Car-ramming and assault incidents against ICE agents surge amid criticism of federal raids
A surge in car-rammings and other assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during targeted operations in California, Illinois and North Carolina has coincided with sharp criticism from local and state leaders against federal officers.
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security reported a 1,300% increase in vehicular attacks on ICE since President Donald Trump took office, and a 58% spike against CBP officers in that same time period.
There were only two vehicular rammings of ICE agents – in particular – during former President Joe Biden’s final year in office. His administration also did not conduct fervent, targeted immigration raids at the same scale or frequency, according to reports.
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In comments to Fox News Digital on Friday, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said:
“Since January 20, there have been 99 vehicle attacks against DHS law enforcement, a 1,000% increase in assaults against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats to ICE officers. Make no mistake: The uptick in these kinds of attacks is being fueled by the constant demonization of ICE and CBP officers by Democrat politicians. They need to knock it off before they get one of our officers killed.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose city was targeted second after Los Angeles, has repeatedly labeled Trump a racist and characterized ICE agents as terrorists.
As recently as this week, Johnson told a podcast – in a report aired by Sky News – that “attacks” on illegal immigrants and targets of the Trump administration have the same characteristics as the priorities of antebellum freedmen.
“We know that the intentional attacks that are coming from the Trump administration and the extreme right in this country has very much been what I call an attempt to relitigate the Civil War,” Johnson said.
“They have not accepted the results that the North actually won.”
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Johnson said that Trump is also politically targeting education, housing, transportation, jobs and health care – which he said were “literally the five demands of descendants of slaves.”
During the Civil War, however, the Confederacy was led largely by Democrats of that era, including President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander Stephens and officers like Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who later became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
During the heat of immigration enforcement operations in Chicago, Johnson railed against the missions, describing scenes from the streets as “what terrorism looks like.”
Johnson also set up what he called “ICE-free zones” and in one instance, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was denied the use of a restroom at the Broadview, Ill., city hall just outside Chicago proper.
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Noem blamed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for the conditions that led to the incident, saying it is an example of how the Democrat “and his cronies treat our law enforcement — Absolutely shameful.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also spoke out during ICE operations in her city, saying, “These tactics sow terror in our communities.”
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was caught on video shouting questions at Noem during a press conference.
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Noem later claimed Padilla “lunged” at her, which resulted in various analyses of video of the confrontation.
Padilla was quickly tackled by Noem’s security detail, and later commented on the incident, saying that if his treatment is how the Trump administration deals with a “senator with a question… you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers” on the immigration enforcement front.
California Attorney General Robert Bonta publicly called the actions of ICE and CBP during its Los Angeles operations “part of a cruel and familiar patter of attacks on our immigrant communities by an administration that thrives on fear and division.”
“We won’t be silent. We won’t back down. We will continue to hold the federal government accountable when it violates the Constitution and federal law,” Bonta said in a July 7 statement.
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On Friday, DHS announced another arrest of a car-ramming suspect, with officials alleging Mexican national Roberto Galeana-Guatemala struck and seriously injured an officer with his vehicle when ICE was attempting to arrest him in National City, California.
Galeana-Guatemala was charged Friday with the assault as well as one count of being a removed alien who again entered the U.S. illegally.
McLaughlin said the incident marked roughly the 100th vehicle attack on ICE personnel since Trump took office.
After a recent case in which critics claimed DHS “kidnapped” a teenager, McLaughlin said the boy had been part of a group throwing rocks at officers who themselves were targets of another vehicle ramming attack.
She suggested rhetoric from critics over the incident was yet another accelerant on the political fire causing such attacks:
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“A U.S. teenager was arrested for assaulting law enforcement in Chicago—any claims that CBP ‘kidnapped’ a U.S. citizen and held him in a warehouse are bizarre and categorically false,” she said.
“These are more disgusting smears peddled by the media and billboard law firms. This attack is not an isolated incident, and it reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest, and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers.”
Justice Department transfers two more former death row inmates to Colorado supermax prison
FIRST ON FOX — Two federal inmates previously on death row, one a crooked New Orleans cop and the other the man behind a multi-state killing spree, have been transferred to a notorious “supermax” prison in Colorado, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital.
News of their transfers comes as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi looks to crack down on the previous administration’s sweeping clemency actions, especially those against violent crime.
The former death row inmates were transferred Thursday to the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, also known as “ADX,” Justice Department officials confirmed.
