Politics Archives - Page 3 of 1100

D.C. Church Captures Attention of Liberal Media

January 20, 2026

By The Daily Signal

A church in Washington, D.C. has gained the attention not only of hundreds of young Christians, but also the liberal media.

King’s Church has a size of about 600 congregants and is located in the basement of a bar one mile from the White House. With its growth taking off during the COVID-19 pandemic, that appeared unique enough to have earned the church a lengthy exposé in Vanity Fair labeling it a “MAGA” hot spot.

Writing for the magazine, Tara Palmeri painted King’s Church as a “recruitment machine” and asserts that the congregation is a “long-term investment” for the Republican Party.

“What makes King’s so startling—even unnerving—for the secular left is how effortlessly it fills a void progressives never cracked: blending identity, community, and political machinery,” Palmeri writes.

Palmeri describes the church’s nondenominational contemporary worship service as “half revival, half silent disco.”

However, Pastors Wesley Welch, 34, and Ben Palka, 35, say they have never worked in politics. Palka says they would “have no idea how to engineer a ‘recruitment machine,’” adding, “we’re going to be honest about the issues, but we’re not going to wave a particular political banner.”

“What we’re doing is pretty typical church outreach,” Palka said.

“If a church is in a neighborhood, they’ll reach out to their neighborhood, they’ll canvass the neighborhood, they’ll invite people to participate in church and to explore Christianity, and that’s all we’re doing.”

Welch and Palka founded the church in 2018 with a mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to Washington, D.C.

More specifically, Palka says King’s Church aims to “take a robust biblical … worldview and apply it to people’s lives in a way that the jobs, the lives that they’re living are Christ focused and Christ centered.”

Pastors of King’s Church Wesley Welch and Ben Palka. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal)

The church’s growth did not begin until 2020, when Palka says he watched amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “young people that previously didn’t take their faith very seriously started taking it very seriously.”

What Palka said surprised him most about the Vanity Fair piece was “how out of touch, the mainstream media is with just Christianity 101.”

“They looked into a pretty normal, young Evangelical church and the only way that they could understand it was through the framework of politics in power, because … that must be how they view the world,” Palka said.

The congregation of King’s Church meeting in the basement of Penn Social bar in Washington, D.C. (King’s Church)

Congregants of the church say they chose to join the community because of the positive experience they had after walking through the church, or bar, doors.

“I think it’s evident that God is moving in King’s Church,” Avery Lance, 27, says.

“By all reports and metrics, young people aren’t going to church,” Lance said, adding, “people in a city like D.C. are not going to church, but King’s Church kind of stands in defiance of all of that.”

Lance and his wife Danielle lead one of the 25 small groups for King’s Church, providing a time to study scripture, pray, share a meal and “bear each other’s burdens and encourage each other,” Danielle Lance explained. “It’s my favorite night of the week,” she said.

Avery and Danielle Lance, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal)

On a chilly Sunday morning in January, Welch preached from the book of Daniel in the Bible, using the story of Daniel living in captivity in Babylon as an exhortation to seek the Lord and represent Him regardless of the circumstance.

The church is roughly half Gen Z, 30% millennials, and 20% in the 45 plus age demographic, according to Palka.

“We didn’t set out to be a church for young people. It’s like the Lord’s just done a revival there,” Welch said, adding, “it has been amazing to see the younger generation come hungry for truth and hungry for the Lord, and receiving it.”

Washington, D.C. is young city with 34 being the median age, according to Census Reporter.

Husband and wife Sandra, 45, and Kristopher Klaich, 48, have been attending the church for over four years. As an “older” couple in the community, they quickly became mentors to many of the younger congregants, joking they are shocked so many young people want to spend time with them.

Kristopher and Sandra Klaich, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal)

One of those “young people” is Jack Renner who, now 32, has been attending the church since the first year it was founded and believes so many other young people have chosen to join the church because they are hungry for community.

“When you enter King’s Church you can feel the welcoming hospitality there, the love for God and love for our fellow humans,” Renner told The Daily Signal.

As King’s Church continues to minister to the people of D.C. who join them on a Sunday morning or during the week for a small group, Wesley says the vision for the church is not only to one day have their own building, but also to “create a long term ministry here in D.C.”

