversity. I call it “tactical discomfort,” a low-stakes exercise in psychological flexibility. If a one-hour shift derails your entire week, the problem isn’t the clock. It’s fragility. We talk endlessly about resilience in America. Here’s a chance to practice it.

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Daylight saving time is also the ultimate pattern interrupt. Most of us operate on autopilot. Same wake-up time. Same commute. Same habits. Same excuses. The clock change violently pulls us out of rhythm. It forces a manual override of our sleep, our schedule and our mornings. Instead of resenting that disruption, we could use it.

There are 168 hours in every week. The time shift is the one moment each year when the entire country is prompted to re-examine how those hours are spent. It is, quite literally, a blank slate. Audit your mornings. Kill a bad habit. Add a workout. Reclaim an hour from doom-scrolling. Growth rarely happens in comfort, and comfort is exactly what routine provides.

There’s also a psychological dimension we overlook. The spring shift is a symbolic boundary. It marks the end of winter’s hibernation and the beginning of longer evenings and renewed energy. Humans respond to signals and seasons. The artificial movement of the clock becomes a mental pivot. It’s permission to shift gears, reset priorities and step into a higher-output version of ourselves.

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We don’t need perfection to reset. We need a trigger. This is one.

In a fractured culture, the time change still comes surprisingly close to a nationwide ritual. While a few places opt out, most of the country, including red states, blue states, urban and rural areas, moves the clock together and feel the same shift in routines at the same time. Time, after all, isn’t just biological. It’s social. It’s an agreement. And twice a year, much of America participates in that agreement in near-unison around something that has nothing to do with politics.

That’s not trivial. It’s connective tissue.

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Then there’s the practical benefit hiding in plain sight: safety. For decades, the clock change has served as a recurring reminder to check smoke detector batteries and refresh emergency kits. Without that built-in annoyance, countless households would forget. What we treat as inconvenience doubles as a life-saving prompt.

The truth is that the time change doesn’t make us tired. Our habits do. It doesn’t steal an hour. It exposes how loosely we guard the other 167.

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There are 168 hours in every week. The time shift is the one moment each year when the entire country is prompted to re-examine how those hours are spent. 

In the military, you don’t get to blame the sun. You master your schedule regardless of it. The civilian world, by contrast, often treats time as something that happens to us. We become victims of the clock instead of owners of the week.

Daylight saving time offers a different mindset: Adapt faster. Reset deliberately. Leverage disruption. You can complain about losing an hour, or you can use it to gain momentum.

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Twice a year, the world hands us a controlled disruption. A stress test. A reset button. A national synchronization event. A safety reminder. A psychological pivot.

Maybe the real question isn’t whether we should abolish the time change. Maybe it’s whether we’re disciplined enough to use it.

GREGG JARRETT: Democrat war powers vote was an unconstitutional way to halt Iran strikes

The Senate on March 4 wisely rejected a new war powers resolution aimed at halting or restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military strikes against Iran. A House version also failed. 

Introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the resolution in the upper chamber called for ending hostilities “unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force” issued by Congress.

The resolution, supported by nearly all Democrats, was defective for several reasons.

First, the president can engage in military action with or without a declaration of war. He does not need permission from Congress. Second, there already exists a valid authorization for use of military force that applies directly to the current conflict. Third, such a resolution unconstitutionally violates the separation of powers.

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The fallacy of the Democrats’ argument is easily demonstrated by revisiting their own words. It was not that long ago that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that President Barack Obama did not need authorization from Congress to bomb Libya in 2011. Democrats in unison mimicked her point of view.

They maintained their immutable stance as Obama conducted air strikes in six more countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria. President Joe Biden followed suit with similar strikes, and nary a complaint from Democrats. 

But when Trump does it, the partisan wolves are scratching at the White House door accusing him of acting lawlessly. Hypocrisy is always in vogue on Capitol Hill.

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Trump critics are wrong when they assert that the president is usurping the power of Congress to pursue military action. Quite the opposite. He is executing those powers granted directly to him by the people through the Constitution.

Democrats are the ones who are guilty of attempting to arrogate presidential power.

Constitutional powers

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Our Founding Framers deliberately chose to separate responsibility between the president and Congress in all matters of military action. This separation of powers is embedded in the Constitution that the Founders composed in the summer of 1787.

In Article II, Section 1, “executive power” was granted to the president. An essential element was discretionary authority over foreign affairs and military action to counter threats. This was affirmed by the Supreme Court in the famous Marbury v. Madison decision by Chief Justice John Marshall, who explained that the legislature has “no power to control that discretion.”

Congress was not left out but given a limited function. In the original draft, it was empowered “to make War.” However, James Madison and others successfully argued that such language would give the legislature an outsize role in the conduct of war, which was purely an executive duty.

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Article I, Section 8 was therefore amended to give Congress only the power “to declare war.” What does that mean? It is a formal proclamation to initiate a state of war, typically at the request of the president. It is narrowly construed and is by no means the exclusive power to commence military action. That rests with the president, although Congress can always refuse appropriations to pay for it.

The U.S. has issued declarations of war 11 times in five conflicts. Yet, more than 200 times presidents have invoked their own constitutional authority to deploy and conduct aggressive military action against foreign foes to protect the national interest and secure the safety of Americans.

Article I does not grant Congress the power to prevent a president from doing so.

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War Powers Resolution of 1973

During the undeclared “war” in Vietnam, Congress passed a resolution that sought to constrain President Richard Nixon’s power to conduct military operations. It essentially rewrote the Constitution, giving lawmakers the power they do not have while diluting the authority of the commander in chief.  

It is well established that the legislature cannot, by a simple vote, take away an executive power vested in the president by Article II of the Constitution and simultaneously recast Article I authority. That would require altering the Constitution by amendment.

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For years, many prominent Democrats vigorously denounced the very resolution that their party passed in 1973 with majority control in both Houses. In 1988, Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, soon to become majority leader, criticized it as flagrantly unconstitutional.

“[T]he War Powers Resolution does not work because it oversteps the constitutional bounds on Congress’ power to control the Armed Forces in situations short of war and because it potentially undermines our ability to effectively defend our national interests,” Mitchell said. 

Mitchell, who was once a federal judge and knew a thing or two about the Constitution, was correct. However, since the Supreme Court has never directly ruled on the resolution, it remains an active but misbegotten law. No president since 1973 has accepted it as a valid constitutional constraint on their power.