They are among the 37 death row inmates whose sentences Biden commuted shortly before leaving office last December. The news prompted criticism and complaints that the record clemency and commutation actions were done as a political “Hail Mary,” and without proper vetting.
Eight death row inmates have already been transferred to ADX, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital, bringing to 10 the number of death row inmates that have been transferred to the facility since mid-September.
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More are expected soon, as all 37 death row inmates commuted by Biden are expected to be moved to the facility by “early next year,” the Justice Department told Fox News Digital.
The effort comes as Bondi and the Trump administration have sought to reverse some of the Biden administration’s efforts on criminal justice reform, with an emphasis on cracking down on violent crime.
Though sentence commutations cannot be fully reversed, Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital, Bondi has prioritized ways to penalize these individuals, in coordination with directives from Trump, and to ensure that the “conditions of confinement” are “consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,” according to an earlier DOJ memo.
“Two more monsters who plotted and violently murdered innocent people will spend the rest of their lives in our country’s most severe federal prison,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“This Department of Justice will continue to seek accountability for the families blindsided by President Biden’s reckless commutations of 37 vicious predators,” she added.
Like the eight former death row inmates that were sent to Colorado’s supermax prison, the two criminals processed in ADX on Thursday have been convicted of particularly heinous crimes.
One individual chased down his ex-girlfriend from Roanoke, Virginia, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he cut the phone lines to the apartment she was living in before using cans of gasoline to set the building on fire.
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Though she escaped via a second-story window and was hospitalized for second-and third-degree burns, he followed her back to her family’s home in Virginia two months later, where he gunned her down on the streets of her neighborhood and just steps from her mother.
Another inmate, a former New Orleans police officer dubbed “Robocop” for his large physical demeanor and aggressive law enforcement style, was caught on tape by the FBI as he ordered and orchestrated the killing of a mother of three who had come to the precinct hours earlier to submit a supposedly confidential brutality complaint about his behavior that she witnessed on her way home the night before.
The FBI had stumbled upon the conversation as part of a broader probe they had started to investigate a so-called “protection racket” between cocaine dealers in New Orleans and the city’s police force, which had been guarding a warehouse stocked with the drug. The same officer was later revealed as one of the chief conspirators in the protection racket.
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He was also found to have falsely testified in two murder cases, including one murder he has since been linked to. The statements were used to exonerate four men from prison, including three teenagers who had been wrongfully convicted of a murder 28 years prior.
ADX is the only true federal “supermax” prison in the U.S., and its inmates are as notorious as the prison’s reputation.
Among them are Ramzi Yousef, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers; former Sinola Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán, or “El Chapo”; and Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the co-founder of al-Qaeda.
Shortly after her confirmation as attorney general, Bondi issued a memo aimed at “restoring a measure of justice” to the victims’ families.
The measures granted by Biden earned more criticism than former President Barack Obama: As Fox News reported at the time, the vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative.
Bondi hosted victims’ families earlier this year to hear their concerns about the commutations, DOJ said. Some said they had been stunned by the eleventh-hour commutations, and that they not been given a heads-up by the Biden administration.
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In February, Bondi issued a memo to the Bureau of Prisons ordering an evaluation of where these prisoners should be detained.
‘Absolutely ridiculous’: Top Democrat fires back at TV host during heated ACA debate
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and CNBC host Becky Quick got into a heated argument on “Squawk Box,” Friday, after the host pressed Jeffries over Democrats’ negotiations to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits.
The exchange grew tense when Quick accused Democrats of allowing Obamacare subsidies to lapse for political gain — a claim Jeffries called “ridiculous.”
The two debated what would be the best strategy to persuade some Republicans to vote in favor of an extension of the ACA credits. Jeffries blamed Republicans for repeatedly refusing to “take yes for an answer” during the negotiations that occurred while the government was still shut down as to why a deal hasn’t been reached.
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Quick questioned why Democrats are pursuing a three-year extension to these subsidies, rather than a one-or two-year deal which Republicans would be more likely to accept.
After Jeffries mentioned that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had offered a one-year extension of the tax credits during the shutdown, Quick jumped in and told the Democratic House leader: “Let’s not go back to what’s done in the past and what has not been extended. If you want to get something that has actually done, you need to do something that will have bipartisan [support]. Let’s not go back.”
Jeffries argued that the “context” of past negotiations was imperative to understanding the dynamics of the current negotiations.
