Power play: How U.S.-Canada cooperation can skip the games and secure our borders

The U.S. hockey team’s stunning victory in the Olympics has thrilled Americans and stunned and disappointed Canadians: two peoples who are experiencing their own icy relations right now.

Nonetheless, the fact that five of the US players, including star goalie Connor Hellebuyck, play on Canadian NHL teams, while no less than 22 Canadian team members play on American teams, reminds us how closely tied both countries actually are, no matter what their respective politicians say about each other.

Indeed, leaders need to set aside their personal pique and see the US-Canada relationship for what it is, a partnership forged in history with common economic and strategic interests to advance, as well as the resources to match.

“Forged in history” isn’t just a matter of both countries being part of the English-speaking people’s legacy of freedom and prosperity for the world, alongside the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It also reflects Canada’s essential contribution to Allied victory in World War II. The battle of the Atlantic, and hence victory over Nazi Germany, would not have been possible without the Canadian Royal Navy, which grew to become the world’s third-largest, from 13 ships in 1939 to over 400 by 1945, as its frigates, destroyers, and destroyer escorts shielded vital Allied convoys. More than 1.1 million Canadians served in uniform, with 45,000 losing their lives — a higher proportion of military deaths relative to population (roughly 0.4%) than the United States (0.32%).

Canada also worked hand in glove with the US and UK on secret atomic research during World War II. In the Cold War, Canadians were essential to the creation of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, the most successful intelligence network in history. The Five Eyes’s division of global labor allotted to Canada two areas even more crucial today: the polar regions of Russia and the interior of China.

Yet Canada’s opportunities for cooperation with the United States go further than that of any other Five Eyes member, or even other NATO members. The future of the Western Hemisphere — perhaps even the free world — may depend on how Washington and Ottawa find common ground in shaping the future of the global economy. 

The most obvious sector is energy. Between them, the United States and Canada produce roughly 30 percent of the world’s natural gas and 25 percent of the world’s oil. By promoting cooperation in LNG exports across the Atlantic and Pacific and in building cross-border pipelines like the still-suspended XL Pipeline, Ottawa and Washington would dominate global markets as never before. And while bringing Venezuela’s oil industry back to peak efficiency will take years, a US-Canada energy consortium can reshape the geopolitics of energy production, far sooner.

AMERICA DOESN’T NEED TO OWN GREENLAND — THERE’S A BETTER, MORE PEACEFUL WAY

The next opportunity is strategic mineral extraction and refining. Any mineral extraction plan centered on American possession of Greenland or deals with Ukraine will take years — even decades — to yield results. By contrast, Canada is already a major producer of gold, iron, nickel and copper. It’s also involved in important projects to tap into its rich reserves in rare earth elements such as cobalt, graphite, vanadium and lithium (Canada currently has the sixth-largest lithium reserves in the world, and the sixth or seventh-largest reserves in cobalt).

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While China currently dominates supply chains in these critical minerals, a vigorous U.S.-Canada consortium could displace China as a major supplier to world markets. Indeed, Canadian companies could help to revive the United States’ own mining industry, and together set clean and environmentally safe standards for the extraction of all these materials.

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In terms of strategic goals, Canada owns half of North America’s “Fourth Coast,” i.e. the 10,000 mile plus shoreline of the Great Lakes and one of the great historic centers of U.S. shipbuilding. Currently ranked 6th or 7th in world shipbuilding, Canada, like the U.S. is looking to democratic allies like South Korea and Japan to beef up large-scale shipbuilding and naval defense capacity. Indeed, this past week, Ontario Shipyards partnered with South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean to bring large-scale shipbuilding back to Ontario, including naval vessels. In short, cooperation with Canadian companies like Ontario Shipyards can be part of restoring America’s own maritime strength.

Finally, Canada will be an essential partner in plans for the Golden Dome missile defense system, offering critical Arctic territory, sensors, and radar infrastructure for continental missile defense.

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Why capping credit card interest rates will kill credit for working families

Americans are rightfully concerned about affordability. From healthcare and housing to groceries and utility bills, Americans have been finding these everyday necessities difficult to afford for far too many years. 

In response, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are pursuing multiple policies meant to lower costs for the American people. 

While the President and our former Republican congressional colleagues usually have good economic and regulatory instincts, there are some policies worth reconsidering, as they could exacerbate the affordability crisis.

For example, as Congress assesses the proposed 10% price cap on credit, Republicans should follow their instincts by recognizing price controls like this have a long history of producing harmful unintended consequences for working families and small businesses.

When governments mandate an artificially low price for a product or service in a competitive market, the result is always the same: reduced supply. This is not just a theory. It’s historical fact. 

In 1971, President Nixon set price controls on retail gasoline sales. Because drivers paid less at the pump than the true cost of gas, demand increased. But since producers and gasoline retailers could not recover their full costs from the artificially low prices, they supplied less to the market. The result was a predictable shortage of gasoline and Americans waiting in long lines at the gas pumps.

In several large American cities, including New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, rent increases are capped at varying rates, preventing landlords from being able to recoup investment in maintenance and improvements, causing neglected maintenance, reduced improvements and a shortage of new housing.

CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCER CALLS OUT TRUMP’S CREDIT CARD CAP AS PROPOSAL THAT ‘SOCIALISTS’ SUPPORT

Price controls on credit cards would have a similar effect. They would reduce the availability of credit.

Banks charge interest on credit cards because there are costs and risks associated with issuing and managing them. For example, banks must cover the infrastructure cost of the credit card, including administration, maintaining security, applying chargebacks and offering credit card rewards programs. Credit card balances are unsecured loans with high default rates, creating a significant cost for banks.

By capping rates at an arbitrary and artificially low level, such as 10%, banks would either have to make up for the lost revenue elsewhere with higher fees and charges, or discontinue issuing credit cards to high-risk and low-income customers.

Consumers who lose access to credit cards altogether would be forced to turn to more expensive, riskier alternatives, such as loan sharks and payday lenders. The Cato Institute emphasizes that, “History has shown that these [price] controls result in shortages, black markets, and suffering. In any event, consumers lose.” 

For those consumers who could keep their credit cards, banks would “likely respond to a credit card cap by reducing rewards programs and other card benefits, including fraud protection, while replacing lost interest revenue with fees to be paid by all credit card users,” the American Action Forum explains.

A credit card rate cap would also bring government interference where free market competition is already working to the benefit of customers. In fact, there are already dozens of credit cards with 0% APR introductory rates for significant lengths of time. Economist Stephen Moore authored a report last year detailing the harm a rate cap would have on consumers, concluding that the “System isn’t broken. Credit cards are more popular than ever… But rules that make cards less profitable and more vulnerable to the risk of losses from non-payments threaten this well-functioning and economically vital market.”

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For decades, Americans have voluntarily used credit cards to build businesses, borrow money— and facilitate the purchases of daily life. The free market has enabled these activities and should not be upended by the government. The government’s role in regulating the financial services industry is to ensure proper disclosures, competitive markets and systemic stability — not to set prices. Rate caps would undermine market function and competition and return us to a badly failed policy of price controls.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters have long supported caps on credit card interest rates. Fortunately, most Republicans know better. Leaders, including Sen. Mike Rounds, Sen. Pete Ricketts, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have voiced strong concerns about these price controls, with Sen. Thune correctly observing that the proposal “would probably deprive an awful lot of people access to credit around the country.”

Free markets deliver consumers better products, services and choices than price-setters in Washington. Congress should let the marketplace continue to offer consumers, working-class families and Main Street businesses, of all incomes, access to the credit they need.

New York’s Mayor Mamdani promised change — now he’s gutting the NYPD

For New York City to “work,” it needs to be, and feel, safe. Absent the confidence of both residents and tourists that the streets of America’s largest city will be secure and orderly, the Big Apple risks losing more of its luster. This is a reality that New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani — once known for saying “nature is healing” — began at least pretending to appreciate after NYPD Detective Didarul Islam was shot and killed in the line of duty last summer. But a recent announcement calls the mayor’s sincerity into question.

Last week, Mayor Mamdani announced that the city would need to address a budget shortfall in part by canceling the planned hiring of 5,000 additional officers over the next two years. The decision will undoubtedly harm public safety by exacerbating a pre-existing recruitment and retention crisis that has already led to slower response times and limited the NYPD’s ability to bring overall crime back down to pre-2020 levels.

While the number of uniformed officers in the department rose to about 34,300 by January of this year, the next two years will see thousands of officers who joined the department during the hiring blitz of 2006-2007 become eligible for retirement as they hit their 20-year marks. When that time comes, New Yorkers will understand just how much they need the 5,000 hires Mamdani plans to halt.

Things are already bad. Comparing the final week of 2025 with the last week of 2018 shows that response times for critical, serious and noncritical calls for service were all up more than 50%. But what else can one expect from a department that dwindled by about 3,000 officers during that time frame? The need for police hasn’t declined with the size of the department. When a smaller force faces the same — or higher — levels of demand, something has to give.

Defenders of Mamdani’s decision to cut NYPD funding for new hires will likely point to recent declines in shootings and homicides over the last two years, suggesting that the city is nowhere near a public safety crisis. Those declines are real and worthy of celebration insofar as they represent the hard work of the men and women of the NYPD despite the forces working against them. But beyond those two measures, much more work remains to be done.

Compared to 2018, 2025 saw 14.2% more rapes, 16.7% more robberies, 47.7% more felony assaults, 9.5% more burglaries, 10.3% more grand larcenies and a whopping 149.1% more car thefts. Even with the recent decline in murders — which remained above the city’s 2017 low at the end of last year — the seven major crimes tracked by the city were up 26.9% overall in 2025 compared to 2018. This is despite reductions in opportunities for criminals driven by:

• A sizeable decline in the city’s population
• The fact that more New Yorkers (like other Americans) are spending more time at home in the post-pandemic era
• The decline in alcohol consumption and, by extension, the frequenting of bars and nightclubs
• Subway ridership still being at only 85% of pre-pandemic levels.

The truth is that the NYPD has been both literally and figuratively working overtime to keep crime at bay. Despite being understaffed, 2024 saw the NYPD make more felony and narcotics arrests, as well as sharp upticks in summonses for quality-of-life violations such as public drinking and urination, along with violations in the transit system. Last year, the department also made significantly more vehicle stops — much to the chagrin of Mamdani’s allies on the far left.

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But New York will not see crime return to where it was less than 10 years ago without closing the gap between the number of police officers it has and the number it needs.

Doing more with less is a math problem that simply cannot be solved in the NYPD’s favor.

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The plan to hire 5,000 additional cops over the next two years would have provided much-needed relief to a department that has spent the first half of this decade fighting an uphill battle to keep crime at bay — not only bleeding more officers and investigators than it wanted to, but also being unable to backfill vacancies without lowering hiring standards.

The overwhelming consensus in the criminological literature is that investments in hiring more police reduce crime. The decision to cancel the planned hires belongs in a recipe book titled “Disasters,” yet the move will not come as much of a surprise to those familiar with the mayor’s history of anti-cop activism. While it’s true that candidate Mamdani assured New Yorkers that this history was “out of step” with his campaign, he didn’t make much of an effort to convince skeptics of his newfound respect for law enforcement. If he follows through on this proposal to cut the NYPD, it will reiterate an important lesson New Yorkers would have done well to remember in the lead-up to last November: When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

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SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM: Iran is facing a Berlin Wall moment — history is watching us now

Over the past few weeks, there has been great speculation regarding the growing unrest in Iran and what action, if any, the United States will take in response. One fact that remains clear is that the Iranian regime finds itself at its weakest point since 1979. As such, the world has reached a pivotal crossroad — one that will define the course of history for generations.

First, let’s examine how we got to this point. After the attacks of October 7, Israel was determined to give new meaning to the phrase “Never Again” and has relentlessly gone after the terrorist networks that perpetrated the attack. With assistance from the United States, they tremendously degraded not only the nuclear capability, but also the missile capability and general military readiness of Iran. It is ironic to me that one of the main reasons Iran is so crippled stems from October 7, yet it serves as a silver lining that has sprung from one of the greatest atrocities in modern history, nonetheless.

The second major factor is that the people in Iran have risen up and taken to the streets by the millions. Daily life is miserable, and with no viable economic growth potential, the future remains hopeless as long as the ayatollah stays in power. The bravery of the protesters, combined with the military thrashing given by Israel and the United States, has placed this regime at a tipping point.

The next question, arguably most important, is where do we go from here. President Donald Trump has two lines in the water: a diplomatic line and a military line. While diplomatic negotiations are always worth pursuing within reason, my ultimate hope is that regime change will be achieved. This will come about in one of two ways: either the current regime changes its ways — which I find unlikely — or the Iranian people will take over once the regime falls.