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Some, including Obama, simply ignored it. All presidents in the last 53 years have reserved the right to act unilaterally while still following some of its dubious requirements. That is, notification to Congress within 48 hours and troop withdrawal within 60 to 90 days unless specifically authorized by Congress. 

Thus far, President Donald Trump has fully complied.

If Congress chooses to demand cessation, Trump can disregard it knowing confidently that both precedence and the Constitution would fully justify it. In crafting that esteemed document, the Framers excluded the legislature from any definitive power to end hostilities or war.

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Authorization for use of military force

Immediately after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed a joint resolution known as the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). It granted the president exclusive and extraordinary powers to target those groups and nations that “aided the terrorist attacks … or harbored” the perpetrators of 9/11. The stated goal was to “prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States.”

One only needs to read the report of the 9/11 Commission to be reminded of Iran’s complicity. For years, the government in Tehran actively aided and abetted deadly attacks on America by offering al Qaeda terrorists extensive training, intelligence, transit, logistics, weaponry and funding. Some of the terrorists that Iran supported were the very same “future 9/11 hijackers,” the report explained.

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When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, several top al Qaeda leaders fled to neighboring Iran, where they were given safe haven.

As the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism, Iran has waged a blood-soaked war against the United States for 47 years. On its own and through its menacing proxies and militias, it has attacked our bases, targeted our citizens, kidnapped our diplomats and claimed the lives of more Americans than any terrorist regime on Earth.

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The maniacal leadership has spent decades building a deadly arsenal of ballistic missiles and attempting to obtain nuclear weapons with the singular purpose of using them against the United States and our stalwart ally, Israel. The evidence of this is overwhelming.

For all these reasons, President Trump has ample constitutional authority — indeed, an affirmative duty — to take preemptive action to end the sinister threat once and for all. 

Here come the big bombs as US escalates strikes on Iran’s huge military arsenal

“Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at U.S. Central Command headquarters on Thursday.

From a tactical perspective, the scale of the airstrikes unleashed in Operation Epic Fury indicates that the U.S. almost waited too long. Starting the campaign to take out Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones required strikes on almost 2,000 aimpoints in just the first few days. That’s one munition per aimpoint, and there could be thousands more to go.

It was then or never. Iran planned to stockpile missiles and drones and build a handful of nuclear weapons that no military force could reach. “Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs,” U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday. 

The terrifying scale of Iran’s target set went unnoticed by most of the world until last Saturday.

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Imagine how difficult this job would have been in a few years — especially with Russia and China helping Iran restock.

“This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones that no one could do anything about it, because they could hold the whole world hostage,” Rubio said on Capitol Hill on Monday. “Look at the damage they’re doing now. And this is a weakened Iran … imagine a year from now,” he added.

With Iran’s command and control degraded and air defenses flattened, the southern air ingress approaches to the country are wide open. “And now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS — and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon on Wednesday.

Here come the big bombs to take on hundreds of targets. Those targets include factories, weapons storage sites and every IRGC facility U.S. forces can find. And it’s all happening while a 2,000-mile arc of aerial defense continues.

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The U.S. is not running out of bombs for Operation Epic Fury. Here are seven systems seeing heavy action:

Joint Direct Attack Munition: JDAMs use GPS satellite guidance to hit precise coordinates. The combat-proven JDAM family of munitions is actually a kit. You take a Mk 82 500-pound free-fall gravity bomb, a Mk 83 1,000-pound bomb body or a Mk 84 2,000-pound bomb body, then attach a precision seeker and a tail kit with steering fins just before missions. Military munitions specialists — sometimes called AMMO troops — build the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft. In the Navy, for example, you can spot ordnance loaders on an aircraft carrier deck by their red jerseys. In 2003, U.S. fighter and bomber crews dropped 5,086 of the 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs in Operation Iraqi Freedom. So yes, planners knew to stock up. A new wing kit doubled the range for the JDAM Extended Range variant. JDAMs can attack “off-axis,” meaning behind or to the side of the fighter or bomber.

GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb: Combining precision with powerful explosives, the Small Diameter Bomb weighs 250 pounds and has a remarkable 40-nautical-mile range when launched, along with the ability to strike moving vehicles. The bomb body is advanced, with a more powerful but compact explosive that limits collateral damage. Aircrews can change coordinates in flight for this GPS-guided munition. F-22 Raptors can drop SDBs while flying supersonic.

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Patriot and THAAD: U.S. forces are leading the defense against missile and drone threats. Patriot remains the gold standard for terminal-phase intercepts, and Hegseth noted inventories were in good shape. THAAD — Terminal High Altitude Area Defense — is also widely used.

Air-to-air missiles: For drones, there are many options, starting with fighter aircraft armed with AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles) and AIM-9 Sidewinders. Drones can be tricky to detect on radar, but recent experience in Ukraine means the U.S. has fresh identifying characteristics to work with. Once in range, the slow, hot, whirring pusher engine of Iran’s Shahed drones is not difficult to target. However, Hegseth noted counter-UAS systems have been pushed forward. You knew American technology was the foundation of Ukraine’s superb air defenses, right?  

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VAMPIRE and Coyote: The VAMPIRE counter-drone system’s name says it all: Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment. That means it can go on almost any truck and fire different missiles. The Navy rushed it to Ukraine in 2023, and since then, “VAMPIRE users have successfully shot down hundreds of enemy drones,” according to manufacturer L3Harris. Other examples include Coyote, a small drone that can launch from a sonobuoy to destroy hostile drones or loiter to disable them with electronic jamming in its “non-kinetic” variant. Both have been tested against drone swarms.

To be sure, some Standard Missile-3 Block 1A and Block 2B variants have been heavily taxed. U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers launch SM-3s for exo-atmospheric, midcourse hit-to-kill shots against Iranian ballistic missiles. 

On Feb. 4, the Pentagon anticipated the need and announced Tomahawk production would be boosted to 1,000 per year, AMRAAMs to at least 1,900 and SM-6 missiles to more than 500 annually, with SM-3 production accelerating to two to four times its classified annual rate. For obvious reasons, full munitions inventories are not public information.

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“Your joint force is steady, frosty, calm and focused,” Caine said.

And they have the weapons to carry out their missions.

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MARGARET SPELLINGS: AI is here — and America’s schools aren’t preparing our kids to survive it

Hardly a day passes without a new headline about the potential for artificial intelligence to dramatically change the workforce and the economy. AI can write code and generate photorealistic images. Algorithms can help diagnose disease with remarkable precision. The pace of change is staggering, and the truth is, no one can say with certainty where this technology will lead or which jobs it will ultimately transform.