AUTHOR

Virginia Allen

Virginia Allen is a senior news producer for The Daily Signal and host of “The Daily Signal Podcast” and “Problematic Women.” Send an email to Virginia. Virginia on X: @Virginia_Allen5

‘Lewis & Tolkien’: Show Chronicles Their Friendship, Falling Out

How AmericaFest Celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Legacy

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Minnesota’s “Sanctuary” Defiance Has Consequences

January 20, 2026

By The White House

As President Donald J. Trump delivers on the promise that secured his overwhelming re-election, Minnesota’s “leaders” have chosen defiance over partnership. Instead of working with the Trump Administration to uphold the law and protect public safety, the state’s Democrat politicians have repeatedly boasted of their so-called “sanctuary” status, encouraged resistance, and smeared ICE officers.

This toxic combination of “sanctuary” policies and anti-ICE rhetoric has created a climate of hostility that endangers federal officers and incites violence. Make no mistake: the responsibility for the enhanced enforcement operations in Minnesota — and the tension and violence — lies squarely with these officials who refuse to partner with the Trump Administration and instead put their Radical Left agenda over public safety and the rule of law.

For years, the state’s Democrat politicians have bragged about being a safe haven for criminal illegal alien thugs:

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: “There is nothing in American law that requires local officials to cooperate with federal law enforcement officials… We’re going to devote the resources of our state to our state business, not immigration business.”
- Ellison: “Minnesota law enforcement agencies risk significant civil liability if they enforce immigration detainers.”
- Ellison: “I’m one of them people who believes we should give our neighbors sanctuary and if you ask yourself, ‘What would I do if I was a Gentile in 1941 if my Jewish neighbors were under attack by the Nazis, would I give them sanctuary? You might be about to find out what you would do. Would you pass that moral test or would you fail it?’”
Gov. Tim Walz: “My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws… The role of law enforcement is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration laws, and I strongly believe that they should not do so.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: “I want to speak directly to people who are undocumented … In the city of Minneapolis, we will stand up for you and we will do anything in our power to help because you’re not an alien in our city … As for cooperation with ICE, the answer is no.”
- Frey: “Minneapolis will continue to be a safe haven for undocumented immigrants.”
- Frey: “In Minneapolis, we do not enforce federal immigration law because that’s not our job.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “I stand with Minnesota officials who are defending our values and our immigrant neighbors against these unconstitutional attacks on sanctuary policies.”
- Omar: “I will continue to fight until we stop treating immigrants like criminals.”
- Omar: “We are fighting to protect immigrant families from mass detention and deportation.”
- Omar: “We need a plan to protect … undocumented people.”
- Omar: “If you are an undocumented immigrant, please know that you are in my thoughts and that I will keep fighting.”
Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh: “With President Trump’s immigration policies targeting sanctuary cities like Minneapolis, the fear of ICE raids is very real and our communities are on high alert… Minneapolis stands defiant and ready to protect our neighbors and loved ones.”
Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez: “In Minneapolis, we will not compromise on values of protecting our undocumented immigrants and we will not help with immigration enforcement. It’s not the city’s role to do the federal government’s inhumane work.”
Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai: “[T]he City must be ready to act as the last line of defense for targeted communities.”
Former Minneapolis City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison: “[I]t’s clear that being a sanctuary city is not enough to protect our neighbors.”
Saint Paul City Council Vice President Hwa Jeong Kim: “The City of Saint Paul abides by its separation ordinance that makes clear local law enforcement officers are only to uphold local laws in the course of their duties, not federal immigration policies. SPPD cannot and does not cooperate with ICE.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara: “Any participation in immigration enforcement would have a chilling effect on our commitment to bias-free, community-oriented policing.”

Who’s Responsible for Demonizing ICE So Much That Agitators Invaded a Church Service?

January 20, 2026

By The Daily Signal

On Sunday, anti-ICE agitators invaded a church sanctuary in the middle of service, a shocking escalation arguably inspired by the Left’s extreme rhetoric against immigration enforcement.

“Justice for Renee Good!” shouted agitators as they walked directly into the middle of the sanctuary, surrounding worshippers in Cities Church, a non-denominational Christian church in St. Paul, Minnesota. (An ICE agent fatally shot Good while she was driving her car, right after her car hit him. She had been using the car for hours to frustrate ICE’s law enforcement efforts.)

The agitators targeted the church because one of the pastors, David Easterwood, also works with ICE.