To those who resist regime change: why do you wish to see this regime continue as it is? The ayatollah and his henchmen slaughter people for protesting, they beat young women to death for wearing their headscarves improperly, and they have overseen the largest state sponsor of terrorism for decades. Who wants that to continue? I certainly don’t, nor do the Iranian people. The people are the ones demanding regime change, and we should stand behind them.

When asked by the world media what the protesters in Iran should do, President Trump boldly said, “Keep protesting. Help is on the way.” I believe that to be the correct statement, and it will be historical in nature if the regime collapses.

Trump’s support for the protesters, in conjunction with America’s display of strength in Operation Midnight Hammer, has created the largest opportunity for peace and prosperity in the Mideast in over 1,000 years. If this regime is replaced, normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel becomes possible again. The people of Iran will chart their own destiny, and terrorist networks across the region, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis will atrophy even further. My trip last week to Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia — three states facing threats from Iran and its proxies — reaffirmed to me that each of these possibilities are not only attainable, but would be extremely beneficial to the United States and our allies.

TRUMP’S LEADERSHIP CREATES ‘RARE OPPORTUNITY’ FOR CHANGE IN IRAN, FORMER IRANIAN POLITICAL PRISONER SAYS

On the other hand, we must remember who we will be forced to reconcile with if the regime holds. At the helm is the ayatollah, a religious zealot who orchestrated an assassination attempt on President Trump’s life. When he chants death to America and death to all the Jews, he means what he says. If the ayatollah remains in charge after all this bluster, I fear the problems that will arise will haunt the region for decades and America even further.

With the fate of millions at stake, I am praying for President Trump as he makes one of the most consequential decisions any president can make. I know President Trump to be a man of his word. He is reluctant to get entangled in wars with no end, yet unafraid to use force.

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It is my strong view that history is watching every move we make. If we follow through by sending help to the protesters risking their lives, we will have a 21st Century Berlin Wall moment. Ronald Reagan’s determination to stand up to communism paid dividends for the entire world when the Soviet Union crumbled under its own weight. What followed was a new birth of freedom around the globe, liberating millions who knew nothing but oppression.

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If the ayatollah falls, it will set in motion a similar sequence of events across the Middle East. All the terrorist proxies will be left hanging, the Abraham Accords will expand exponentially, the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel will be back on the front burner, and the Iranian people will come to know what all human beings desire most: freedom. The ripple effects of this regime’s destruction will bring forth tremendous, positive change across the region that will echo across the world.

Only time will tell what will happen next. For now, we must be smart, and we must be bold.

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Some of the most notable guests at Trump’s 2026 State of the Union: photos

Prominent figures from across the media, business and political landscapes showed up as guests to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Notable attendees included Erika Kirk, the widowed wife of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, David Ellison, the media mogul and CEO of Paramount, and Kevin O’Leary, the Shark Tank media personality and businessman.

Several of the more notable attendees were highlighted by Trump during his address.

Kirk received a mention from the president as he condemned political violence of all kinds in his address.

“We must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind,” Trump said.

Charlie Kirk, who was just 31-years-old at the time of his death, was killed by a gunman on Sept. 10, 2025, while conducting a political debate event at Utah Valley University.

The U.S. men’s hockey team also made an appearance on Tuesday, receiving praise from Trump fresh off their gold medal victory in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

TRUMP SHAMES DEMOCRATS IN VIRAL STATE OF THE UNION CHALLENGE ON MIGRANT CRIME: ‘FIRST DUTY’

“Congratulations to team U.S.A.,” Trump said as the players streamed into the chamber during the address.

Trump also highlighted guests brought by others, like first lady Melania Trump. She invited 11-year-old Everest Nevraumont, a youth advocate for education through artificial intelligence.

“I challenge keeping America’s next generation positioned to succeed and strongly succeed in the future,” Trump said.

Trump also used guests like Enrique Márquez, a former political prisoner of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, to remind audiences of his international achievements under his second administration.

In early 2026, the U.S. stormed Venezuela’s capitol city and captured Maduro, giving Trump newfound leverage in negotiations over the country’s future.

“We’re working closely with the new president of Venezuela to unleash extraordinary economic gains for both of our countries,” Trump said.

The White House reunited Márquez with his family at the State of the Union. 

Trump also awarded the Purple Heart to Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe and deceased Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, two National Guard members who were critically injured and fatally shot by a gunman who ambushed them while on duty last year in Washington, D.C.

RO KHANNA’S STATE OF THE UNION GUEST RECRUITED OVER 20 UNDERAGE GIRLS FOR EPSTEIN: ‘LIKE HEIDI FLEISS’

“I’m going to ask a highly respected General James Seward to present Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe and the great family of Sarah Beckstrom, with the award created by our late, great president, George Washington himself,” Trump, who invited her parents as his State of the Union guests, said. “It’s called the Purple Heart. We love you all.”

As Trump spoke, Major General James “Jim” D. Seward, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard, presented Specialist Beckstrom’s medal to her parents and pinned the Purple Heart on Staff Sergeant Wolfe in the viewing gallery above.

Guests like O’Leary and Ellison did not receive a shoutout from the president, but mingled with multiple lawmakers.

O’Leary, primarily known for his television presence on ABC’s Shark Tank, owns companies like O’Leary Ventures and O’Leary Fine Wines. 

In recent years, O’Leary has surfaced as a political commentator, giving his thoughts on the effectiveness of political party messaging, voter sentiments and more.

LIZ PEEK: AMERICA EXPECTED ONE THING FROM TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION. IT GOT ANOTHER

Ellison is the current chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation keeps a relatively low political profile but, in the past, has made several high-dollar donations to many Democratic candidates despite now calling himself a friend of President Trump.

Trump has boasted publicly about a personal relationship with Ellison.

Most recently, Ellison has made headlines for his attempt to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery — a move that would solidify Ellison and Paramount as titans in the media world.

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He was seen walking into the House of Representatives on Tuesday alongside Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who invited him.

“Honored to have David Ellison as my guest to POTUS’ State of the Union address this evening,” Graham said in a post to X.

MIKE DAVIS: Kash Patel is restoring the FBI despite constant attacks

The one-year anniversary of FBI Director Kash Patel’s term has arrived. As a badge of honor, Patel is under constant attack by partisan Democrats and other conspiracy theorists – including even some whackjobs on the right. Contrary to these smears, Patel has boldly and decisively led back the FBI to where it should be: the premier law enforcement agency in the world.

Patel, after many long days of work to ensure our American athletes and dignitaries remained safe at the Olympic Games in Italy, got invited into the locker room of the men’s U.S. hockey team after their gold medal triumph over Canada. Because this was the first gold for the American men since the Miracle on Ice team in 1980, this became a significant moment. Patel, justifiably, allowed himself to enjoy the historic moment of American patriotism and pride. The athletes clearly enjoyed the presence of a senior U.S. official (and fellow hockey player), which became even more significant when Patel called President Donald Trump to praise the gold medal-winning U.S. team.

Democrats, who are quicker to defend a sitting Democratic U.S. senator splitting margaritas with an alleged human-trafficking and wife-beating illegal immigrant than a senior U.S. government official celebrating a U.S. gold medal with American Olympians, predictably attacked Patel for his appearance in the postgame locker room. To anyone with a pulse, it’s obvious too many of today’s Democrats are nothing more than dreadful, anti-American Marxist losers. It’s hard to imagine anything lower than knocking a senior U.S. official for celebrating an iconic U.S. victory at the Olympics.

In response to the Patel (and America) haters, this is a good time to educate America about Trump FBI Director Kash Patel’s unprecedented success in his first year.

On Sept. 10, 2025, a degenerate assassinated Charlie Kirk. Thousands of Americans attended the event on the Utah campus. The FBI, under Patel’s leadership, took command. Within two days, law enforcement took into custody 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. His father turned Robinson in after the Patel FBI broadcast images, cultivated from many sources of video surveillance, to the public. Robinson now awaits the swift justice he richly deserves. Despite the ravings of online conspiracy instigators, there are almost no unanswered questions in the Kirk case, thanks to Patel’s quick and decisive leadership.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro became a primary culprit in the mass importation of illicit drugs into the United States. Last month, the Patel FBI — with the assistance of military special forces — arrested Maduro and his wife at their fortress in Caracas. U.S. forces quickly scooped up the Maduros and took them out of Venezuela with no American casualties. They now sit in a Brooklyn jail. They faced a 2020 federal indictment but remained free for the entirety of the Biden administration. This operation adds to Patel’s record of over 2,100 kilos of fentanyl seized (up 31%), enough to kill 150 million Americans, and the disruption of 1,800 gangs and criminal enterprises, a 210% increase year over year.

The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list represents the worst of the worst in terms of fugitives. Murderers, pedophiles, drug kingpins and terrorists make up most of its occupants. Under Patel’s leadership, six of the Ten Most Wanted, collectively on the run for over 50 years, are now captured, which exceeds in one year all such captures during the Biden administration (four in four years). Drug traffickers like Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian who made the list, garner a lot of media attention when captured, but other barbarians are off the streets thanks to Patel’s leadership.

FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL: WE HAVE MADE AMERICA SAFER IN JUST ONE YEAR

Just last month, Alejandro Rosales Castillo’s turn came to face justice. This coward hid in Mexico for nearly a decade after murdering a 23-year-old co-worker in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cindy Rodriguez Singh, another monster, met the same fate. Singh allegedly murdered her 5-year-old child and fled to India. Thanks to Patel’s FBI, she was captured in New Delhi less than two months after her addition to the list. Overall, arrests under Patel’s FBI are up 197% year-to-year, and over 6,000 child victims have been located, a 22% increase year over year. Dedicated “crimes against children” operations like Restore Justice, Enduring Justice and Relentless Justice resulted in 730 arrests and over 450 victims identified.

For years, the domestic terrorists who comprise Antifa have wreaked havoc on American cities. On July 4, 2025, two dozen of them allegedly attacked the Prairieland Detention Center, an ICE holding facility in Alvarado, Texas. The domestic terrorists allegedly fired upon ICE agents, and a responding police officer almost lost his life after one terrorist allegedly shot him in the neck.

It is crucial to remember into what the FBI had degenerated during the Biden administration. The Biden DOJ wasted massive FBI resources for years hunting down every individual who had taken a selfie in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, even if the individuals had not acted violently. Other FBI resources went toward investigating parents at school board meetings and Mass-attending Catholics out of supposed concerns the parents and devout Catholics became domestic terrorists.

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Biden special counsel Jack Smith spent over $50 million in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to imprison President Trump. Prosecutors use law enforcement to conduct investigations, and Smith had the FBI at his disposal. Even before Smith’s arrival in November 2022, the FBI had raided President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago under orders from Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland.

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No longer is the FBI wasting its resources. Under Patel’s leadership, agents are not targeting pro-life Christians; they are capturing foreign drug kingpins and narco-terrorist leaders. Agents are not investigating parents at school board meetings; they are bringing to justice parents who murdered their children. Agents are not wasting years on January 6; they are spending time bringing violent Antifa domestic terrorists to justice and capturing assassination suspects like Tyler Robinson in short order. Agents are not participating in Jack Smith’s witch hunt; they are investigating the perpetrators of the unprecedented, republic-ending Obama and Biden lawfare.

Special operations and surge initiatives, like Summer Heat, have resulted in nearly 9,000 arrests in just three months, while over 450 human traffickers have been identified (up 23% year over year), and espionage arrests are up 35% year over year. Patel has led a rapid turnaround of the FBI from a decaying and weaponized agency back to the one that, growing up, Americans respected. For that, Patel deserves immense credit.

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LEE CARTER: Trump’s State of the Union wasn’t a pivot — it was a power play

If you tuned in last night hoping for a softer, more conciliatory Donald Trump, a president shaped by polls, eager to reach across the aisle, you were watching the wrong show.

The 2026 State of the Union wasn’t a pivot. It was a power move. A flex. A signal that the old rules: measured rhetoric, polite bipartisanship — are dead. Trump continues to write new rules in real time, as audaciously as he’s writing everything else.

From the opening line, a “speech to set the record straight,” Trump made it clear: he wasn’t there to negotiate facts. He was there to define them. He understands something that confounds his opponents: in contemporary American politics, a good story doesn’t just compete with statistics, it obliterates them.

While critics were fact-checking, Trump was storytelling. And in today’s politics, a story like his can outweigh nuance or evidence.

He delivered a narrative so simple, so emotionally resonant, it could fit on a bumper sticker: America is in a golden age. The economy is roaring. The border is impenetrable. Crime is plummeting. Fentanyl is down. The stock market is shattering records. More Americans are working than ever before.

“We are winning so much we don’t even know what to do about it,” he crowed.