But here’s what we do know: change is accelerating rapidly. And America’s education and workforce systems aren’t ready.

This isn’t a new problem. Long before AI entered the conversation, our education and workforce systems were failing too many Americans.

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Walk into any manufacturing plant, hospital or tech startup today, and you’ll hear the same thing: Talent is in short supply. In our schools, student achievement is shockingly low. The result is millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed and at risk of being left behind. For the first time in history, parents do not believe their children will be better off than they are.

What the United States has is a mismatch between workforce preparation and the jobs of today and tomorrow. What we’re missing is a national strategy to connect people to opportunity.

I’ve spent more than two decades leading education and workforce initiatives, and one lesson stands out: While our economy has evolved dramatically, our institutions have remained largely the same.

The numbers tell a compelling story: Seven in 10 employers report they cannot fill current openings. Thirty-seven million Americans have some college education but no credentials, which contributes to 50% of college graduates being underemployed one year after graduation. One in three employers say their average employee lacks the literacy skills needed to perform the job. And gaps in childcare could cost the economy as much as $329 billion over the next 10 years in lost productivity, workforce shortages, and decreased income and revenue.

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These failures predate the AI era, but AI has clarified the urgency. If we can’t reliably prepare workers for the jobs that exist today, how will we prepare them for a workforce transformed by technology we can’t yet fully imagine?

I’ve spent more than two decades leading education and workforce initiatives, and one lesson stands out: While our economy has evolved dramatically, our institutions have remained largely the same.

The answer isn’t to wait and see what happens. It’s to build a workforce and talent system that is flexible, adaptable and resilient enough to support our people and meet what comes next.

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That’s why last February, the Bipartisan Policy Center, which I lead, launched the Commission on the American Workforce. We brought together Democrats and Republicans, governors, business leaders, education leaders and others. After a year of rigorous study, we produced a blueprint. Our recommendations are built on three imperatives that address the core of America’s workforce challenge.

First, we need a coherent federal workforce policy. 

Today, federal dollars are scattered across dozens of programs, each measuring success differently. States, which are closest to employers and education providers, need a federal partner that offers coherence and clear direction. 

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We recommend establishing a Talent Advisory Council to integrate fragmented federal programs and create a shared national strategy. We have a national security strategy and an economic strategy. We also need a talent strategy — a plan for our people.

Second, we need to set students up for success. 

Students deserve clear pathways from high school through training to jobs. This means modernizing how we measure and report progress, so families have real-time data on which programs lead to jobs and good earnings.

It means high schools are redesigned to offer career tracks alongside college prep, not just college prep. It means portable credentials that employers recognize, such as manufacturing or nursing credentials. And it means navigational tools, so families understand their options: What is the cost? What is the return on investment? How long does training take? What jobs are available?

Third, we need to remove the barriers that stop people from working and learning. 

When childcare costs more than a mortgage and paid leave is nonexistent, families suffer and lose opportunity. We need affordable childcare, so parents can work and families can thrive. 

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We need paid family leave, so workers don’t have to choose between a newborn and a paycheck. We need skills savings accounts — portable, tax-advantaged tools that help workers save for training and upskilling. Similarly, new “Trump Accounts” can help families invest in and pay for educational opportunities.

Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming work faster than ever, and skill requirements are shifting in real time. Countries that move first and build integrated talent systems will attract companies and investment. We’re in a global competition. Others are making strategic investments and speeding up. The United States risks falling behind.

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Our K-12 system isn’t preparing students for adaptability and critical thinking. Our postsecondary system isn’t nimble enough to respond to changing demands. Our workforce system is fragmented. Our data is fragmented. Our support for working families is fragmented.

We must ask ourselves: Do we want to keep putting a Band-Aid on a 20th-century workforce system that isn’t built for the 21st century? Or are we finally going to do the hard work of preparing for the future?

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The Commission’s recommendations are practical, bipartisan, and doable. They require coordination and investment, but far less than the cost of inaction.

The question isn’t whether AI will change the workforce. It has, and it will continue to do so. The question is whether we will be ready. Right now, we’re not. But we can be — if we’re willing to act.

DAVID MARCUS: SCOTUS gets case on transing kids right, despite three clueless justices

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week in a 6-3 decision that California teachers cannot hide from parents the fact that their child is identifying as trans in school while the broader case works its way through the courts, but the real question is, what on Earth were the three dissenting liberals thinking?

In fairness, our justices of the left, Elena Kagan, Sonya Sotomayor and Katanji Brown-Jackson, did not render a final judgment in the case. But the idea that parents should be kept in the dark while it plays out is simply repulsive.

The majority, in as obvious a statement as one can make, decided that parents have the “primary authority with respect to ‘the upbringing and education of children,'” including “the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.”

As every parent knows, their permission is needed at school for everything from field trips to special holiday meals, but apparently the dissenting trio believes there is an argument to be made for not telling parents their child has changed their gender. Abject madness.

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Worse, when you think it through, is that instead of talking about this legitimate mental health challenge with their folks, children are supposed to trust other adults more to make decisions about their gender and sexuality, an incredibly dangerous idea.

Most parents, if they discovered another adult was secretly encouraging their son to wear dresses, would immediately call the police, as they should.

What led the misguided liberals on the court here is the most fundamental misunderstanding, or flat-out lie, if you prefer, underlying the case, that people can be born in the wrong body or change genders.

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Once the justices crack open this pandora’s box, it opens the door to arguments that parents are somehow violating their own children’s rights by refusing to accept their claim to be trans. All across the country, parents have lost access to their children for refusing to feed the trans delusion.

Take the case of Jeanette Cooper of Chicago, who lost custody of her 12-year-old daughter after she went to her father’s house and claimed she was a boy. Even after affirming her child’s pronouns, Cooper still lost custody under the same laws that protect kids from abuse.

“A difference in belief is not abuse,” Cooper told Fox News in 2023. “I think that children who are actually being abused in very material ways should be insulted by this.”

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT LETS STUDENTS CHANGE NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY IN SECRET FROM PARENTS

Apparently, the Supreme Court’s liberals and progressives in general believe that parents who do not just simply and blindly accept that their child has changed genders should have that kept from them, and perhaps even lose them if they refuse to give in.