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“It’s important context to make me realize that I don’t think you want to get a deal done,” Quick shot back. “I think this is something where you’d like to see the rates go higher and allow the Republicans to hang themselves with that. Is that the answer? Is this politics?”
“That’s absolutely a ridiculous assertion and really shame on you — shame on you for saying that because we’re fighting,” Jeffries fired back over crosstalk from Quick, who continued to assert that the three-year deal “is not going to get passed.”
“It’s not a partisan issue for us. In fact, the states that are most impacted as it relates to an Affordable Care Act tax credit expiration are all Republican states,” Jeffries added.
Quick agreed, noting that Democrats could “probably have some Republicans who would sign on if you guys could come up with something that actually looks like a bipartisan deal.”
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Closing out the segment, Jeffries reiterated that “this is not a partisan fight” for Democrats, but rather a “patriotic fight” to restore the ACA tax credits and help Americans.
The funding bill to reopen the government, signed last week by President Donald Trump, did not guarantee funding for the tax credits but ensures the Senate will vote in December on a Democratic-backed bill to extend them.
‘I didn’t raise you to do this’: Matthew McConaughey reveals mom’s baby news reaction
For Matthew McConaughey, the moment he learned he would become a father was everything he had dreamed of, but when he shared the news with his mother, things took an unexpected turn.
“I always knew I wanted to be a father,” he said on “This Past Weekend with Theo Von,” adding that the real challenge was finding “a woman that you’re in love with and that you know is going to be a great mother.”
When he met Camila Alves, he found exactly that — but marriage wasn’t the immediate next step.
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“Maybe that’s because my mom and dad were married three times and divorced twice, and her mom and dad were married two times and divorced three times … we had a track record for reason to go, ‘Well, I don’t know about this.’”
McConaughey said the two were thriving as a couple and weren’t interested in tying the knot just because others insisted they should.
“So, we’re rolling along … it’s going great, and we don’t want to get married because that’s just what you’re ‘supposed’ to do,” he said. “I don’t want to back into it because someone said, ‘Legally, it’s …’, no, bulls—, I want to want to. I wasn’t against it, but we were like, ‘We’re doing good.’”
Everything changed one night when McConaughey came home to a scene he didn’t realize was setting up a life-changing reveal — cheeseburgers on the grill, his favorite tequila poured and a gift.
He opened the gift and found a sonogram. They cried “tears of joy” together, then they decided to call his mother to share the good news.
The moment he told her that they were expecting, the line fell silent.
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“Crickets,” he recalled. “Next thing you hear is, ‘No, no, no, no, no, Matthew! This is out of order! I didn’t raise you to do this. No, Matthew, you’re supposed to be married!’ And went on and on and on in a five-minute monologue and then hung up.”
Ten minutes later, McConaughey’s phone rang again. His mother had called back and asked him to put her on speakerphone so she could speak to both him and Alves.
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“‘I would like to put some white-out over that last … I was being selfish, thinking about myself,’” she told them. “‘If you two are happy about it, I should be happy for you. It was not my place to be unhappy.’”
McConaughey said that moment helped reset everything, and he and Alves continued building their family.
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“So, we had two children before we got married,” he said, emphasizing that the journey unfolded exactly as it was meant to for them.
McConaughey and Alves married in 2012. Shortly after their wedding, the family moved from California to Texas.
The couple share three children: Levi, Vida and Livingston.
Fox News Digital reached out to McConaughey for comment.
Martina Navratilova caught in political crossfire after defending women’s spaces
Women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova got into a brief social media spat with a low-profile user on X after he called out Navratilova for supporting Democrats while also being vocally opposed to letting biological male transgender people access women’s spaces.
Navratilova responded to a news report on a spa being forced to let a male access the women’s locker room as a result of a discrimination lawsuit.
“To say this is wrong is an understatement,” Navratilova wrote in response.
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Comedian Lou Perez responded to the tennis great, pointing out that Navratilova is a staunch supporter of Democrats and critic of President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
“You voted for this,” Perez wrote.
Navratilova responded, writing, “I voted against totalitarianism- nice try.”
Perez then responded with a screenshot of Navratilova’s own X bio, which reads, “voting blue despite the Dems stance on women’s sex based spaces.”
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Navratilova confessed, “I agree with the Dems on just about every single issue but one- while I strongly disagree with Trump and his sycophants on every single issue but one. Ok?!?”