That wasn’t persuasion. It was affirmation. It was focused on the faithful. In a country this fractured, politicians are hard-pressed to win converts anymore, but they can energize their base and give fence sitters a reason to support them. Trump abandoned the moderation game years ago. He’s all-in on mobilization, and he’s playing to win a turnout war, not a debate.

TRUMP’S ‘HOME RUN’ SOTU SPEECH SPARKS PRAISE FROM CONSERVATIVES ONLINE WHILE LEAVING DEMOCRATS SEETHING

A Theme That Resonates: Protection

Forget the orthodoxy about growth and prosperity. And, interestingly, forget about affordability.  Strip away the applause lines and the theatrics and one word drove the speech: protection.

Protect the border.

Protect American workers.

Protect Social Security.

Protect families from crushing healthcare costs.

Protect children’s financial futures through tax-free investment accounts.

Protect consumers from “wild prescription drug prices.”

TRUMP CELEBRATES ‘TURNAROUND FOR THE AGES’ IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS AND MORE TOP HEADLINES

Even “no tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security” isn’t just tax policy — it’s framed as shielding working Americans from government overreach.

For many, protection is more important than prosperity. Prosperity is aspirational. Protection is emotional. When Democrats sat stone-faced during key applause lines focused on protecting Americans, Trump didn’t flinch. He smiled. Those frozen faces weren’t distractions; they were props. The visual of one side celebrating protection and the other sitting still is not accidental, it’s strategic.

Healthcare: The Night’s Smartest Move

DIAL SHOWS HOW VOTERS REACTED TO TRUMP CRITICIZING DEMOCRATS FOR PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

One of the speech’s most politically sophisticated moves came on healthcare.

Trump didn’t defend insurers or pharmaceutical companies. He obliterated them.

He blamed “crushing healthcare costs.”

He declared “maximum price transparency” a governing principle.

He revived the “most favored nation” promise, that Americans should pay the lowest drug prices on the planet.

5 UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS FROM TRUMP’S RECORD-BREAKING STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Then he pulled a punch: he blamed Democrats for defending the “healthcare establishment.”

Healthcare anger isn’t partisan. Voters think the system is rigged. By transforming insurers and “wild prescription prices” into common enemies, he tapped into genuine, bipartisan fury while keeping the partisan accountability laser-focused on the other side.

The Rally Presidency: The Theater Was a Big Part of the Message

The U.S. men’s hockey team appearance. The goalie story.

The families honored. 

The medals given.

The perfectly timed applause lines.

The calculated glances across the aisle.

This was less State of the Union, more arena rally with a teleprompter. But dismissing it as theatrics misses the point. The theater is the message.

Trump understands the visual theatrics of politics in a way that most presidents never quite master. The standing ovation. The stony opposition. The camera that cuts away at precisely the right moment. He doesn’t waste imagery; he weaponizes it.

And those images, not the fact-checks that will follow, will echo through screens, social feeds and campaign ads for months to come.

Intensity Over Conversion

Moderation? Outreach? Forget it. That is not Trump. It wouldn’t be authentic. And frankly, it wouldn’t be strategic. Trump’s goal is mobilization. Turnout over persuasion. Base over critics. Swing voters over skeptics.

The anxious voter, the voter worried about inflation, crime, drugs, borders, saw in Trump a fighter who was ready to defend them. The speech energized the base while signaling to swing voters that Trump is taking action on the issues that affect them directly.

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The Bottom Line

This speech will enrage critics, electrify supporters, and frustrate fact-checkers. But strategically? We can all see what he was doing.

He reframed healthcare.

He reinforced protection.

He amplified economic confidence.

He created visual contrast.

He rallied his base.

 This wasn’t a pivot.

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It was a power play (every pun intended).

And in American politics, whoever controls the narrative controls the moment.

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President Trump’s Iran warning is serious — but Americans need the full facts

Last summer, when the United States and Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, I argued the operation was deliberate — not reckless. The June 2025 strikes on Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan were designed to deny Tehran a near-term breakout capability and restore deterrence without plunging America into another open-ended Middle East war.

The purpose was clear: disrupt the program, buy time and strengthen Washington’s leverage.

Subsequent intelligence reporting suggested the damage was significant, though not permanent. Iran’s nuclear program was set back — not eliminated. That distinction mattered then, and it matters even more now.

Today, we find ourselves at another critical moment.

President Donald Trump has surged substantial American military power into the Persian Gulf — carrier strike groups, fighter aircraft and support assets — amid renewed nuclear tensions. This is not symbolic. It is a serious deterrent posture designed to protect American forces and signal resolve to Tehran.

That buildup is legitimate. It reinforces credibility. It reduces the risk of miscalculation.

But alongside this posture, we are now hearing dramatic claims that Iran could be “about a week away” from producing weapons-grade uranium.

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Americans deserve clarity about what that statement means.

Enrichment levels and a deployable nuclear weapon are not the same thing. Moving uranium from 60% enrichment to 90% weapons-grade material is technically faster than enriching from scratch. But building a usable nuclear weapon requires additional steps: weaponization work, warhead integration, testing and a viable delivery system.

Language suggesting Iran is ‘one week away’ narrows the political space between deterrence and kinetic action. It conditions the public for urgency. It compresses timelines. And it risks turning technical possibilities into perceived inevitability.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has confirmed that Iran possesses uranium enriched to roughly 60% — a deeply troubling development. But there has been no public confirmation that Tehran has assembled a nuclear device or crossed into verified weaponization.

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That distinction is not academic. It is strategic.

We have lived through what happens when worst-case intelligence assessments harden into political certainty. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq based on assessments that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Those claims proved wrong. The consequences cost thousands of American lives and reshaped U.S. foreign policy for a generation.

No one should casually invoke that parallel. But neither should we ignore it.

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If Iran has restored enrichment cascades beyond what was damaged in 2025, present the evidence.

If inspectors have been restricted or expelled, say so.

If weaponization activity has resumed, show the proof.

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So far, what we see publicly is enrichment risk — not confirmed bomb production.

That does not make Tehran benign. Iran’s enrichment levels are dangerous. Its ballistic missile expansion and proxy network destabilize the region. The regime continues to challenge U.S. interests and those of our allies.

Deterrence must be credible.

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President Trump is right to position strength in the Gulf. This force posture protects American troops and sends a message that the United States will not tolerate aggression. Strategic ambiguity can serve a purpose in diplomacy.

But language suggesting Iran is “one week away” narrows the political space between deterrence and kinetic action.

It conditions the public for urgency. It compresses timelines. And it risks turning technical possibilities into perceived inevitability.

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If the administration believes Iran is sprinting toward a nuclear weapon, the American people deserve a clear, direct explanation from the president himself — backed by corroborated intelligence and shared with Congress.

No spin.

No anonymous leaks shaping public perception.

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No vague alarm substituting for documented facts.

The United States can strike if necessary. It has done so before. But military action must be grounded in verifiable intelligence and a defined strategic objective — not rhetorical escalation.

Another Middle East war would not be surgical or isolated. It would ripple across Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, the Gulf and global energy markets. It would strengthen hardliners in Tehran and test American alliances at a volatile moment.

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That does not mean force should never be used.

It means the threshold must be high — and the evidence must be clear.

The American people will support strong action when the threat is real and unmistakable. They will not support another war built on ambiguous timelines and worst-case projections.

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We do not need another Middle East war.

And we certainly do not need another weapons-of-mass-destruction myth.

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If force becomes necessary, the justification must come clearly and directly from the commander in chief — backed by hard intelligence, not alarm.

That is the standard Americans deserve.

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The white-collar office ecosystem is being rewritten by AI — Here’s how we win

For the better part of two centuries, Americans have lived by a simple economic truth: progress disrupts. The steam engine displaced artisans. Electricity remade factories. The assembly line reduced the need for skilled craftsmen even as it made goods affordable to the masses. The computer automated clerical work. The internet hollowed out entire industries, including travel agencies, record stores and video rental outlets.

And each time, the sky was said to be falling.

Now comes generative artificial intelligence: tools that can draft contracts, write code, analyze medical scans, generate marketing campaigns and tutor students. The anxiety feels different this time. Louder. More personal.

That’s because it is.

For decades, the brunt of technological change and globalization fell disproportionately on blue-collar workers. The Industrial Revolution transformed agricultural and manual labor. Late-20th-century outsourcing and automation eroded manufacturing towns across the Midwest. Global supply chains lowered costs for consumers, often at the expense of factory workers and entire communities.

The professional class — lawyers, consultants, academics, journalists, doctors, bankers, architects, designers, accountants — largely watched from a safe distance. They were the “knowledge workers,” beneficiaries of the information economy. Their jobs required education, credentials and cognitive skills. Those traits were supposed to provide insulation from disruption.

Generative AI has shattered that assumption.

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For the first time in modern economic history, the most highly educated workers find themselves squarely in the blast radius of automation. Software drafts legal briefs. AI copilots write and debug code. Language models generate polished essays and emails in seconds. Image generators design logos and marketing collateral without a design degree.

This isn’t just another productivity tool. It’s a general-purpose technology, like electricity or the internet, touching nearly every sector at once. And it’s moving at a speed that makes previous revolutions look slow by comparison.

That pace is unsettling. But it is not a reason to retreat.

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Economist Joseph Schumpeter called this process “creative destruction” — innovation dismantling old industries to make room for new ones. It is not painless. But it is the engine of prosperity in a dynamic economy. America’s global leadership has always depended on our willingness to lean into change rather than legislate it away.

What makes this moment feel volatile is not merely the scope of change, but who it affects. Disruption has reached the offices, not just the factory floor. It is threatening the comfortable as well as the vulnerable.

That discomfort is understandable. It is also clarifying.

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When automation came for blue-collar America, many in the professional class invoked “market forces.” When globalization decimated manufacturing jobs, workers were told to retrain for the knowledge economy.

Now the knowledge economy itself is being redefined.

The answer remains the same: adaptation.

The workers who will thrive in the AI era will not be those who reject or defer to these tools, but those who master them. Generative AI is not a replacement for human intelligence. It is an amplifier.

It drafts the first version; judgment refines it.

It generates code; humans decide what to build.

It analyzes mountains of data; people determine what matters.

In medicine, AI flags anomalies, but doctors interpret them and treat patients. In law, AI summarizes case law, but attorneys craft the argument. In education, AI accelerates knowledge, but teachers shape character and curiosity.

The winners will treat AI as augmentation, not competition.

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There is a reason for optimism here. Generative AI democratizes capabilities once scarce. A small business owner can generate marketing copy without hiring an agency. A startup founder can prototype software without a massive engineering team. A student in a rural district can access high-quality tutoring on demand.

Yes, some jobs will disappear. Some roles will evolve. Entire workflows will be redesigned. That has always been true during periods of rapid technological advancement.

New categories of work will emerge: AI trainers, model auditors, human-AI workflow designers, data curators, governance specialists and roles we cannot yet imagine.

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The question is not whether change is coming. It is whether America will shape it, or allow others to.

Other nations are racing to lead in artificial intelligence. China, in particular, views AI not only as an economic engine but as a strategic asset. Authoritarian systems will deploy these tools at scale.

The United States became the world’s most dynamic economy not by freezing innovation, but by channeling it. We do not win by retreating from technology. We win by leveraging technology more effectively than anyone else.

THE NEW ARMS RACE IS FOR COMPUTE — AND AMERICA CAN’T AFFORD TO FALL BEHIND

There is a profound opportunity embedded in this shift. With AI tools, individuals can accomplish far more than they could on their own. Productivity will rise not because humans matter less, but because they can do more. The advantage will belong to those who are flexible, adaptable and highly skilled at using tools to amplify their own effectiveness.

The transition will require serious investment in education and workforce development. It will demand humility from institutions that assumed credentials guaranteed security. And it will require policymakers to balance innovation with sensible safeguards.

But the proper response to disruption is not nostalgia. It is preparation.

The Industrial Revolution raised living standards. The computer age created industries employing millions. The internet unlocked global commerce and communication. None of those transitions were smooth. All expanded opportunity.

Generative AI is the next chapter in that American story.

The most resilient individuals and companies will not ask how to preserve yesterday’s job descriptions. They will ask how to combine human intelligence with machine capability to produce better outcomes, faster and at lower cost.

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That is not artificial intelligence.

That is augmented human intelligence.

That is not decline.

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That is renewal.

The age of augmentation has arrived. Let’s meet it the way Americans always have: with confidence, hard work and faith in our ability to build what comes next.

LIZ PEEK: America expected one thing from Trump’s State of the Union. It got another

Call me crazy, but I loved President Trump’s State of the Union speech.

Yes, it was long — the longest in at least 60 years — but it was also entertaining. It was optimistic, positive and hopeful about America’s future. Right off the bat, on Tuesday night, Trump introduced the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, and though they didn’t lead the chamber in singing the national anthem (my secret hope), they did show off their gold medals to thunderous applause and shouts of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” That set the celebratory and triumphant tone of the evening.