Is it possible that there are a handful of parents out there who might actually abuse their kids for being trans? It is, but first of all, abuse is already illegal, and more importantly, we cannot disregard the basic rights of all parents because of a few alleged bad apples.

All of this is rooted in the creepy progressive idea that your kids belong to society, not to you, that it is the state, not the parents who bear ultimate responsibility for the child’s development and well-being.

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If there is abuse or neglect, the state can and must step in, but this must be the extreme exception, never the rule, and it should not apply at all in terms of gender identity.

Along with the recent decision by Langone Medical Center and other major hospitals to cease the medical transition of children, this 6-3 decision by the court, and the likely final decision along those lines, are powerful steps back towards sanity.

The conservatives on the court are to be commended for this common-sense decision, but until all of our institutions reject the idea that gender is fluid or nonbinary, we will continue to have children confused about their gender.

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It is not enough to compel teachers to disclose to parents if a child thinks they are trans, they must also be compelled not to preach this fairy tale of gender identity in our schools at all. 

With this Supreme Court decision, that goal is firmly within reach.

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Parents, not bureaucrats, raise America’s children and the Supreme Court agrees

The United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that should strike fear into woke school boards across America. In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Court held that a California law preventing schools from disclosing to parents their child’s claimed “gender identity” at school violated parents’ free exercise rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment and their substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Supreme Court determined that California’s policy of socially transitioning children to a different gender at school without parental consent likely violates the free exercise rights of those who have “sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs.” The court went on to note that this “unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition is greater than the indoctrination of LGBTQ story books” that the court addressed last summer in Mahmoud v. Taylor The court similarly found in Mahmoudthat Montgomery County Public Schools violated the rights of objecting parents. That school district paid out $1.5 million to settle the case.

The court also made clear that California’s policy requiring schools to keep a student’s “gender identity” secret from parents likely violated their well-established “rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children” and that the denial of these rights “constitutes irreparable harm.” 

FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN ‘GENDER SECRECY’ POLICIES IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The importance of this decision for parents cannot be overstated. Schools across America must now request parental consent before facilitating a child’s social transition to a different sex. In other words, if a student wants to be addressed at school by pronouns of the opposite sex or use the bathroom or locker room of the opposite sex, the school must get parental consent. Schools can no longer hide or abet the facilitation of a student’s gender transition from parents and pretend it is lawful.

Anyone who has been paying attention to what has been going on in America’s public schools over the last five years knows that California is not the only place where K-12 school districts have been actively hiding a student’s social transition from parents. For example, in Virginia, Loudoun County Public Schools’ Regulation 8040 states that “[a] student’s gender identity or transgender status should not be shared without the student’s consent.” The district’s teacher training documents state that “privacy and confidentiality are critical for transgender students who have family that do not support or affirm their gender identity,” and that when students “do not want their parents to know about their gender identity [] schools should address this on a case-by-case basis.” 

Applying the Supreme Court’s holding in Mirabelli to those policies leads to only one conclusion — they are blatantly unconstitutional. School boards that continue to maintain these policies will do so at their own peril, which arguably could include school board members and other officials being sued in their individual capacity and for punitive damages. And to be clear, the risk of litigation is not limited to parents whose children have been socially transitioned at school. Rather, as the court made clear, “parents who object to the challenged policies or seek religious exemptions” have standing to sue “because they are objects of the challenged policy.” That means that any parent whose school district has a policy like Loudoun’s can sue, either individually or as part of a class action, for deprivation of their free exercise and substantive due process rights.

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The Mirabelli decision provides robust rights for parents to demand that schools seek parental consent before their own child is referred to by opposite-sex pronouns, a different name, or uses a bathroom or locker room of the opposite sex. And, it doesn’t require a huge leap to argue that parents’ free exercise and substantive due process rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children can also be violated when someone else’s child begins using locker rooms or common restrooms of the opposite sex.

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Consider a boy who is allowed to use a girls’ locker room as part of his social transition at school. Parents of the girls using that locker room may very well have religious, philosophical or safety objections to their daughters changing with members of the opposite sex. Unless the school informs parents that their daughters will be exposed to a male student in their locker room before it happens, the girls’ parents are denied the ability to take action they deem necessary to direct the upbringing and education of their children. That is exactly what happens in Loudoun County.

Unfortunately, even with the United States Supreme Court’s clear ruling, some of America’s woke school boards and administrators will likely continue violating the Constitution. They need to be hauled into court and forced to stop and then pay serious money for their intransigence. The Supreme Court’s ruling re-affirms what the Constitution states and legal precedent has affirmed: parents have a Constitutional right to parent their children. Parents have the legal authority and power to do exactly this — and they should use it.

KEN CUCCINELLI: Biden opened our border to Iranian terrorism threats

In the tense days following the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020, Iran responded with missile barrages on American bases in Iraq, injuring scores of people but deliberately avoiding fatalities. Tehran promised “harsh retaliation,” but no attacks struck U.S. soil. The reason wasn’t deterrence alone or diplomatic restraint but something simpler: Iran lacked operational assets inside the United States.

At the time, the regime had only scattered sympathizers, not embedded networks capable of executing homeland strikes. U.S. intelligence assessments after the strike highlighted threats abroad but noted no credible, specific domestic dangers because Iran’s reach stopped short of American borders.

Secure frontiers and rigorous vetting under the Trump administration ensured that potential operatives couldn’t infiltrate U.S. defenses easily. Encounters with Iranians at the U.S. southern border averaged less than 20 annually from 2000 to 2019. The homeland remained insulated from the threat of terrorism from Iran.

Now, in March 2026, as U.S. and Israeli forces destroy Iran’s nuclear sites and tyrannical leadership in Operation Epic Fury — killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sparking regional responses — the calculus has shifted perilously. Iran has fired missiles on U.S. outposts in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and beyond.

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But the gravest risk simmers within the United States: potential activation of sleeper cells or lone actors on American soil. This vulnerability stems directly from four years of open-border policies under President Joe Biden, who flung doors wide open to unchecked immigration, swelling Iran’s pool of sympathizers in the United States and possibly embedding assets at the regime’s behest.

US ON HIGH ALERT FOR IRANIAN SLEEPER CELLS, PROXIES

After the Soleimani strike, Iran’s plots against the U.S. homeland were aspirational at best. The regime planned assassinations of U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and former national security advisor John Bolton, as revenge for the general’s death. Yet these fizzled under vigilant counterterrorism efforts and gained no operational foothold in the United States.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bulletins warned of Iran’s intentions to use proxies such as Hezbollah, but emphasized its lack of immediate capability to carry out domestic attacks. Borders acted as a bulwark; Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions and law-based immigration enforcement choked infiltration routes. Iranian-backed networks lurked in South America’s tri-border area, but U.S. enforcement cut off their northward paths.