Perez then invited the tennis legend to his upcoming comedy show, to which Navratilova has not responded at the time of publication.
Navratilova has been a polarizing figure on social media for her conflicted support for liberals and opposition of Trump, as she regularly slams Democrats for allowing biological males in women’s sports.
Last December, she said she was “mad” that Republicans have tackled the nationwide controversy of trans athletes in women’s sports, instead of the Democrats.
“And I am so mad that the Republicans captured this issue – shame on all the elected Democrats who keep silent on this!!! #whataboutthewomen,” she wrote on X.
The tennis legend appeared at the Independent Women’s Forum’s “Take Back Title IX” rally in June to address the issue.
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“Initially, being the Democrats and the women that we are for the most part, we in this group were trying to find every single possible way to include trans-identified men, males who identify as women, into women’s sports,” she said. “And the more we try to find a way to mitigate the advantage, to handicap, to somehow to include, the more we figured out it’s not possible. It’s not possible to do it in a fair way and here we are in a much different position.
“As I got deeper into the issue, I also saw the connection between women’s sex-based spaces and women’s sports – they are totally interconnected, and I’m sure the swimmers at Penn could tell you all about that. You heard about Lia Thomas, right?
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“Now, it’s, ‘Oh, you’re a homophobe.’ Go figure. I’ve been out since ’81, yeah, I’m a homophobe,” she said, rolling her eyes. “‘You’re a bigot, you’re a transphobe, you’re a Nazi, you’re a fascist, you’re a communist,’ everything and everything in between. And this is coming from the left. I am the left! My people are turning on me. They’re turning on us, women, who speak up for women’s sex-based rights.”
‘Residents bear consequences’: Slain mom’s family speaks as feds target blue city
The daughter of a woman killed in New Orleans during a carjacking in 2018 says the city still isn’t taking crime seriously enough as the Trump administration prepares to send federal agents into the Big Easy.
Jeannot Plessy, 49, was killed in November 2018 after two men carjacked her while the mother was trying to pick up her children, according to FOX 8. Jontrell Robinson, 18, and Edwin Cottrell, 19, avoided a second-degree murder trial and pleaded guilty to manslaughter for Plessy’s death.
Robinson was sentenced to 30 years in prison and Cottrell was handed 12 years in lockup.
Plessy was thrown out of her car by Robinson, who got into the driver’s seat while Cottrell and other teenagers waited nearby in another stolen minivan. Plessy’s 33-year-old son-in-law heard screaming and tried to help, resulting in Robinson accelerating the car backwards.
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Robinson ran over Plessy when he backed the car up, killing Plessy.
Both Cottrell and Robinson also pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder, two counts of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, simple robbery, conspiracy to commit simple robbery and unauthorized use of a movable.
As federal immigration officials prepare to enter New Orleans as part of operation “Swamp Sweep,” Plessy’s daughter, Nadia Sanchez, told Fox News Digital she doesn’t believe the city has gotten a grasp on violent crime.
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“I don’t think the city or elected officials took the necessary actions or took crime seriously enough. Their focus was on other priorities — mainly tourism — while residents and their concerns took a back seat,” Sanchez said. “I don’t think much has changed in how the city deals with crime.”
“There hasn’t been much focus on the victims and their experience. Residents are the ones who live with the consequences every day,” she added.
Sanchez said she never felt unsafe in her neighborhood until her mother was killed.
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“We didn’t have safety concerns. I walked my daughter to the playground every day after school. I never felt like we lived in a dangerous neighborhood — until it happened to us,” Sanchez said.
However, she doesn’t know if federal intervention is the solution to New Orleans’ problem, saying it would be a “band-aid measure” to the issue, but said city officials need to prioritize public safety.
Operation “Swamp Sweep” is expected to begin in early December and will reportedly be aimed at arresting 5,000 people in southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.
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Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he has been working with federal officials regarding immigration and crime matters.
“We do know that New Orleans is a place under which we’ve had illegal criminal activity, alien activity, in and around that city. Chief Conley, who is the chief of police from Kenner, has consistently had problems with illegal aliens conducting very violent crime in and around the city, in his city, and has been consistently working with the feds to try to crack that down,” Landry told Fox News.
Father-son outing uncovers massive WWII ammunition stash near country’s border
A father and son recently stumbled across a massive cache of old artillery shells in Czech forest — triggering a two-day operation involving a bomb squad.
The Police of the Czech Republic said the discovery was reported by a 48-year-old father who went metal detecting with his son on Oct. 28.