Trump did not appear to be a president under siege, struggling with sagging approval ratings; far from it. He was at his best; he was relaxed, at times funny, and appropriately incredulous at the smallness and absurdity of his Democratic opponents. My guess is that he gets a much-needed bounce from this performance — not only because of his likable delivery, but also because he reviewed the enormous number of accomplishments that he and his Cabinet have racked up in a single year.

As important, he avoided picking a fight with the Supreme Court, which could easily have soured the mood. He described the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring his tariffs illegal as “disappointing” and “unfortunate,” but then moved on, talking up the importance of tariffs in leveling the playing field for U.S. firms and in attracting trillions of dollars of investment into the United States.

He also packed the gallery with a crowd of sympathetic and admirable people whose lives and experiences not only served to demonstrate the policies he touted but also inspired the audience.

Who could fail to applaud the children who are surviving grievous injuries, or the pilot wounded during the extraction of Venezuela’s illegitimate president, Nicolás Maduro, who managed to carry out the mission and was then awarded the Medal of Honor? Or the National Guardsman shot in the head who is recovering against all odds? The stories are heartwarming and incorporate much that is exceptional about the United States — the bravery, sacrifice and patriotism that characterize so many heroes.

President Trump’s most important mission was to remind people that President Joe Biden left behind a mess and that he is working to fix it.

President Trump’s most important mission was to remind people that President Joe Biden left behind a mess and that he is working to fix it. Trump inherited from Biden an economy dependent on gigantic federal spending, an open border unprotected from a rush of criminals who flooded in among the millions who entered illegally, and prices that soared more than 20% in four short years.

TRUMP HAILS ‘TURNAROUND FOR THE AGES’ IN RECORD-LONG SOTU PACKED WITH WINS AND WARNINGS

A massive influx of undocumented migrants poured into cities like New York, causing chaos, crime and rising budget headaches as the public had to foot the bill for migrants receiving taxpayer-funded healthcare, education and housing. Those problems are ongoing, despite Trump’s efforts to deport the criminals who are also making our cities unsafe. In his speech, he called upon Congress to outlaw sanctuary cities. It won’t happen, but it should.

Trump ran on closing the border; today it is more secure than ever. As he reminded voters, if Democrats return to power, they will reverse his efforts.

As is customary, Trump cataloged his greatest hits. He celebrated the “one big beautiful bill,” which he said contained the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history, including reduced taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security. (He introduced a couple from Pennsylvania who are saving over $5,000 per year from the bill.) Trump also touted his efforts to bring down prescription drug prices, to make IVF more affordable — and sympathetically introduced a young woman trying to become a mom — and to establish price transparency in healthcare.

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He touted the “Trump Accounts” for young children, which he said could help them get a running start in life, and called out computer innovator Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, for contributing more than $6 billion to the program.

He also talked up his plan to make tech companies operating data centers pay for the copious electricity those projects require. Electricity prices have soared across the country, thanks in large part to what he described as reckless energy policies put in place by climate-focused Democrats. Trump is trying to fix that.

Another plan to increase affordability is his recent executive order banning large Wall Street financial firms from buying up homes. At the margin, this may help, as will lower mortgage rates. Such initiatives are meant to reduce the cost of living, which is likely to play a large role in the midterm elections.

The president and his team are also focusing on rooting out welfare fraud, which he said is rampant. Trump said that eliminating theft of taxpayer dollars could eliminate the deficit. It won’t, but it can surely help. Even Joe Biden’s Government Accountability Office said the country was losing hundreds of billions of dollars every year to fraud and theft; the Biden White House ignored the problem, but the Trump White House is addressing it.

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The theft of billions of dollars in welfare payments in Minnesota by primarily Somali criminals became an overnight political liability for Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials who, at best, ignored the problem. Trump has designated Vice President JD Vance to lead the fraud investigation; you can be sure that Democrat-run states like California and New York will be in the crosshairs.

It was a good night for the president; it was a bad night for Democrats. Over 70 Democrats shamefully boycotted the speech, which only made their dour presence less impactful. 

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President Trump more than once called out Democrats, in some cases, for opposing popular items like tax cuts and voter ID laws. He also berated them for supporting unpopular measures like gender reassignment of minors without parental approval. As he introduced a family whose daughter had experienced that misfortune, he waved his hand at Democrats, saying, “These people are crazy.” Most would agree.

President Trump got the message: He needs to make life more affordable. Now he has to follow through. After Tuesday night, the country knows he is working at it.

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DOUG SCHOEN: One big winner, one giant loser and one big problem after Trump’s State of the Union

President Donald Trump gave a virtuoso performance Tuesday night. He achieved a number of important goals in his State of the Union address, but it is unclear whether he fundamentally changed the political dynamic in America. Still, it was a great performance — with profound messages.

The first and most important message was that the American people should associate the progress, future and success of the country with the Trump administration and the Republican Party. The president spoke of transformations, turnarounds and, most of all, “the golden age of America.” It was moving and uplifting — though not necessarily as persuasive as he may have hoped.

To be sure, Trump made his most compelling case yet that the affordability crisis, which Democrats used to win the 2025 off-year elections, was now finally under control.

He also made it clear that his Republican Party had policies on healthcare, retirement, prices and, most of all, taxes that he argued would benefit the American people in ways few have articulated.

At the same time, in ways I have never heard before, Trump used the speech to castigate not only the Biden administration but Democrats in Congress, who did little to present a unified front at the State of the Union.

Between Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, being ejected from the House chamber for the second year in a row and members of the “Squad” jeering Trump and wearing buttons with expletives, the messaging by Democrats at the 2026 State of the Union was even worse than last year. That was especially true given the more than 30 empty seats in the chamber, as some Democrats chose to hold their own “People’s State of the Union” — whatever that might be.

Between Trump’s attacks and the Democrats’ behavior, it is hard to see how the country emerged more united after an extraordinary presentation that had to be moving to many Americans. Indeed, another strength of Trump’s speech was that he explicitly associated the country’s success with working people — especially heroes who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments for our nation, past and present. The explicit and implicit message was this: By standing with Trump and his policies, it was the only way America could achieve the success he spoke of in the context of the turnaround, the transformation, most of all, the “golden age” he said is underway.

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The president’s use of imagery was powerful — from the victorious U.S. Olympic hockey team to the military heroes recognized in the chamber. It was awe-inspiring and moving, and it left me with a sense of pride in our country that I had not felt in years during a State of the Union address.

Still, on Tuesday night, I did not sense that many minds were changed or that many midterm voters were swayed by the president’s nearly one-hour, 40-minute speech. While I am by no means sympathetic to today’s Democratic Party — especially its progressive wing — the degree of attacks and venom expressed at what is traditionally a nonpartisan event was off-putting, even to someone who has spent 50 years in the rough-and-tumble of politics.

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At the same time, Trump set the agenda for the midterm elections and made it clear he will run a populist campaign based on economic empowerment and affordability, contrasting it with a Democratic Party that he said supports open borders, higher taxes and policies hostile to law and order.

I am convinced many Americans found the speech profoundly moving and compelling in ways political events rarely achieve. I am not convinced, however, that polls will show the fundamental change that Trump and Republicans hoped would follow the State of the Union.

Time will tell.

It was particularly compelling when Trump asked lawmakers in the chamber to stand if they believed in the “fundamental principle” that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Almost no Democrats stood. 

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The move drew a predictable and lengthy standing ovation from Republicans. But I am not convinced that, given what polls show is widespread public concern about ICE’s actions, that the moment — as extraordinary as it was — will make immigration the winning issue it was in 2024. Yes, Americans recognize the Trump administration’s achievement in sealing the border. But many are now judging the president and his party more on ICE’s actions in major cities than on Homeland Security’s work at the border.

President Trump delivered a great speech Tuesday night, but a significant challenge remains: I do not believe many minds were changed, nor were Americans brought together.

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Man with Tourette syndrome ‘deeply mortified’ after shouting racial slur at awards show

The audience member with Tourette syndrome who shouted a racial slur during a broadcast of the 79th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) issued a statement expressing mortification about the incident on Monday.

John Davidson, who has severe Tourette syndrome and was the inspiration for the BAFTA-nominated biographical film “I Swear,” was heard shouting the n-word while Black actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage. During other portions of the program, Davidson was heard shouting profanities, including “f— you” and “shut the f— up.” 

In the statement, Davidson said he has always been “deeply mortified” that his involuntary tics could be considered “intentional or to carry any meaning.”

“I was in attendance to celebrate the film of my life, I SWEAR, which more than any film or TV documentary, explains the origins, condition, traits and manifestations of Tourette Syndrome,” Davidson stated.

“I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette’s community and to teach empathy, kindness, and understanding from others, and I will continue to do so. I chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.”

Earlier in his statement, Davidson thanked BAFTA and everyone else involved in the awards ceremony “for their support and understanding and inviting me to attend the broadcast,” adding that he appreciated the announcement before the broadcast began that “my tics are involuntary and are not a reflection of my personal beliefs.”

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“I was heartened by the round of applause that followed this announcement and felt welcomed and understood in an environment that would normally be impossible for me,” he continued. “In addition to the announcement by Alan Cumming, the BBC and BAFTA, I can only add that I am, and always have been deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning.”

Actor Alan Cumming, who hosted the BAFTAs, addressed the situation on-air during the broadcast. 

“You may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience,” Cumming said. “Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”

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The BBC issued an apology after failing to remove the profane language when the pre-taped show aired.

“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional. We apologize that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer,” a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

Some critics of the way the situation was handled took to social media. 

“Asking for more grace for the person who shouted a racist slur instead of for Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who had to push through being embarrassed in front of their peers. But that’s often the expectation — that Black people are just supposed to be ok with being disrespected and dehumanized so that other people don’t feel bad,” former ESPN anchor Jemele Hill wrote. 

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GOV GAVIN NEWSOM: From privilege to heartbreak, my life behind the headlines

Five years ago, I knew exactly what kind of book I needed to write.

It would chronicle crisis and conflict — the pandemic, the catastrophic wildfires, Trump 1.0, the relentless flywheel of California politics grinding out public policy. It would be the book people expected me to write.

I proudly turned in the manuscript.

It was quickly rejected.

I still remember the Zoom call with Ann Godoff, the legendary editor-in-chief at Penguin Press. I assumed she would tell me to trim the personal material — that the early chapter about my childhood was unnecessary or self-indulgent. I started preemptively editing in my head.

“I’ll pull the biographical parts,” I said.

She stopped me.

“That’s the part I care about,” she replied. “I didn’t know any of this about you.”

What followed wasn’t a policy book. It became, instead, a memoir — and not the kind I imagined. The subtitle, “A Memoir of Discovery wasn’t crafted for effect. It describes what happened to me during the writing process.

When I began revisiting my childhood, I assumed I understood it. I didn’t. I thought I had a firm grasp of my parents’ story — of the split between my father’s orbit and my mother’s. I didn’t.

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My father, William Newsom III, was an intellectual, a lawyer, a judge and a close friend of Gordon Getty, the heir to a great oil fortune. They’d met in high school. My grandfather, William II, was a builder, a shrewd political operator and a friend of California Gov. Pat Brown. He was sometimes called “Boss Newsom.” For my father, this world provided access to power and privilege but not wealth. He was a friend and sometimes an employee.

For years, I believed that if I worked harder, responded faster and explained more clearly, I could reshape public perception. But caricatures persist because they serve a purpose. Fighting them endlessly can become a trap in itself.

I began digging — and uncovered interviews my father had given to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. Listening to him explain, in his own voice, why he left our family was illuminating. I had grown up with fragments and assumptions. Hearing his account forced me to reconsider memories I thought were settled.

On my mother’s side, it was even more startling. She never talked about her childhood. She never talked about what my aunts later described to me as a “house of horrors.” She never talked about the gun her father put to her head as a little girl. She never talked about his suicide. She never talked about the alcoholism, the secrets, the generational trauma that shaped her.

These weren’t minor footnotes. They were structural beams. And I had never truly asked about any of it.

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For most of my early life, I navigated two worlds. There was my father’s proximity to privilege and influence, to the California political machine his own father helped build, to the Getty dinner tables and to his books. And then my mother’s quieter, more disciplined world, rooted in grit and self-reliance. I thought I understood that tension. I had even built a persona to survive it.

There’s a line in the book about plaster crumbling. That wasn’t metaphorical. That was real. I had built armor — professional, polished, controlled. I thought it was a strength. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it was fear.

Mark Arax, who worked closely with me on the book, put it plainly: If this was going to be a memoir, it couldn’t be guarded. “You’ve got to crack yourself open,” he said.