Biden’s reversal of these policies invited chaos. Starting on Inauguration Day, he dismantled the border wall, axed the very successful “Remain in Mexico” policy, and allowed catch-and-release numbers to balloon. Over 10 million encounters with illegal immigrants followed, including surges from terrorism-prone nations. Apprehensions of Iranians skyrocketed: Border Patrol arrested 1,504 Iranian nationals from fiscal year 2021 to 2024 — a twenty-fivefold leap from the two prior decades.

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Alarmingly, 729 of them were released into the United States, often after scant vetting amid overwhelmed systems. This wasn’t mere oversight; policies such as expanded asylum loopholes and deportation reluctance effectively welcomed risks. In June 2025, ICE rounded up 11 Iranians illegally present in the country, including a former army sniper, a Revolutionary Guard member, and a Hezbollah affiliate — all of whom had slipped in during Biden’s tenure. Intelligence flagged 35 more Iranians plotting cartel-aided crossings that same month.

These entrants expanded Iran’s base of sympathizers and potentially provided support for assets of the Iranian regime. Border czar Tom Homan decried the fueling of “sleeper cells,” a sentiment echoed in DHS alerts about Iran’s use of proxies amid escalating conflicts. Biden’s approach to immigration didn’t just strain resources; it extended an invitation to adversaries. As one national security expert put it, U.S. borders became a “sieve” through which global threats could pass. Hezbollah’s long-standing Latin American hubs funneled operatives north, exploiting the lax border enforcement.

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Today, with Khamenei dead and Iran’s regime cornered, desperation mounts. Trump warns of Tehran’s nuclear brinkmanship. Experts foresee retaliation against the U.S. homeland through infiltrated cells — cells likely planted during the Biden administration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott urges vigilance against “sleeper cells or lone wolves,” and former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe calls for elevated alerts over infiltration. A recent shooting in Austin, Texas, tied to an Iran-linked suspect heightens fears of terrorist attacks at home.

The explosion of risk is profound. In 2020, Iran’s dearth of assets spared the homeland. Now, Biden’s immigration policies have stocked a tinderbox of sympathizers and unknowns, ready for conflagration. Averting – or at least minimizing – disaster requires sealing the borders, reviving stringent vetting and expelling threats. These are all steps the Trump administration has pursued aggressively, but we must commit to maintain such a course for years to come and never let our country inflict such risks upon itself ever again.

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STEVE FORBES: The AI Cold War has begun and America cannot afford to lose

History teaches a simple lesson: the nation that sets the standards sets the future. In the 20th century, America wrote the rulebook for aviation, computing and finance. In the 21st, the decisive battleground is artificial intelligence. And make no mistake — Beijing intends to write the rules.

As everyone is now grasping, artificial intelligence will not be a niche technology. It will fundamentally reshape medicine, manufacturing, logistics, national defense and financial markets. It will create whole new industries. Analysts project trillions of dollars in economic value by decade’s end. For now, the United States remains the innovation leader. But leadership is not guaranteed — especially when the Chinese Communist Party is deploying cheap, coal-fired energy, massive state subsidies and underhanded tactics to close the gap.

Beijing’s strategy centers on so-called “open-weight” AI models — systems whose parameters are downloadable and customizable. These models are exportable by design. They allow foreign governments to run the software on their own infrastructure, keeping servers, chips and data within their borders. In other words, China is offering countries a turnkey path to sovereign AI clouds — powered by Chinese architecture.

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By contrast, America’s most advanced labs — companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic — largely operate closed systems. These proprietary models are technological marvels, and U.S. enterprises and federal agencies are adopting them at scale. But they are controlled environments. The rules, safety frameworks and innovation pathways are set inside corporate boardrooms. They are not built to be downloaded, modified and deployed globally as infrastructure.

China has recognized an uncomfortable truth: most nations will not build their own AI from scratch. They will adopt existing systems. For developing or resource-constrained countries, the choice may become stark — expensive, proprietary American services hosted abroad, or high-performing Chinese systems that can be run domestically at low cost. If that binary hardens, Beijing’s model will win market share — and influence.

This is not a purely commercial contest. AI systems reflect the societies that build them. A system shaped by the authoritarian priorities of the Chinese Communist Party will inevitably encode censorship, surveillance bias and state control. Evidence already raises alarms. Chinese models such as those developed by DeepSeek have been shown to amplify Beijing’s propaganda narratives and exhibit troubling vulnerabilities, including susceptibility to “jailbreaks” that bypass safety controls. Combined with China’s documented history of embedding hidden access points in advanced technologies, these weaknesses present obvious national-security concerns.

Allowing Chinese open models to become the global template would export more than code. It would export governance assumptions — about speech, privacy and political power. That is unacceptable for a free society.

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The answer is not to retreat from openness but to compete in it. The United States must lead in open-weight AI grounded in American values and market incentives. As President Trump’s America’s AI Action Plan correctly observed, open-source and open-weight models can become global standards in business and academia. That gives them geostrategic weight. If we fail to provide credible, competitive alternatives, others will fill the vacuum.

Leadership requires policy clarity. First, Washington must embrace a light-touch regulatory framework that sets sensible guardrails without suffocating innovation. Excessive federal micromanagement would drive research offshore and hand Beijing a gift. Second, states should resist the temptation to erect a patchwork of conflicting AI regulations. Fifty different rulebooks will not strengthen American leadership; they will fracture it.

Third, policymakers must understand the enabling foundation of AI: abundant, affordable energy and cutting-edge semiconductor capacity. Affected companies should heed President Trump’s call to build their own power plants. Artificial intelligence runs on electricity and advanced chips. If we throttle domestic energy production or undermine our semiconductor ecosystem, we undercut our own ambitions.

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Finally, we must integrate AI into our national-security architecture. Advanced systems will be indispensable in identifying emerging military threats, hardening critical infrastructure and safeguarding communications. The free world should build atop American-designed platforms, not those engineered to serve an authoritarian state.

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The United States has always thrived thanks to innovation made possible by free markets. That’s why we have the world’s reserve currency, the dominant operating systems and the most dynamic capital markets. We did it not by copying others, but by setting the pace. Artificial intelligence is the next great arena.