The pair were less than 1,000 feet away from the Czech-Polish border crossing in Bartošovice, nestled in the Orlické Mountains.
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The father told officials that he had “found an object resembling ammunition in a forested area,” according to the translation of a release issued on Oct. 31.
Once alerted, police officers were “immediately dispatched to secure the area and conduct an initial investigation,” the statement read.
“The man explained that while recreationally metal detecting with his underage son, he had unearthed a suspicious metal object at a depth of about 30 centimeters,” the police said in the press release.
“Because of the nature of the find, police called in a specialist bomb technician.”
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During the two-day search, a bomb disposal expert found a whopping 138 105 mm artillery shells, 14 75 mm shells and 5 cartridge cases.
All munitions were transported to a specialized storage facility in Ralsko, which is also home to a former military airport.
As reported by Czech outlet České noviny, the artifacts likely date back to World War II.
“The police thank citizens who act responsibly in such situations, as their vigilance and prompt reporting allow experts to intervene safely, minimize risk and protect lives and property,” the release said.
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Authorities urged the public to act similarly if they encounter suspicious objects, especially if they’re ammunition or explosives.
“Do not handle the object,” police said.
“Do not dig it up, move it or examine it.”
“Keep a safe distance and warn others nearby [and] wait for police or a bomb technician to arrive.”
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The Orlické Mountains are situated between the Czech Republic and Poland — and the two countries have seen several archaeological discoveries in 2025.
Two hikers in the Czech Republic found a cache of gold items and other pieces of treasure earlier this spring — and the haul weighed fifteen pounds.
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In Poland, a group of friends searching for WWII rockets also ended up finding a jackpot of ancient treasures.
Sally Struthers recalls Carroll O’Connor first reading controversial content on set
EXCLUSIVE — Starring in one of the edgiest comedies in history served as a culture shock to Sally Struthers.
“All in the Family” ran from 1971 to 1979 and was known for tackling taboo topics with humor. Most of the show’s provocative lines came from working-class man Archie Bunker, who’d often spew stereotypes from his living room recliner. He had controversial complaints about his Black neighbors, his feminist cousin-in-law and his Jewish coworkers, among other groups. He also threw in quite a few digs at his wife Edith.
Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton starred as Archie and Edith, along with Struthers as their daughter Gloria and Rob Reiner as their son-in-law, who Archie preferred to call “Meathead.”
Struthers reflected on how surprised she was by her early “All in the Family” rehearsals, having had a rather sheltered upbringing.
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“Well, I was very young when I started on that show,” Struthers told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “I was young when I finished it. And I grew up in Portland, Oregon, living with a Lutheran Norwegian family, who had absolutely no bigotry coming out of their mouths or in their hearts.”
“And so for the first couple of years that I sat in that rehearsal hall at CBS here in Los Angeles, and we would, on the first day of rehearsal, read the script out loud for all the writers to hear it, the producers, the network execs, programs … people who were marking it for how many times they would let Archie say ‘Geez’ because they said, of course, you know that’s short for ‘Jesus’ and that’s swearing,” she continued. “And so they would bargain with Norman Lear about how many words he had to take out.”
“Something would come out of somebody’s mouth in the show, usually Archie’s, and I would turn to whoever was sitting next to me and say, ‘What does that mean?’” she added. “I didn’t hear racial slurs growing up. I didn’t hear negative epithets. I really didn’t know that all this ugliness was out there. So it was a big learning curve for me.”
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Yet despite his cranky on-air demeanor, O’Connor felt like a second dad to her, Struthers said in an interview with Closer Weekly in 2021.
“In 1968, my own father passed away,” she shared. “I was still feeling bad and fatherless when I got this show. Carroll and his wife, Nancy, turned out to be as parental with me as he was in the show. Carroll gave me advice, he laughed at my antics, he hugged me all the time — and he introduced me to my husband, [William Rader]! So I gained a father again by doing that show.”
She waffled on whether “All in the Family” humor would fly today.
“I don’t know, I guess the circle of life, the rhythms of life, the centuries that we’ve gone through as human beings,” Struthers told Fox Digital. “I think, you know, everything that leaves comes back maybe with a new sparkle on it or a new twist, but there’s really very little in life that’s completely new again unless it’s a piece of technology that no one could have thought was coming. I just, I enjoyed the fact that there was that one brief moment in time where that television show got to come on the air.”