That meant confronting things I had avoided. Acknowledging that my mother’s dire warnings about going into politics were not abstract. Admitting that during the recall effort in 2021, humiliation felt visceral. Recognizing that I had sometimes been too self-absorbed to see how my ambitions affected the people closest to me. Accepting my insecurities rather than masking them.

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For years, I believed that if I worked harder, responded faster and explained more clearly, I could reshape public perception. But caricatures persist because they serve a purpose. Fighting them endlessly can become a trap in itself.

Writing this book changed that equation for me. It didn’t make me less ambitious or less committed. It helped me see that the grit people associate with drive traces back to my mother. That my family challenged convention long before I entered politics.

It also reminded me that telling your own story means telling stories that involve others — parents, mentors, friends, children. That carries responsibility.

In the end, I wrote this book for my kids.

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If it finds an audience, I’m grateful. If it doesn’t, that’s fine. I can’t control that. What I can do is ensure that Montana, Hunter, Brooklyn and Dutch know more than the headlines. They deserve to understand the full arc — the doubts, the mistakes, the sweaty hands, the resilience, the contradictions. They deserve the context behind public life.

I can choose whether to live inside a flattened version of myself or tell the more complicated truth: I have been blessed by extraordinary relationships, and I have also been shaped by hardship and conflict. I am the sum of those contradictions.

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This book isn’t an argument. It isn’t a rebuttal. It’s an attempt to tell a fuller story — one that acknowledges both the advantages I’ve had and the fractures that shaped me.

We’re all more complicated than the caricatures attached to our names. Writing this memoir forced me to confront myself — to uncover the real origin story that lies beneath the surface of us all.

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My walk across America proves we’re not nearly as divided as DC claims

Day after day on this Walk Across America, the blisters on my feet remind me of the cost, but the conversations I’ve had along the way healed something far deeper. I’ve stopped to talk to strangers on corners, at bus stops, at roadside diners and McDonald’s, and in many other places. Most of us would call these people ordinary, but that wouldn’t be true, for each one of them was unique in his or her own way. They are the salt of the earth who make the world run.

Not one of them asked about party lines, protests or the latest squabble on social media. They all talked about where they were headed, their jobs, their kids’ futures, the price of feed, church, football games, and how to help others or keep kids off the wrong path. They spoke with passion, and they saw themselves as part of the community. They had a role. They felt important.

A retired teacher shared how she tutors kids after school for free — she considers her pension a blessing and sees this as her way to give back. I was talking with a man whose truck had broken down when a mechanic stopped and offered to fix the stranger’s truck. I even spoke with a teen pushing his lawnmower down the street to mow a senior citizen’s lawn for free. All of these conversations did wonders for my soul.

They also led me to realize that America isn’t as divided as the headlines scream. What unites us isn’t manufactured in Washington, D.C. or amplified on screens. It’s forged in the quiet acres of faith, family and neighborly love. In fact, I would argue that those in the spotlight treat one another more harshly than the people on the streets.

I’ve seen Black and White believers link arms in prayer. I’ve seen couples of all shades and married to people of different shades. I’ve seen conservatives and liberals who refuse to surrender their friendships to fleeting politics. I’ve seen people organize work and sports around the fairest and most worthy principle of all: merit. And I’ve seen losers and winners hug, both going home to work on what needs improvement.

Psalm 133 declares, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down to bring blessing. Ephesians 4 urges us to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” We cannot force unity through laws or shame. It must come organically, rooted in shared faith and purpose.

Back on Chicago’s South Side, I’ve seen what division breeds: suspicion, silos, violence. The cause is bad faith and policies that foster dependency. How can you be all you can be when you place your life, or part of it, in the hands of another — especially the cold, faceless government?

MY WALK ACROSS AMERICA IS A LESSON IN GRATITUDE AND GIVING THANKS

This walk shows a far better reality. In diners, churches and front yards across these states, people are hungry for real connection — not performative activism, but authentic fellowship that says, “Your struggle is mine, and we’ll rise together through hard work, prayer and accountability to God.”

This isn’t naive optimism. I’m seeing it with my own eyes. I feel like I’m back in my hometown of Kenton, Tennessee, where life was always like this — and I loved it. I miss it so much, yet it warms my heart to know it is still alive in many parts of America. I’ve met former gang members mentoring youth, business owners hiring the overlooked and pastors crossing town lines to collaborate. They’re not waiting for permission or programs. They’re living out the merit-based, faith-driven life that built this nation. And when they do, barriers fall.

As I head toward my distant goal of Los Angeles on my walk across America, I’m carrying this truth forward. Unity isn’t achieved by erasing differences. It’s achieved by elevating what matters most — God, family and the creation of opportunity.

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My million steps aren’t just to fund a building on the South Side of Chicago. They’re to remind America — and to remind myself most of all — that we can still come together around these timeless values.

This walk has filled my soul with happiness and faith. What I have seen is beauty – American beauty. You know what I say is true. You know it still exists.

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We may not walk together but walk with me in spirit and be part of the greatness of this nation.

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DAVID MARCUS: Patriotic Team USA wins gold as anti-America whiners flop

Sunday’s 2-1 overtime win for the United States men’s hockey team over archrival Canada is arguably our nation’s most significant winter gold medal since the last time our boys were kings of the sport during the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” and the team’s pride in its country just made it all the sweeter.

You may recall that, from the outset of the games in Milan Cortina two weeks ago, there were American athletes chiding and criticizing our nation from their press podiums, and while correlation is not causation, many of them didn’t fare terribly well.

Take Hunter Hess, the American freestyle skier who said about representing the U.S. prior to competing, “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of.” He added, “I think, for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family.”

Hess finished 10th — and his 15 minutes of fame ended.

Then there was figure skater Amber Glenn, who said members of the LGBT community in America are “having a hard time” and that she would use her voice to “try to encourage people to stay strong.”

It’s worth noting that Iran had a winter Olympic team this year. One wonders how Glenn thinks gays and lesbians are treated there.

Notably, while her teammates helped secure a team gold in figure skating, Glenn finished a disappointing fifth in singles, missing the podium — which hopefully gave her extra time to focus on gay rights.

‘MIRACLE ON ICE’ STAR TELLS ’60 MINUTES’ HISTORIC OLYMPIC VICTORY SHOWED ‘WHAT MAKES OUR COUNTRY SO GREAT’

America did win singles gold, through figure skater Alysa Liu, who not only did not complain about her country but chose to compete for the United States instead of China, as fellow Chinese-American freestyle skier Eileen Gu did. Liu and her family, after all, found freedom here.

Then there was hockey — the glorious men’s and women’s tournaments in which both U.S. teams took gold. There was no whining about America or President Donald Trump. Instead, there was downright pure, unapologetic patriotism on display.

Take women’s hockey star Taylor Heise, who told Fox News Digital, “Playing for your country and the pride of the place that you live in is pretty amazing and to wear that USA emblem on your chest every day is something you don’t want to take for granted.”

‘MIRACLE ON ICE’ LEGEND PRAISES USA OLYMPIC TEAM FOR SHOWING ‘SAME EDGE’ AS 1980 SQUAD: ‘YOU CAN FEEL IT’

Hear, hear.

Or consider Jack Hughes’ postgame interview on Sunday. His broken teeth and game-winning goal were emblematic of Team USA’s grit. He said, “It’s all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates — it’s unbelievable. The USA Hockey brotherhood is so strong, and we had so much support. I’m so proud to be American today.”

Not long after, the boys in red, white and blue were speaking with President Donald Trump in the locker room via speakerphone, excited about the chance to attend Tuesday’s State of the Union address — the same event many Democrats in Congress are petulantly skipping out on.

PETE HEGSETH DUBS TEAM USA GOALTENDER THE ‘SECRETARY OF DEFENSE’ AFTER AMAZING OLYMPIC SAVE

There is no scientific way to know whether feeling patriotism, rather than ambivalence and dull shame, when competing for your country at the Olympics impacts performance. But it certainly seems like playing for millions of people — instead of just your “friends and family” — could provide a boost.

By definition, top Olympic athletes compete at such a high level of talent and ability that the slightest advantage can make all the difference. Some of these sports are decided by fractions of seconds.

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Maybe it’s cheesy, but it certainly sounded as though the winners drew inspiration, courage and energy from knowing the American people were cheering them on. They weren’t winning for Boston, Dallas or Philadelphia — they were winning for all of us.

As our focus shifts to the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles later this year, American athletes should take note: patriotism and pride in America just might be a competitive advantage. And yes, I’m looking at you, men’s basketball team.

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On Sunday morning, millions of Americans shared something very special — a victory as unlikely as our great nation, similarly won through guts and determination. And now we get to watch viral videos of sad Canadians shocked at the result.

So, thank you to the patriots of Team USA. You made the dark days of winter a little brighter and made us proud — not just of you, but of the remarkable nation we share.

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America has a very expensive promises problem — and the bill is coming due

Every four years, Americans fall in love with a fantasy. A new president will change the federal deficit.

Republicans promise growth will outrun the debt.

Democrats promise taxes on the rich will fix it.

And the U.S. Debt Clock keeps spinning like a Vegas slot machine that only pays out in red ink.

As of 2026, the United States owes roughly $38.5 trillion, and it’s climbing about $8 billion per day. The net interest payments on the debt officially exceed our annual defense budget.

We’re not arguing politics anymore. We’re arguing arithmetic.

The Trump Plan: Growth + Tariffs + Tax Cuts

Let’s be fair: Trump’s economic philosophy has been consistent since he started campaigning.

Extend tax cuts — no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security.

Add tariff revenue — now a political and legal battle.

Shrink bureaucracy — started with DOGE.

Grow GDP faster than spending — up only 1.4% last quarter.

That worked sort of well when debt was $20 trillion lower and interest rates were near zero.

But today’s numbers are very different.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates current policy paths keep deficits near $2 trillion annually and push debt to about 120% of GDP within a decade. 

Here’s the translation. Even if the economy hums at an insane rate of GDP growth, the government is still spending dramatically more than it collects. Why is it that nobody really understands revenue and expenses in Washington, D.C., and that 85% of our revenue comes from the two buckets of personal income tax and payroll tax?

The Real Problem Isn’t Taxes or Tariffs.  Here’s the 60-second explainer.

It’s interest. Lots and lots of interest. Interest on the debt alone is projected to exceed $1 trillion in 2026 and now roughly 14% of federal spending. 

That means before we fund:

Defense

Social Security

Medicare

Infrastructure

Our Veterans

It’s like playing credit card roulette and the interest just keeps compounding with no end in sight. No State of the Union message Republican or Democrat can outgrow a compounding interest bill this large.

Politicians Don’t Like To Campaign On Math

TRUMP HAS SET THE STAGE FOR AN AMERICAN COMEBACK AFTER BIDEN’S DISMAL ECONOMY

Last fiscal year:

Government spent: $7.01 trillion

Government collected: $5.23 trillion

Annual deficit: $1.78 trillion

To erase the deficit overnight, you would need one of the following:

• Raise taxes roughly 35% (think about top tax rates going from 37% to 50%) and remember almost half the people in America don’t pay federal taxes whatsoever.

• Cut benefits massively, which really means one of the big three: Medicare, Social Security or Defense. 

• Or grow the economy at wartime levels for a decade.  

Do any of those sound realistic to you?

Why Trump Unfortunately Can’t Fix It (And Neither Can Anyone Else Alone)

Even Trump’s policies which add tariff revenue are projected to still increase deficits over time because tax cuts reduce revenue faster than tariffs raise it. 

Here’s the uncomfortable truth we all need to face. America does have policy problems, but more importantly, America has a promises problem. Nobody wants to sacrifice anything, and when you are in debt, something has to be sacrificed to get out of debt.

The Real State Of The Union

The federal debt isn’t going to be eliminated.

It will be inflated away, written off, monetized, or slowly eroded by negative real interest rates because, mathematically, a $38.5 trillion balance sheet cannot be balanced with incremental policy tweaks. The U.S. doesn’t default. It dilutes.

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Presidents don’t control the deficit anymore. Trump can change tax policy. He already did it. Congress can try to change spending. But they rarely agree. But reality is reality. Changing this quickly is like turning the Queen Elizabeth around in a bathtub.

Unless America changes expectations or sacrifices are made on both sides of the aisle, the debt clock keeps running no matter whose name is on the Oval Office door. The debate in Washington is ideological. The risk to all of us is our standing to wear the crown of being the world’s currency.

LIZ PEEK: Inflation, immigration and Trump’s State of the Union moment of truth

President Trump will address the nation Tuesday night in his State of the Union address. The stakes, for the president and for the country, could not be higher.