If we allow Beijing to write the AI rulebook, we will inherit a world shaped by censorship and coercion. If we lead — boldly, intelligently and with faith in free enterprise — we will shape a future that reflects liberty, transparency and opportunity.

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REP BRIAN MAST: Democrats don’t want war powers, they want to wave a white flag

Right now, American forces are engaged against the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure. Our aircraft are striking targets. Our servicemembers are defending American lives. This is not theoretical. It’s not academic. It’s real.

And in the middle of it, some members of Congress want to pass a war powers resolution to force President Donald Trump to pull U.S. forces out of the region while the threat is still active, still imminent.

That’s not an oversight. That’s surrender dressed up as procedure.

Iran didn’t just wake up yesterday as a bad actor. For 47 years, its regime has chanted “death to America,” taken our diplomats hostage, bombed our embassies, armed Hezbollah and Hamas, backed militias that have killed American troops and launched missiles at U.S. bases. These are not just one-off attacks, these are imminent threats against the United States, carried out again and again.

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Every president has tried something different — sanctions, negotiations, diplomatic resets, containment. Iran’s answer has always been the same: stall, deceive, continue to fund terrorism and keep building.

Time and again, weak leaders would rather avoid decisive action and instead hand it over to multinational coalitions and the United Nations — an institution that has become so useless and corrupt it actually named Iran as vice-chair of a U.N. body promoting democracy and women’s rights.

Think about that. Iran — the country that fines, imprisons, flogs and kills women for not wearing their hijab. A regime that limits women’s movement, travel, work and access to basic services. And the U.N. puts representatives of that same regime in charge of women’s rights? The idea that the U.N. would take meaningful action against this threat is downright laughable.

FETTERMAN ‘BAFFLED’ BY LACK OF SUPPORT FOR TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKES AND DEATH OF ‘EVIL’ LEADERS

But it is not just multinational coalitions that have failed to hold Iran accountable. Our own weak leaders in the U.S. have pursued policies that further emboldened the Ayatollahs. President Barrack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) delivered pallets of cash to Iran and lifted crippling sanctions. The JCPOA did nothing to dismantle Iran’s ballistic missile program or stop Iran’s regional aggression. It was a failed policy that funneled cash right into the pockets of Iran’s proxies and emboldened the regime as it chanted “death to America.”

Or we can talk about how under President Joe Biden, Iran gained access to over $16 billion in unfrozen and accessible assets, allowing it to fund terrorism across the globe, and grow the imminent threat Iran has posed against America for decades.

But let’s talk about what is an “imminent threat.”

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The killing of American soldiers at Tower 22 in Jordan, that is an imminent threat. The embassy bombings in Beirut in 1983 and 1984 that took hundreds of lives, that is an imminent threat. And over the past two decades, repeated missile and drone attacks against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria that have put American lives directly in the crosshairs have all been imminent threats. And those attacks happened before Iran had nuclear weapons.

Republicans believe an imminent threat existed, and it certainly exists now when an enemy regime is actively enriching uranium, designing weapons and stockpiling the materials needed to kill Americans.

Democrats act like it’s only imminent when the nuclear warhead is being bolted onto the missile and rolled out onto the launch pad aimed at the United States.

REP RO KHANNA: CONGRESS MUST RECLAIM WAR POWERS FROM AN OUT-OF-CONTROL TRUMP OVER IRAN

The danger is real the moment they begin building the gun; why would we wait until the gun is pointed directly at our heads to act?

By then, it’s too late.

A nuclear-armed Iran would be catastrophic. It would embolden every terrorist proxy it funds and would destabilize the Middle East overnight. And it would put American cities in range of a regime that openly calls for our destruction.

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That’s why action now isn’t reckless. It’s prevention and protection for thousands, if not millions, of Americans.

But now we have Democrats in Congress pursuing one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation imaginable.

Forcing U.S. forces to withdraw mid-conflict wouldn’t “de-escalate” anything. It would rip away the protective shield that keeps Americans and our allies safe. Thousands of American civilians live and work in the region. Our diplomats, contractors and businesses depend on U.S. air defenses and rapid response capabilities. Pull that out overnight, and you create a vacuum Iran will gladly fill.

74 RETIRED US GENERALS, ADMIRALS BACK IRAN STRIKES, WARN TEHRAN SEEKS TO ‘SPILL AMERICAN BLOOD’

Every president has tried something different — sanctions, negotiations, diplomatic resets, containment. Iran’s answer has always been the same: stall, deceive, continue to fund terrorism and keep building.

Our allies — Israel and Gulf partners — rely on our missile defense systems, our naval patrols and our joint operations. Pull out now, and you send one message: if you pressure America long enough, we’ll fold and leave our allies out to dry with American lives at risk.

That’s not deterrence. That’s an invitation.

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Congress absolutely has a constitutional role. But that role doesn’t include sabotaging troops while they’re in harm’s way. The war powers debate should be about protecting American lives — not scoring political points.

If my colleagues truly care about American servicemembers, they should stand behind the mission. President Trump has made his objective clear to Congress and the American people — destroy every single piece of machinery or artillery hardware that is able to reach out and touch Americans because Iran has proved they will use everything in its arsenal to harm Americans every chance they get.

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He has complete and total authority under Article II and the War Powers Resolution to remove the imminent threat of Iran against the United States, he’s just the first president with the backbone to finally do it.

I thank him for his decisive actions to keep our country safe, I thank each and every one of my brothers and sisters-in-arms for their service, and may God bless America.

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Pentagon’s AI battle will help decide who controls our most powerful military tech

I spent decades inside the Pentagon watching technology reshape warfare. I saw precision munitions change the battlefield. I watched satellites compress decision cycles. But nothing compares to what is happening now.

Artificial intelligence has moved the lab to the kill chain.

And the showdown between Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and AI firm Anthropic is not a contract dispute. It is the opening battle over who controls the most powerful military technology of the 21st century.

AI is already transforming war

Look at Ukraine.

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Western officials report that drones now account for roughly 70-80% of battlefield casualties in that war. But the real revolution occurs when AI is added. Reports indicate AI-guided navigation can increase drone strike accuracy from 10–20% to as high as 70–80%.

That is not incremental change. That is a transformation in battlefield lethality.

WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL PRESSES ALLIES TO FREE AI FROM INNOVATION-KILLING REGULATIONS

The same dynamic is emerging in U.S. operations involving Iran and other theaters. AI tools are being used for intelligence analysis, targeting refinement, pattern recognition, and operational simulations. These systems compress time, reduce uncertainty and accelerate decisions.