“And I don’t know, maybe educate a few people,” she continued. “I’ve had so many people approach me over all my years to say, and they, quite often, a lot of them start out with a sentence, ‘My dad is just like Archie. My grandfather is Archie Bunker, my uncle. And I always just say, ‘My condolences.'”
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Struthers, known to younger generations for her role as Babette on “Gilmore Girls,” is starring in the new Christmas movie “All is Merry & Bright” from SCDG Edify Productions, in partnership with The Greenhouse Arts. The film is directed by Cory Edwards, with whom Struthers said she’s previously worked, and also stars John O’Hurley, Emily Rose and Eric Close.
The film follows a mother as she comes to find forgiveness for her sister after a tragic accident that occurred when they were teenagers and left her with a physical disability.
Struthers said her favorite part of the holiday season is giving gifts.
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“I think that brings me the most satisfaction,” she said. “I would much rather give a gift than receive one. I just, I love to see people’s faces light up and see that I’ve actually found something, chosen something that gives them delight. And, you know, that’s gifts for family and friends and even your everyday people that are in your life, like your mailman, your water delivery guy. It’s just so much fun to have an excuse to give gifts where people don’t look at you like you’re crazy because you’re giving them a gift because it’s considered gift time.”
“All is Merry & Bright” is now in theaters.
California real estate mogul slams LA mayor over ‘tremendous mistake’
Celebrity realtor Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of The Agency, didn’t hold back during an appearance on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.,” slamming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) for what he called a “tremendous mistake” in doubling down on rent control.
The city recently imposed a new 4% cap on annual rent increases for certain rent-stabilized units – a move the mayor says will protect tenants from steep price hikes. Umansky argued while the policy might sound good politically, it does nothing to solve the city’s long-term housing crisis.
“What rent control does is give short-term relief to owners, to renters, but it does not resolve the problem,” Umansky told host Stuart Varney.
“The problem is solved by capitalism, and the problem is solved by having more supply,” he said.
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Umansky, who built a real estate empire representing some of the world’s most exclusive listings, said California’s development restrictions are driving prices higher and strangling growth. He urged state and local leaders to focus instead on expanding supply through construction incentives and deregulation.
“We need to fix the long-term problem,” he said. “Cut the red tape, increase supply, give tax incentives to builders so that we have a larger supply. The larger supply and the lesser demand lowers prices, creates affordability.”
Umansky also took aim at California’s proposed wealth tax, warning that the state’s increasingly heavy-handed fiscal and regulatory policies are chasing away businesses and families alike. The wealth tax targets the ultra-wealthy, applying to individuals with a net worth above $50 million at a rate of 1% and to those with a net worth exceeding $1 billion at 1.5%. The intent is to generate revenue for housing, education, and social programs while addressing wealth inequality. However, critics warn that it could drive high-net-worth individuals and their businesses out of the state, potentially reducing tax revenue and overall economic activity.
“I think what made the country great was the freedom of capitalism, the freedom to compete and the freedom to do things,” he said. “The middle income is fleeing to a more affordable places like Arizona, Texas, Florida, and we’re continuing to see that. ”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau migration data, California has experienced a consistent net outflow of residents in recent years, with nearly 340,000 people leaving the state between 2022 and 2023.
When asked whether a Republican could win statewide office in California, Umansky was doubtful but expressed hope for more centrist leadership.
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“I would love to see that,” he said. “Maybe we can find some sort of a middle ground and get … an independent that that gets in there, that has a good monetary policy that understands … how to resolve … how to have a balanced budget … how to have safety.”
California hasn’t elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. Umansky suggested that breaking the state’s partisan gridlock might take someone outside traditional party lines.
Varney pressed him further on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rumored 2028 presidential ambitions, asking whether Newsom could convince the rest of America that the country should “look like California.”
Umansky was quick to point out the state’s ongoing problems.
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“He’s certainly a very charismatic man … but there’s a lot to prove still in California. You can’t just run on your … charisma and your good looks,” he said. “We have affordability issues, we won’t have a balanced budget. We don’t have safety, we don’t have a good lifestyle.”
Umansky’s message was clear. California’s policies, from rent control to taxes, are pushing away the very people who once made it thrive. He argued that only by unleashing market forces and supporting builders can the state restore its reputation as a place of opportunity and prosperity.
“Homeownership … creates safety in communities,” he said. “We need to bring business back to California. We need to have people be happy in California and stay here.”
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