Will President Trump reenergize his voters and help the GOP keep control of Congress in November? He could, and he must. The Trump agenda is not done, and the prospect of Hakeem Jeffries becoming House speaker should make your hair stand on end. Not because Jeffries is a Democrat, but because he is the face of Trump-hating, brainless opposition that would rather hurt the U.S. than accommodate a president he doesn’t like. Exhibit A: ridiculous government shutdowns.

With betting sites showing 79% to 81% odds that Democrats will take over the House in November, and with Democrats leading the “generic ballot” by about five points, Trump needs to deliver a barnburner — he needs to be upbeat, likable and accurate. The facts are on his side; there is no need to embellish.

First, he can blow off inevitable Democratic razzing by showcasing Jack Hughes, the Olympic hockey player who scored the winning goal in overtime Sunday and led the U.S. men’s team to Olympic gold. Hughes, who lost three teeth during the game, proudly proclaimed afterward, “This is all about our country. I love the USA.” What an inspiration.

Moving on, the president must convincingly address the issues that matter most to the majority of Americans — not just his base. Gallup reports that, unsurprisingly, top voter concerns include the economy, especially the cost of living. Trump cannot dismiss “affordability” as a hoax; it is not. He is understandably frustrated to have to fix what his predecessor, Joe Biden, broke — and that he is being blamed for the 20%-plus surge in prices he inherited. But the weaker buck now stops with him.

Trump must report that inflation is coming down and that the slowdown will continue, partly due to his energy policies. U.S. oil production is at record highs; that isn’t an accident. After years of the Biden White House discouraging oilfield investment — including pausing lease sales and slow-walking drilling permits — Trump is accelerating both. From Jan. 20, 2025, Inauguration Day, until Jan. 6 of this year, the Trump administration approved 5,742 drilling permits for public lands, a 55% increase over the same period under Biden. The White House has also published an ambitious lease schedule, especially for offshore waters, which will guarantee high output for years to come.

On Tuesday night, the president must convincingly address the issues that matter most to the majority of Americans — not just his base.

Removing obstacles to producing homegrown fossil fuels is critical. So is axing renewable mandates and rules that push consumers toward high-cost electricity. The president cannot undo the foolish and costly energy decisions made over the past decade by Democratic officials, which have lifted electricity prices in New York and other blue states to as much as 50% above the national average. But his administration can roll back regulations — as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is doing — that drive energy costs even higher.

WATCH: TOP 5 MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN AMERICAN STATE OF THE UNION HISTORY

Trump’s push for lower interest rates will also drive costs down, especially for housing. Moreover, his executive order signed last month restricting institutional purchases of homes may relieve price pressures in targeted markets. Conservatives don’t like the White House interfering in private investment, but homebuyers will.

Elsewhere, Trump must reassure Americans that the explosive growth of artificial intelligence will make their lives better, not worse. People worry about losing their jobs to AI and about the new industry’s enormous power demands. Democrats have stoked those fears, in some cases opposing new data center construction and generally pushing back on Big Tech.

Our preeminent technology firms have much to answer for — from purposefully ensnaring and harming young people to inserting left-leaning bias into supposedly neutral tools like search — but leading the country to AI dominance isn’t one of them.

LIZ PEEK: TRUMP’S ECONOMIC WINS ARE REAL — NOW HE NEEDS TO CONVINCE THE COUNTRY

Trump should highlight the productivity gains AI promises. It will displace some workers, but it will also make nearly everyone more productive. Greater productivity means higher incomes. In industries such as health care, AI goes beyond efficiency — enabling more accurate diagnoses and accelerating the discovery of new drugs.

Gallup reports that another top issue for voters is “government and poor leadership.” Some will interpret that as a lack of confidence in the Trump White House; animosity toward the administration is certainly intense. But the president can turn that sentiment against Democrats, too, by reminding voters how much of their hard-earned tax dollars are lost to fraudsters or wasted through incompetence.

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Minnesota has become a poster child for elected officials enabling or ignoring massive corruption, but the problem is widespread and appears concentrated in Democratic-run states that thrive on massive welfare spending. California has come under scrutiny for allowing billions in pandemic relief intended for small businesses and the unemployed to go missing. Medicare fraud in the state also reaches into the billions. New York is under investigation as well.

Immigration is another top concern for voters. It was key to Trump’s election and is an issue he must address. He should highlight the deportation of criminals that the Department of Homeland Security has achieved — and that Democrats have opposed. He should also differentiate between murderers and rapists and those who have lived in the country for years and whose only crime was entering illegally. For those individuals, Trump should offer access to legal resident status if they meet certain requirements — but make clear they will never become citizens. Americans would back such a resolution.

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Finally, Trump should insist that Congress pass a voter ID law — if not as part of the SAVE Act, then as a stand-alone bill. The vast majority of Americans want secure elections. 

The GOP must earn its majority, and this would be a good start.

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DAN GAINOR: Trump defeated the press like David smacked Goliath. Can they recover?

Over 10 years ago, billionaire businessman Donald Trump announced he was running for the biggest office in the land. Three presidential races and two victories later, one thing is clear. Trump won his war with the media hands down. The press set out to destroy him. They failed. And he crushed them instead. At no time since the founding of our republic has the traditional media been less influential.

President Trump has won lawsuits against two different news networks, watched as other news organizations refused to endorse his competitor in the presidential race and celebrated as public media had its taxpayer funding ripped away. This is another classic Trump upset victory that is reminiscent of David smiting Goliath. It didn’t go well for Goliath either time.

Who could have predicted the turn of events? The establishment left-wing press has influenced everything in America for decades — politics, culture, sports and more. They helped decide both party’s presidential candidates, destroyed political careers, covered up scandals (Hunter Biden, anyone?) and helped push every issue in the world to the left — from taxes, to transgenders to the media itself.

They had survived the many threats to their power — the internet, blogging, social media, declining ad revenue, everything the world threw at them. Even the first term of Trump. The press pushed hard for and celebrated two Trump impeachments, an election defeat and enough lawfare to keep Perry Mason busy. They looked like they could take on anything.

Anything, that is, but Trump Part II. This time everything has been different. And, as Trump prepares to deliver his State of the Union speech, Tuesday, February 24, the state of his opponents in the media is in a shambles.

Just look at his overwhelming victory against NPR and PBS. Republicans warred against so-called public media for decades. Both networks were overflowing with leftist staffers, guests and agendas, and it all was paid for by American taxpayers. But, every attempt to chip away at funding became a battle against Big Bird. The right was humiliated each time it tried to nibble funding away from two of the most openly leftist networks in the nation. The result made Republicans unwilling to try. Trump was willing and pushed Congress to axe the funding and won. Former CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta had urged more funding for public media, calling for it to be “too big to fail in this country.” Yet, fail it did.

All of those claims that the federal money didn’t make up much of public media’s budget turned out, unsurprisingly, to be a lie. Both networks are struggling with finances. PBS canceled “PBS News Weekend” and blamed Trump: “PBS cancelled the show due to the loss of federal funding for public media,” it declared. You can pretend to be sad now.

BOZELL, GRAHAM: TRUMP SUCCESSFULLY DEFUNDS NPR AND PBS AND HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED

Trump hit the press with lawyers of his own and won. Both ABC and CBS settled lawsuits against Trump, fearing worse outcomes. ABC agreed “to pay a $15 million ‘charitable contribution’ to a future presidential foundation for construction of Trump’s presidential library, covering $1 million in legal fees, and appending a statement of regret to the segment,” according to The Washington Post.

The changes at CBS were even more profound. The network settled for $16 million for the future Trump library. But that wasn’t all. CBS hired Free Press founder Bari Weiss as its new editor-in-chief. Most in the media were furious, even though she’s no conservative. The New Yorker referred to it as a, “Hostile Takeover of CBS News.” Weiss has battled with network staff to try to get them to be more even-handed, which has infuriated journalists who mostly complain anonymously to others in the press.

One producer resigned, complaining, “Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.” Journalists who thrilled at the network’s openly leftist ideology, now whine if it shifts slightly closer to center. To top things off, CNN anchor and “60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper didn’t renew his contract either.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY: HOW MEDIA WENT FROM ‘WATCHDOG TO ATTACK DOG’ OVER TRUMP AND RUSSIA COLLUSION NARRATIVE

Ideological expectations were changing in newspapers, as well. Last February, Post owner Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame, announced a huge shift in the editorial pages. He declared they would promote, “personal liberties and free markets.” Two things most journalists hate. The exodus of staffers that followed reads like a Who’s Who of leftist Posties — including columnists Jonathan Capehart and Philip Bump, and its hilariously titled fact-checker Glenn Kessler.

The entire journalism world had erupted in anger when the Post and 43 other of the nation’s top newspapers refused to endorse a candidate for president in 2024. That tally included both the L.A. Times and several top chains, according to journalism’s Nieman Lab. The Post reportedly lost over 200,000 subscribers. This January, the paper had massive layoffs of somewhere between a third and half its staff. One Hill op-ed described the cuts as, “Darkness descends with Washington Post mass layoffs.”

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The Post was far from alone. There were 2,254 job cuts at news outlets in 2025, including cuts at CNN, CBS, NBC and more.

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Even social media no longer bans Trump. And Trump went from being a minor player there to founder of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which includes Truth Social. It has a market cap of about $3 billion.

Not too shabby for the man who called the media “the enemy of the American people” after he first took office in 2017 and has warred with them ever since. Now, journalists face three more years of defeats at the hands of their arch enemy and a future filled with conservatives who learned how to take down media giants from a master.

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JILLIAN MICHAELS: Our hockey heroes just gave America the miracle we needed most

We just witnessed something rare and beautiful at the Winter Olympics: Team USA winning gold in both men’s and women’s hockey — back-to-back, overtime thrillers over Canada, the fiercest rival in the sport. The women set the tone with a 2-1 OT victory, and then the men did the impossible. Their first Olympic gold in 46 years, clinched on an overtime goal by Jack Hughes, despite playing through a brutal high stick that knocked out several of his teeth.

In the locker room afterward, Hughes didn’t talk about politics. He talked about love of country, about his teammates, about American hockey with the kind of authenticity the moment deserved. “This is all about our country right now. I love the USA,” Hughes said. Chills.

For years now, high-profile athletes have been pressured into speaking on behalf of causes — to take the stage as proxies for political movements many aren’t even aware of, much less understand. We’ve lived through endless cycles of controversy over a knee, an anthem, or an opinion on a policy issue most of them weren’t asked about until the pundit class made it a litmus test. Careers have been saddled with expectations to publicly confess national “sins,” to don a badge of shame for living in a country that, objectively, remains exceptional in human history.

Yet here we are watching our hockey teams, men and women alike, who didn’t cave to pressure, didn’t posture and preen. They competed. They battled. They represented the United States proudly — without apology.

That’s refreshing.

Yes, America is not perfect. No nation ever is. We have real debates to be had about policy and leadership. We have legitimate differences of opinion about how to steer our ship going forward. But unity, real organic unity, comes from shared experiences that transcend ideological divides. Rarely does something bind a country quite like sporting triumphs on the world stage.

Sports don’t care about your party registration. They don’t care if you’re from California or Kentucky or New York. You’re either on the ice, in the arena, on the field giving everything you have, or you’re watching, cheering, and roaring for one flag.

FEBRUARY 22 IS ALREADY THE GREATEST DAY IN AMERICAN HOCKEY HISTORY — CAN TEAM USA ADD TO THE LEGEND?

This is why moments like this matter.

Because they remind us of something too many pundits and performative activists have forgotten: most Americans don’t wake up every day thinking about how to hate their own country. Most of us wake up hopeful — grateful for the freedoms we enjoy, proud of what we can achieve, and ready to cheer on fellow citizens who give it their all.

And give it their all they did.

TEAM USA’S JACK HUGHES SHARES PATRIOTIC MESSAGE AFTER OLYMPIC THRILLER

Hughes’s goal was the storybook ending. Assisted by Zach Werenski and backed by 41 saves from goalie Connor Hellebuyck, Team USA’s men finished the tournament undefeated, ending a nearly half-century gold drought on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.

The women’s gold was no consolation prize, it was a statement. Another 2-1 overtime win against Canada, a testament to grit, skill, and composure. Together, these teams showed what American hockey looks like and is a reflection of Americans as a whole: relentless, fearless, united.

And then there was the moment after the wins: an honest, joyful phone call with President Donald Trump, celebrating their accomplishment. It wasn’t posturing. It wasn’t a photo op. Just pride, shared between the leader of the nation and the athletes who made every American feel a little prouder today.

‘MIRACLE ON ICE’ STAR TELLS ’60 MINUTES’ HISTORIC OLYMPIC VICTORY SHOWED ‘WHAT MAKES OUR COUNTRY SO GREAT’

In a time when headlines profit from division, when the loudest voices tell us we must be ashamed of our own country simply for existing, these hockey victories remind us of something simple and potent:

We are a free people. A resilient people. A people who rise to the occasion when the world watches.