AI is not theoretical. It is operational.

Which brings us to Washington.

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What the Hegseth–Anthropic standoff is really about

On Feb. 27, Hegseth designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk to national security.” President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to cease using its Claude AI model after Anthropic refused to remove two guardrails:

A prohibition on fully autonomous weapons.

A prohibition on mass domestic surveillance.

AI RAISES THE STAKES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY. HERE’S HOW TO GET IT RIGHT

Artificial intelligence has moved the lab to the kill chain.

The Pentagon argues that military commanders must be able to use AI tools for all lawful defense purposes without seeking permission from a private company in real time.

Anthropic argues that removing safeguards could enable autonomous killing systems or unconstitutional domestic spying.

Both concerns are legitimate.

TRUMP’S SCIENCE AND TECH MAN LAYS OUT WHITE HOUSE’S GLOBAL AI STRATEGY

But here is the deeper problem: America has outsourced strategic control of its most sensitive military algorithms to private contractors.

That is unsustainable.

Draw the right line

TOP AI FIRM ALLEGES CHINESE LABS USED 24K FAKE ACCOUNTS TO SIPHON US TECH

Let me be clear about what must not happen.

We must not expand domestic surveillance of American citizens under the banner of AI efficiency. The Fourth Amendment does not disappear in the age of algorithms.

Second, we must keep a human being in the kill chain. I served under lawful command authority. Life-and-death decisions carry moral accountability. They cannot be delegated entirely to autonomous systems.

CHINESE HACKERS TURNED AI TOOLS INTO AN AUTOMATED ATTACK MACHINE

Those are firm boundaries.

But here is the other boundary: no private corporation should hold an effective veto over how America defends itself.

Washington’s contractor addiction

NEW U.S. MILITARY GENAI TOOL ‘CRITICAL FIRST STEP’ IN FUTURE OF WARFARE, SAYS EXPERT

For decades, the federal government has grown dependent on contractors for critical defense functions — logistics, cyber infrastructure, analytics and intelligence support. AI is simply the next frontier in that pattern.

But frontier AI models are not spare parts or uniforms. They are strategic infrastructure. They influence targeting, operational tempo and potentially deterrence modeling.

That level of sensitivity cannot remain under corporate ownership.

FROM MISSILES TO MINERALS: THE STRATEGIC MEANING BEHIND THE IRAN STRIKE

During World War II, the United States built the atomic bomb through the Manhattan Project under centralized national authority. It was not governed by venture-backed boards setting independent usage policies. It was directed by the U.S. government with a clear strategic mandate.

We need a similar mindset for our most sensitive AI systems.

Government must own core military algorithms. Not lease them. Not subscribe to them. Own them.

US NEEDS TO BREAK CHINA’S SUPPLY CHAIN CHOKEHOLD TO WIN THE TECH RACE

AI tools are being used for intelligence analysis, targeting refinement, pattern recognition, and operational simulations. These systems compress time, reduce uncertainty and accelerate decisions.

If AI is the new strategic high ground, America cannot subcontract the high ground.

China isn’t hesitating

As I argue in “The New AI Cold War,” Beijing does not struggle with these dilemmas.

TRUMP SAYS HE PLANS TO ORDER FEDERAL BAN ON ANTHROPIC AI AFTER COMPANY REFUSES PENTAGON DEMANDS

China fuses AI development directly to the state. There are no Silicon Valley executives in Beijing refusing military access. AI is treated as national infrastructure.

Russia and other nations are moving in similar directions. They are not debating internal guardrails while field-testing AI-enabled systems.

Strategic competition does not pause while we litigate contract language.

AMERICA HAS TO RESPOND WITH A UNITED FRONT TO CHINA’S MASSIVE ECONOMIC WARFARE

What must happen next

First, Congress must draw bright lines: no AI-enabled mass domestic surveillance of Americans without strict constitutional safeguards.

Second, codify meaningful human control over lethal force decisions.

AMERICA MUST POWER AI WITH SPEED AND DISCIPLINE — OR CHINA WILL DOMINATE

Third — and most critically — build sovereign AI capacity inside government.

That means:

• Government-controlled AI research for classified applications
• Government ownership of core defense algorithms
• Reduced reliance on private frontier labs for sensitive military systems
• Long-term pipelines of cleared AI engineers

Anthropic argues that removing safeguards could enable autonomous killing systems or unconstitutional domestic spying.

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Private industry will continue to innovate. But America’s most sensitive warfighting tools cannot remain dependent on companies whose corporate policies can override national defense requirements.

The real issue is sovereignty

The Pentagon–Anthropic feud is not about personalities. It is about sovereignty.

US COULD BURN THROUGH KEY MISSILES IN ‘A WEEK’ IF WAR WITH CHINA ERUPTS, TOP SECURITY EXPERT WARNS

Who controls the algorithms that guide American force?

Who owns the code?

Who decides how it is used?

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S TOP ‘SCIENTIFIC PRIORITY IS AI,’ ENERGY SECRETARY SAYS

In the new AI Cold War, power will belong to those who control the models — not merely those who rent access to them.

America must protect liberty. We must reject AI-driven domestic surveillance. We must preserve human moral accountability in the use of force.

First, Congress must draw bright lines: no AI-enabled mass domestic surveillance of Americans without strict constitutional safeguards.

But we must also end the illusion that venture-backed firms can function as ultimate gatekeepers of national defense.

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The AI Cold War is not hypothetical. It is unfolding on battlefields abroad and in policy fights at home.

This moment is not about one company. It is about whether the United States will treat artificial intelligence as strategic national infrastructure — or as a contractor service.

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The answer will shape the next generation of warfare.

And history will not wait for us to decide.

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SEN RAND PAUL: America is at war—but Americans didn’t vote for it

Once war begins and American soldiers are under fire, a rational discussion of the pros and cons of war becomes nearly impossible. That is exactly why our Founders wrote a Constitution that demands a debate before the initiation of war.

But there was no debate in Congress, let alone a vote. On Feb. 28, Americans awoke to discover that their country was once again embroiled in a war in the Middle East.

Americans were not asked if they would bear the burdens of war. Instead, the American people were told, through a presidential eight-minute video posted around 2:30 in the morning, that the country was, once again, at war.