And when we win, we win as one nation.

So let’s savor this. Let’s be proud of these teams! The women who paved the way, and the men who finally brought home gold after decades. Let’s celebrate the toughness, the character, the patriotism in locker rooms, on the ice, and in the hearts of millions of Americans watching back home.

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In the end, that’s what the Olympics should be about: the best of sport and the best of a nation coming together on the world stage — not to divide us, but to remind us who we are.

What could be more worth cheering for.

CHAD WOLF: Space isn’t just the final frontier, it’s the ‘ultimate high ground’

The race to the moon is on — again. But the strategic competition playing out today is much bigger than our race with the Soviet Union in 1969. If China reaches the moon ahead of the United States and establishes a permanent, manned presence — it will not treat the lunar surface as a peaceful scientific outpost, but as an extension of its campaign to surpass America, intimidate our allies and compromise our systems that keep the American homeland secure. This is no longer something of science fiction.

President Donald Trump understands this threat, signing the Executive Order on Ensuring American Space Superiority, which made it abundantly clear that he wants the United States to lead this new space race — returning Americans back to the moon by 2028 and building a permanent manned presence on the lunar surface.

Let me be clear, the fear that China could somehow “claim” the moon by arriving first misunderstands both geography and international reality. Two of the main locations for settlement are the Shackleton Crater, which stretches about the distance from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland, and the South Pole–Aitken Basin, which is roughly the distance from Washington, D.C., to Denver, Colo. The moon is vast.

The strategic concern and question for Congress is not who arrives “next,” but who establishes a durable, scalable and defensible presence on the lunar surface. China understands this question and is well on their way to develop a reusable launch system to control this terrain and its abundant critical resources within a decade. The U.S. needs to recognize this threat and address it with the urgency it demands.

The Obama-Biden administration’s Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently being used for the Artemis missions, utilizes 1980s architecture developed from the shuttle missions and has been highly criticized by NASA’s former inspector general during the Biden administration who calculated the cost of a single SLS launch was $4.2 billion, with nearly $64 billion already spent despite only one operational flight since 2022. This is an enormous price tag with limited payload capacity and a launch cadence measured in years rather than months.

Seeing NASA’s struggles with the SLS, Chinese state-backed firms are now mimicking architectures that support fully reusable, self-landing heavy-lift rockets modeled on SpaceX’s Starship. As seen on Feb. 11, China’s Long March 10 booster (developed in just eight years) successfully guided itself to a powered, vertical ocean splashdown. This is an unmistakable signal that China is quickly catching up to us and recognizes that a nation that can launch more often and move more mass will dominate.

The critical national security question is this: What happens if the U.S. does not pivot quickly toward prioritizing cost, capacity and cadence, after Artemis III?

ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT ISS FOR 8-MONTH MISSION AFTER MEDICAL EMERGENCY FORCED EARLY EVACUATION

First, we will likely see the formation of a permanent Chinese, manned presence expanding Beijing’s intelligence collection and space awareness across the Earth–moon system helping China monitor U.S. and allied activity. Beijing has invested in capabilities designed to “degrade, damage, or destroy” U.S. satellites — the backbone of American command-and-control and targeting. This has direct homeland security implications.

Trump is right to push a layered, space-enabled missile defense, known as the “Golden Dome,” but if the Chinese control the ultimate high ground, it can build a moon-based counter-command designed to blind, spoof, disrupt or hold at risk the space layer that makes that shield possible. Put simply: you cannot defend the homeland from above if Beijing can contest the space above you. The United States should establish that capability first — call it the “Donald J. Trump Moon Base” and lock in the operational advantage ahead of the Chinese.

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Second, if China is left untouched on the lunar surface, it would surely increase the risk of espionage, sabotage and gray-zone interference against our own forthcoming lunar infrastructure.

Seeing NASA’s struggles with the SLS, Chinese state-backed firms are now mimicking architectures that support fully reusable, self-landing heavy-lift rockets modeled on SpaceX’s Starship.

Finally, Beijing will seek to turn its presence into control over resources on the lunar surface. It is critical for us to get ahead of the Chinese on the extraction of these critical minerals, which China already has a stronghold of on Earth. We need these critical minerals for national defense, economic prosperity, and, frankly, our sovereignty.

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The moon is the ultimate high ground; we cannot afford to be first on Earth but second in space. If China gets to the moon, fine, but if it frequently returns, they will turn their presence into control — over the “Golden Dome,” over our critical infrastructure on Earth and in low Earth orbit, and over the resources the moon provides — America will be permanently exposed to its greatest adversary.

To beat China, Congress should demand accountability for delays and cost overruns, stop blindly giving subsidies to outdated systems, and pivot to reusability. Our continued homeland security depends on it. Let’s put America first and prioritize cost, capacity and cadence.

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SEN ELIZABETH WARREN: President Trump’s broken promise on credit cards

President Donald Trump could save American families hundreds of dollars on credit cards, but so far, he’s been all talk and no action.

At the State of the Union, President Trump will try to spin a happy story about his failed economic agenda. During his campaign, he promised to lower costs “on day one.” He is now more than 400 days into his second term, and his policies are forcing Americans to pay more for everything from groceries to housing and electricity. Last Friday, the Supreme Court rebuked him for illegally taking money from working families. And polls show the American people think the president is not doing enough to lower costs.

One way Trump could lower costs quickly is to follow through on his campaign promise to put a 10% cap on credit card interest rates. This could save the average American with credit card debt about $900 a year. Collectively, families would save roughly $100 billion, giving them some breathing room and strengthening the economy overall.

TRUMP CALLS FOR 1-YEAR 10% CAP ON CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES

On Jan. 9, the president seemed poised to act. He announced that credit card companies will no longer rip off the American people — and then he politely asked the biggest banks to put in place a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates by Jan. 20. At the time, I said that asking credit card companies to play nice is silly, and if the president was serious, he’d work to pass a bill through Congress that would deliver lower rates.

Three days later, President Trump called me himself. I had just given a speech noting that he is driving up costs for families and sowing terror and chaos in our communities. I repeated my push: If the president really wanted to cap credit card interest rates, he would use his leverage and push a bill through Congress. On our phone call, I delivered the same message.

While the president dawdles, the big banks are coming out of the woodwork to warn of an ‘economic disaster’ if we cap credit card interest rates. Give me a break.

That was six weeks ago. President Trump’s Jan. 20 deadline has come and gone, and no one is surprised that the big banks have not voluntarily cut credit card rates to help American families. Instead, Trump and his budget chief, Russ Vought, have moved in the opposite direction, trying to sideline the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which could be used to bring down credit card costs. While Trump claims he wants a credit card interest rate cap, his own regulators are helping out those very same Wall Street banks that are ripping off Americans and blocking states from protecting their citizens from sky-high loans.

While the president dawdles, the big banks are coming out of the woodwork to warn of an “economic disaster” if we cap credit card interest rates. Give me a break. These are the most profitable financial institutions in the history of the world. There is no reason for them to demand 25% or 30% interest rates when smaller banks and credit unions are offering much lower credit card interest rates and are still making solid profits.

The big banks make about a 1.5% return on their lending generally — but for credit cards, they make a whopping 6.8% return. Credit cards also bring in and sustain new customers for other services. These banks could lower credit card rates and still be wildly profitable.

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Credit card CEOs love those high rates because they help finance a big chunk of the salaries and bonuses for those at the top. Compensation for every big bank CEO topped $40 million last year, with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon pocketing a tidy $770 million. Shareholders are happy, too. Big banks paid out a record $140 billion in dividends and share buybacks in 2025. Meanwhile, the American people have been charged more than $150 billion annually in credit card interest.

Americans want relief — and Democrats are ready. After the president called me, I reached out repeatedly to his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, to share ideas about how to design an emergency 10% rate cap that prohibits banks from retaliating by shutting down accounts, reducing credit lines or devaluing rewards. I also explained how we could transition to a permanent rate cap, so credit card companies can’t go right back to ripping people off after one year.

But after six weeks, there’s no deal to help the American people. We don’t need more speeches. We need an agreement on legislation and a commitment from the president to actually fight for it.

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Let’s pass a bill to cap credit card interest rates. The Senate Banking Committee could hold hearings in March and get a bill to the president’s desk this spring.

No more delays. It’s time to deliver relief for American families.

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Ayatollah’s arsenal vs. American firepower: Iran’s top 4 threats and how we fight back

Ayatollah Khamenei on X ramped up threats to send U.S. warships to the bottom of the sea. “Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea,” he (or his minions) tweeted Feb 17.

Admiral Brad Cooper, who’s in charge of United States Central Command, has forces to counter Iran, and to carry out strikes if so ordered. Sadly, Iran has taken American lives over the years, and now the regime is desperate. With the airspace laid bare by attacks on integrated air defenses prior to Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran has little ability to defend against stealth aircraft. 

Count on Iran trying to hit U.S. ships and bases.

Here are the four top tactics in the ayatollah’s arsenal – and how the U.S. will fight back.

Ballistic missiles

Iran launched short- and medium-range ballistic missiles against the U.S. airbase at Al Udeid, in Qatar, on June 23, 2025. A skeleton crew of American soldiers with two Patriot missile batteries intercepted Iran’s missiles. “We believe that this is the largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine in a Pentagon briefing the next day.

The U.S. Space Force will once again be on alert to detect the heat of Iranian missile launches and cue the target tracks. Iran’s ballistic missiles can attack multiple targets, but U.S. forces are ready to intercept. In 2024, American Navy destroyers sailing in the eastern Mediterranean nailed Iranian missiles with nose-on shots. They used Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), both the older Block 1 and the wide-coverage Block 2A. SM-3 is a hit-to-kill weapon: it smashed Iran’s missiles at 65,000 feet, in the exo-atmosphere, using just the 600-mph velocity. Bullet hits bullet. That’s why Navy destroyers are fanned out from the Med to the North Arabian Gulf.

IRAN TO HOLD LIVE-FIRE DRILLS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ WITH US ARMADA IN MIDDLE EAST

Drones

Iran manufactures a lot of drones, but they are going to die if they tangle with U.S. forces. A Marine Corps fighter pilot flying an F-35C from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln shot down one of Iran’s Shahed drones on Feb. 3. That was a Shahed-139 surveillance drone, which also carries glide bombs and can loiter for up to 24 hours. It got too close to the aircraft carrier, as Central Command put it.

Victory credit goes to the “Black Knights” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA-314, as reported by USNI News. The drone kill was easy work for the F-35C, with its sensitive, long-range radar and vectoring by Navy E-2D radar planes, which fly with a massive dish radar to sort out good guys and bad guys. Forward surveillance by the E-2Ds will be essential if Iran launches waves of drones toward U.S. ships. USS Gerald R. Ford en route could add options for day and night combat air patrols against drones and missiles.

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If the attack is over land, look for the U.S. Air Force to pounce. Over the last two years, American pilots have become masters of anti-drone tactics. It started when U.S. Air Force F-15E “Strike Eagles” from an undisclosed Mideast base shot down waves of Iranian drones in April 2024. At one point, crew chiefs came out of bunkers while the base was under fire to pull the arming pins on weapons before the F-15Es took off. They are ready to do it again.

Swarming boats

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The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps navy has a long history of harassment with small boats, and they like to boast about their exercises with “swarms” of boats. That’s over. Iran thug small boats can’t form up to “swarm” under the constant eye – and guns – of this many U.S. ships and planes. Foolishly, two Iranian small boats and a drone tried to “swarm” a Swedish tanker carrying fuel for U.S. forces. How did that work out? Well, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS McFaul ran them off, as Air Force land-based fighter planes zoomed out to assist.

Cruise missiles

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Iran is stuffed with cruise missiles of various types. Their low, snaking path makes them difficult targets. The good news is the U.S. Navy has done a lot of target practice on Houthi missiles , like when the destroyer USS Gravely deployed its “C-whiz” Phalanx Close-In Weapon System against a sea-skimming Houthi missile one mile from the ship back on Jan. 30, 2024. Typically, Navy missiles like the SM-6 and the Evolved Sea Sparrow can nail the cruise missiles a dozen miles out. F-35 fighters are good at chasing down cruise missiles, too.

U.S. forces have the edge over the ayatollah’s arsenal. But make no mistake. This is a combat zone. Constant vigilance will be key to survival. Navy sailors and the airmen, Marines, soldiers and Space Force Guardians will feel the pressure and intensity of 24/7 operations. Maintainers and ground crews at land bases have jets to fuel, arm and launch, even against incoming drones and missiles. Force protection is top priority and the reason for the sheer number of forces now in U.S. Central Command. You can see why Trump has long sought curbs on Iran’s missile arsenal, and why missile and drone production sites are likely top of the target list for U.S. forces if diplomacy fails.

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China dominates with 5,500 ships while America has under 100 — but Trump’s fighting back

China dominates the world’s sea lanes.

In addition to its powerful navy, China possesses the world’s largest commercial shipping fleet — 5,500 vessels strong, with hundreds more added per year. By contrast, America’s fleet currently numbers under 100 with, at most, five ships added per year.

Today, only a fraction of the tankers and cargo ships carrying goods to and from our country fly the American flag — by some estimates, less than 0.4%.

The diminished state of American commercial shipbuilding is a pending economic and national security disaster.

Fortunately, President Donald Trump understands the urgency of this situation and has prioritized an American shipbuilding revival. On Feb. 13, his administration released a comprehensive Maritime Action Plan to help restore America’s maritime dominance.

According to the plan, “Less than one percent of new commercial ships are built in the United States. With only 66 total shipyards … the United States does not have the capacity necessary to scale up the domestic shipbuilding industry to the rate required to meet national priorities…. A self-sustaining domestic shipbuilding sector is critical for national and economic security.”

The plan offers specific recommendations to strengthen America’s maritime capacity, secure our supply chains, and build a resilient maritime workforce. In total, the White House’s Maritime Action plan is a much-needed, holistic approach to restore U.S. commercial shipping, and I commend Trump and his team for issuing it.

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As the plan recognizes, however, Congress must be part of the solution. The strategy proposes tax incentives, creative funding mechanisms and new programs that all require congressional authorization and resourcing. That’s why my colleagues and I are working to pass the “SHIPS for America Act.” This bipartisan legislation, which I helped introduce last year, substantially overlaps with the president’s vision and is explicitly called out in the plan. 

The legislation would make U.S.-flagged vessels commercially competitive in international commerce by cutting red tape, rebuilding the shipyard industrial base and expanding and strengthening mariner and shipyard worker recruitment. Our proposal would train a pipeline of new workers, encourage domestic and foreign investment in maritime infrastructure, and provide the permitting reform and deregulation that is essential for timely construction of new shipyards.

Underlying all of the bill’s initiatives is a trust fund to support an expansion of the U.S.-flagged fleet to 250 vessels by 2035. And the SHIPS Act would create multiple investment tax credits to build up the U.S. shipyard industry for both military and commercial oceangoing vessels.

Key to spurring private-sector investment in the industry is the designation of Maritime Prosperity Zones. These areas — modeled off the successful Opportunity Zones contained in President Trump’s 2017 tax cut — would supercharge investment in communities that will be most important to rebuilding our maritime industrial base.

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From the coastlands to the heartland, these places on our oceans, rivers and Great Lakes will be the hubs for building up our production facilities and supply chains that will power America’s maritime dominance over the next several decades.

The diminished state of American commercial shipbuilding is a pending economic and national security disaster.

The SHIPS Act is Congress’s answer to President Trump’s call to restore America’s maritime dominance. It provides the legal authorities and resources necessary to make President Trump’s Maritime Action Plan a reality. It has support from Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate.

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The release of the White House Maritime Action Plan should serve as a wake-up call for Congress to act quickly and pass our bill. Reviving American shipbuilding will take time, but as President Trump recognizes, doing so is critical to our economic and national security.

It’s time to make American ships again.

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Trump has sealed the border. Now, Democrats are hell-bent on ending immigration enforcement

When Pandora, the girl of Greek legend, opened the box, the ills of the world spilled out and could never be put back. The lesson was that some things, once done, cannot be undone. Let’s hope that mass illegal migration isn’t one of them.

Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. border was virtually open. He may best be remembered for writing a massive check on his grandchildren’s account, as the financial and social costs mount from the millions released, paroled or just left alone to live without authorization on his watch.

Under President Donald Trump, this ended. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims “an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations and more than 675,000 deportations” occurred in Trump’s first year in office. I’m skeptical of round numbers and not sure of their accounting methodology. But if it’s anywhere close, that would be a great start on keeping his promise to remove people here illegally.

Meanwhile, at the border, the picture is clear: the tap has been turned off.

“Encounters” is a term that means any time an alien with no visa or other right to enter the U.S. shows up at the border, airport or between land border ports and tries to get in. Let’s compare some months, using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Nationwide Encounters page. In December 2023, 249,740 foreigners came illegally over our border between official ports. In December 2025, it was 6,472. That’s not nothing, but it is an acceptable “normal” we can live with.

What is more, January 2026 is the ninth consecutive month since DHS reportedly released zero illegal aliens at the border. Not a one. That’s what the law requires. Aliens caught entering illegally “shall be detained,” says the Immigration and Nationality Act, thanks to a 1996 amending law called the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act. Guess who signed that? President Bill Clinton.

That law was passed after an exhaustive bipartisan congressional review, known as the Jordan Commission for its Democrat chairwoman, looked at U.S. immigration policy. They determined that we needed to clearly distinguish between legal and illegal immigration and do much more to prevent the latter.

TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION VICTORY IN A MINNESOTA COURT IS A WIN FOR ALL LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS

Today, politicians on the left are doing all they can to blur that all-important distinction. They speak of “migrants,” to avoid the issue altogether. Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey uses the word “neighbors” to describe illegal immigrants. He wants to pretend there is no difference between an American citizen and a foreign national living here illegally.

“No human being is illegal” is the favored lawn sign of the left. What does that even mean? Yes, being human is not illegal. But being in someone else’s house without permission is illegal. It’s the act, not the person.

Activists talk about “due process,” but what they really want is new process – endless litigation, even when higher courts have set clear precedent, to buy more time and find more loopholes.

BIDEN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN IN MINNESOTA, SAYS IT GOES AGAINST AMERICAN VALUES

A Fifth Circuit court of Appeals judgment just re-confirmed that aliens in the country illegally can (and should) be detained, even if they have long avoided detection. The court had to re-state clear law and precedent because, fueled by open donations and dark money, groups from the ACLU to Greater Waco Legal Services are suing left and right to prevent all deportations.

Democrats in Washington and in some blue states and cities are hell-bent on ending immigration enforcement altogether. We’ve all seen the organized obstruction by activists in Minneapolis, on the streets, at federal facilities, at hotels and even in a church during services.

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Meanwhile, at the border, the picture is clear: the tap has been turned off.

As well as impeding and harassing officers, activists want to force businesses to agree with them. In February, anti-enforcement group ICE Out Minnesota staged protests at Target stores to pressure the Minnesota-based chain to take a political stand. ICE Out’s demands include shutting down ICE, which means ending enforcement of U.S. immigration law.

Some angry women harassed staff at a Minneapolis Yoga studio for not putting up their anti-ICE sticker. Not coincidentally, the “revolutionary political group” Socialist Alternative took part in protests outside a Minneapolis Target branch. World socialism requires no borders, so the workers of the world can unite.

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For now, open borders advocates are fighting to prevent enforcement in their strongpoints inside the country; mostly large cities from Boston to Los Angeles run by Democrat or Democratic socialist mayors and councils. But despite – or because of – Trump’s proven success in sealing the border, the left is planning and waiting for the chance to reopen all the migrant “pathways” like parole and mass release at the border.

If this country is to hold together, we must never again allow the high-water mark of illegal immigration to reach the level it did under Biden. Further, we cannot allow nullification of our immigration laws by law-breaking activists. Statutes to prevent a return of 2021 need to be passed, and the rule of immigration law locked in beyond legal challenge for the future.

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MARK HALPERIN: Trump strategy super session plots midterm survival as history stalks GOP

Tuesday night at the Capitol Hill Club, just steps from the House office buildings and a world away from cable news hysteria, the senior Trump political command gathered its core team to talk midterms. It was not a rally. It was not a pep talk. It was a working session — about two hours, a chicken-and-steak buffet, roughly 75 to 100 people in the room, many of them Cabinet secretaries and their top aides, almost all political veterans.

The mood, according to one attendee, was not panicked. Not shaken. But not sanguine, either. Just focused. The kind of focus that comes from knowing that, at the moment, the patterns of history are not on your side.

Midterms are almost always brutal for a president’s party. Since World War II, the president’s party has lost House seats in all but a handful of elections. The average loss is measured not in single digits but in dozens. The modern political era is replete with examples: 1994 for Bill Clinton, 2010 for Barack Obama, 2018 for Donald Trump himself. The gravitational pull of backlash is real.

Which is why Tuesday night’s meeting mattered.

MARK HALPERIN: THE REAL REASON TRUMP KEEPS BEATING THE MEDIA AT ITS OWN GAME

Susie Wiles, the president’s chief political architect and one of the most disciplined operators in either party, hosted and spoke briefly. Then pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio took over, presenting roughly 25 slides of data — demographics, issue salience, message testing and a summary of what breaks through and what falls flat.

The headline: The economy will be THE issue at the polls this November.

Not immigration. Not foreign policy. Not Epstein or the border. Not investigations or indictments or Jan. 6 retrospectives. The economy.

Fabrizio’s data showed that certain messages resonated with key voters: banning stock trading for members of Congress; promoting greater transparency in health insurance pricing and claims reimbursement; lowering prescription drug costs; and protecting the Trump tax cuts. Housing affordability, especially for younger voters, looms large — a kitchen-table issue with generational bite, though one the administration has yet to solve, either politically or through policy.

DEMOCRATS EYE NARROW PATH TO CAPTURE SENATE MAJORITY, BUT ONE WRONG MOVE COULD SINK THEM

Notably, taking credit for closing the border does not resonate nearly as much as Republicans might assume. It’s not that voters oppose border enforcement; many simply see it as baseline governance rather than a life-changing economic intervention.

The persuadable universe is also narrower than partisans often imagine: men, moderates, true independents and Hispanic voters. These are the movable pieces on the board.

The battlefield, at least for now, is defined. There are 36 targeted House races and seven key Senate races that will determine the balance of power.

When addressing the group, Fabrizio was not pessimistic, but nor was he sentimental. He urged the team to prioritize specialized podcasts and social media over national news interviews. Paid media, he argued, should be highly targeted — digital, demographic and data-driven — rather than sweeping broadcast or even cable buys. Facebook remains king for voter reach, followed by Instagram and TikTok. The information ecosystem is fragmented and specific; campaigns that pretend it is still 2004, with its homey, conventional mainstream vibe, are wasting money.

RNC CHAIR BETS ON ‘SECRET WEAPON’ TO DEFY MIDTERM HISTORY, PROTECT GOP MAJORITIES

The battlefield, at least for now, is defined. There are 36 targeted House races and seven key Senate races that will determine the balance of power. The Senate math, as presented, is favorable to Republicans unless something dramatic shifts. One striking assertion: the only way Republicans lose their Senate majority is if Democrats take 50 House seats — a wave scenario of historic proportions, made difficult because redistricting has placed the vast majority of House seats safely in the hands of one party or the other, barring a massive tsunami.

After Fabrizio came James Blair, the White House’s political czar, armed with an ice-cold bucket of galvanizing history. It is rare — exceedingly rare, he told the assembly — for a president’s party not to lose a significant number of seats in a midterm.

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

Blair pointed to the recent special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District as a tale both cautionary and instructive. The race appeared headed for a loss until a late, aggressive push on messaging and grassroots organizing saved the seat for Republicans and generated lessons about what works — and what does not. 

You cannot argue voters into believing wages are up, he said. They have to feel it. Economic statistics do not automatically translate into economic security, nor do they take precedence over personal bank accounts and family budgets. And some good, old-fashioned opposition research painting Democratic candidates as out of step with the electorate can do wonders.

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Perhaps the most candid moment of the evening came when Team Trump acknowledged a central reality of this presidency: Donald Trump will do what he wants to do. He will say what he wants to say. He will not be governed by slide decks, message matrices or pleas from Republican candidates and strategists. The rest of the political apparatus, therefore, must be relentlessly data-driven and on message — two separate but related campaigns running in parallel: one instinctual and improvisational, the other disciplined and empirical.

The Trump high command expects Democrats to run largely on a “Stop Trump” message. History suggests that is not a foolish approach. Opposition parties in midterms often succeed by nationalizing the election as a referendum on the president. But referendums cut both ways. If voters decide the question is not “How do you feel about Donald Trump?” but “How do you feel about your cost of living?” the terrain shifts.

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Ironically, for all the caricatures of chaos, arrogance and impulse that surround Trump world, the Capitol Hill Club meeting was a sober, methodical session. Cabinet secretaries such as Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Sean Duffy attended, along with senior aides — not to posture or network, but to listen.

No one in the room thought the midterms would be easy. No one suggested the president’s party was immune to natural political rhythms and swings. But neither did they prepare for inevitable defeat.

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The White House officials acted as an alert and cohesive team — one that understands the rules of the game and believes it can bend them.

In Washington, that counts as confidence.

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