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And because there was no national discussion about going to war, we do not know whether ground troops will be used. We have no idea how long the war will last. We have no idea who will lead Iran after the death of the supreme leader. And we have no idea how many casualties the American people are supposed to tolerate. We cannot know the answer to these questions because no one bothered to make the case that war with Iran was worth the sacrifice.

The Senate is only now debating whether hostilities should end after they’ve already begun. Before I discuss the merits of this war, I want to say that my prayers, and those of my family, are with the troops in the region, those in combat and anyone who may be called to serve.

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I do not take lightly that combat has begun, that many have been severely injured, and that lives have been lost.

A debate and a vote in Congress provide the nation with the only opportunity to discuss whether the country understands and accepts the inevitable sacrifices of war, especially the loss of life.

It is because of those realities of war that the Constitution grants the power to declare war to the United States Congress — not one individual sitting in the Oval Office. Giving Congress the power to declare war was meant to prevent one person from committing the nation to war. When the nation goes to war, it should be a collective decision, with a clear rationale for war articulated. More importantly, a debate and a vote in Congress provide the nation with the only opportunity to discuss whether the country understands and accepts the inevitable sacrifices of war, especially the loss of life.

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The people have been robbed of a public debate. Let me inform the public that this evasion is intentional.

The congressional leadership — resigned to their own irrelevance — will gladly hand the president the power to initiate war in exchange for plausible deniability. Congressional leaders want to make the case to voters that they are not to be held accountable at the ballot box because they played no role in the decision to go to war. That is not statesmanship. That is shameful.

This country is now at war, which has already cost the lives of six American service members, and many more are severely wounded. Those soldiers and their families deserved a public debate and a vote in Congress before the initiation of hostilities.

TRUMP SENDS OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION TO CONGRESS ON STRIKES AGAINST IRAN

But had Congress debated war with Iran, we would have been wise to recall the words of John Quincy Adams, who, as secretary of state, advocated a foreign policy of restraint: “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled,” Adams argued, “there will America’s heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”

There is wisdom in Adams’ words, but his was not an original argument. It was George Washington himself who warned in his Farewell Address that America should stay out of the world’s endless conflicts.

Congress has tragically forgotten this advice. The history of the 21st century has been one of endless wars in which America perpetually searches for the next monster to destroy. From Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Venezuela, advocates for war tell us a country is a threat and that toppling a foreign government is a noble quest to protect security at home while spreading freedom globally.

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While they have recycled their arguments — when they bother to make them — the results are always instability, chaos, suffering and resentment.

The Iraq War was launched under similar false pretenses, and the consequences of that fateful decision still reverberate throughout the Middle East to this day. The overthrow of Iraq’s secular government and the collapse of its civil society spurred some of the worst sectarian violence in modern history and directly led to the rise of ISIS.

More than a decade since the U.S. military intervention that toppled Muammar Qadhafi, and a year after the fall of Assad, these divided, unstable countries struggle to escape the cycle of violence and chaos.

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And although Nicolás Maduro may have been removed from power by American military forces, the socialist and oppressive Chavista regime has not been removed from the Venezuelan government.

Most tragically, after two decades of war, the Taliban flag flies over Kabul.

America’s adventures have not produced the promised utopias — or even Jeffersonian democracies.

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History is replete with examples of wars that quickly escalate beyond their initiators’ intent. While some may think we maintain escalation dominance, the spiral of violence can rapidly get out of control.

America is at war. But Americans don’t want this war. They didn’t vote for it. In fact, they voted for just the opposite.

Beyond the documents and words of our Founders, that is why their intention to grant the power only to Congress is so important today.

If the president came to Congress to ask for authorization for war, the people’s representatives could do what they were elected to do: represent them.

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Debate provides information and answers we do not now have.

The constitutional separation of war powers is not just some notion that belongs in our history books. It’s a vital part of a democratic republic. This Congress should be ashamed of how it has allowed this unilateral march to war.

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No others in our history have been this cavalier with our military men and women and tax dollars as they are at this moment.

I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing both this war and the unilateral actions taken without congressional authorization, as the Constitution commands.

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SEN ROGER MARSHALL: Trump medical transparency initiative could save $1 trillion

Every day, Americans walk into a hospital without any idea what they’ll owe when they walk out. In my home state of Kansas, a mammogram costs $70 at one hospital and $800 at another. One hundred million Americans are drowning in medical debt, and we’re spending $5 trillion a year on a system that still won’t tell patients what anything costs until the bill arrives.

At the State of the Union, legislators heard a call to action from our commander in chief. President Donald Trump put it plainly about his “great healthcare plan.” “[M]y plan requires maximum price transparency.” He’s right – it is simple. We have a plan to fix it, and now is the time to seize the moment.

That’s exactly what our “Patients Deserve Price Tags” bill is designed to do. It makes hospitals, surgery centers, imaging centers and labs post their actual prices – real dollars and cents – before a patient ever walks through the door. No more blank checks. No more guessing. It turns patients back into consumers, and that matters more than people realize.

Healthcare is the only industry in America where we’ve stripped out consumerism entirely – where we’ve decided that you don’t get to know the price before you buy. Every other market in America works the same way: when consumers can shop, and providers have to compete, prices come down. Every single time. There is no reason healthcare should be any different.

The numbers tell the story. Even though there’s been a federal price transparency rule for more than four years, only about 15% of hospitals are posting prices. At one hospital in Kansas, a cervical spinal fusion can run anywhere from $650 to more than $26,000.

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And most hospitals, about three out of four, hide their prices in complicated algorithms that only a contract expert could understand. But here’s what happens when you finally let people see the prices: they shop. Experts estimate that price transparency would save up to $1 trillion – $1,000 a month for the average American family.

EX-OBAMA AIDE DAVID AXELROD FACES MOCKERY FOR CRITICIZING OBAMACARE PREMIUM INCREASES

And here’s what makes this moment truly special – this isn’t a partisan fight. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act has 18 Senate co-sponsors, Republicans and Democrats alike. Patient advocacy groups, employer coalitions and families across the country are behind it. Nine in 10 Americans support price transparency regardless of party. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said, “If America truly wants to make life affordable again, healthcare transparency is where we start.”

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Washington doesn’t agree on much these days, but on this, we do. When the White House, Congress, and the American people are all pointing in the same direction, there’s no excuse not to move.

Trump made the call from the biggest stage in America. The legislation is written. The coalition is built. The only thing left to do is finish the job. Don’t let Washington lobbyists stop this any longer. Pass the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act and give Americans what they have always deserved – a price tag before the bill.

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