An agitator who goes by the name “DaWokeFarmer” posted videos of the action.

DOJ Investigating Church Invasion

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is investigating the incident for potential violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced Sunday. While the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden used the FACE Act to target pro-life protesters who demonstrated outside abortion clinics, the law also protects houses of worship.

After the Biden DOJ weaponized the FACE Act to target pro-lifers, Dhillon seems ready to use the FACE Act for its intended purpose—to protect civil rights.

Former CNN host Don Lemon traveled with the agitators, and claims to have merely been reporting on the incident. Yet he clearly coordinated with Nakima Armstrong, the group’s leader who previously led Minneapolis’ NAACP chapter, ahead of the church invasion.

Whatever Lemon’s involvement, the agitators who desecrated a house of God deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Innocent Victims

These agitators didn’t just confront a church that also employs an ICE employee. They harassed innocent men, women, and children for the crime of worshipping God. Little children do not deserve to have their songs of praise interrupted by aggressive chanting.

Of course, this church invasion does not represent the first time anti-ICE agitators have harassed innocent bystanders.

Agitators have also accosted a man for the crime of driving a Chevy Suburban, the same kind of vehicle ICE officers use.

In a separate incident anti-ICE agitators harassed tech workers at a deli, mistaking them for ICE agents.

While Lemon may cloak himself in the free speech rights of a journalist, these agitators showed no compassion for journalist Nick Sortor when he came by, asking questions. Agitators surrounded his vehicle, smashed his windows, stole his camera, and seem to have threatened his life.

Make no mistake: We have roving bands of Red Guards who make it their mission to oppose law enforcement and to terrorize ICE. They’re not afraid of harassing innocents to further their agenda.

Where Does This Come From?

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Earlier this month, Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz—who has yet to condemn the desecration of the church—suggested that President Donald Trump was at war with him and threatened to call the National Guard to oppose ICE agents in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, also a Democrat, said ICE should “get the f— out of Minneapolis.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called ICE an “occupying force.”

This rhetoric comes amid the Left’s push for “sanctuary” policies that hamstring the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration law and deport illegal aliens.

Democrat governors openly say that immigration law should not be enforced in their jurisdictions. On her very first day in office, Virginia’s new Democrat governor—Abigail Spanberger—rescinded the order directing law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.

Democrats have even whittled away at America’s sovereignty by making my birth state of Colorado a “sanctuary state.”

President Donald Trump returned to office in part because the Left had gone off the deep end on immigration. While former President Barack Obama enforced immigration law, the Left demonized immigration law under Trump, and Biden effectively opened the border, allowing millions of illegal aliens to pour into the country.

A vast network of left-leaning nonprofits has demonized immigration law in the name of compassion. The Center for American Progress and the American Civil Liberties Union urged Biden to open the border. Now that Trump has closed the border and sought to deport illegal aliens, the ACLU is hard at work challenging nearly every move in the courts.

Another network of nonprofits reaped rich benefits from federal grants in exchange for transporting immigrants across the country. Naturally, these groups complained to high heaven and sought to sue when Trump started clawing this money back.

Now, the Left’s dark money network is funding the groups organizing anti-ICE agitators—whose aggressive tactics Renee Nicole Good employed. While Good’s death was tragic, the ICE agent who shot her arguably fired in self-defense. The Left has seized on her death as some sort of gross miscarriage of justice, taking any opportunity to demonize Trump’s attempt to bring back law and order.

Trump has surged ICE officers to Minneapolis in part because local law enforcement will not work with ICE to enforce the law.

Whatever you think of Trump finally enforcing immigration law in Minneapolis, I hope you will stand with me in condemning the desecration of a church.

These agitators will consider no space sacred enough to trample on in their demonization of law enforcement. Americans across the country should pay close attention.

AUTHOR

Tyler O’Neil

Tyler O’Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.” Tyler on X: @Tyler2ONeil.

Minnesota Fraud Scandal Exposes the Real Crisis Facing the West

Minnesota Democrats’ Dangerous Neo-Confederate Rhetoric

Compassion Cannot Be The Basis Of Immigration Policy

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Beware of the American Marxist Left

January 20, 2026

By Amil Imani

Acting to give the poor possession of what the rich have worked to gain is the sure way to kill incentive and make us all poor.

Is it a case of ordained fate we cannot escape, or is it that We the People are too dense to learn from our own mistakes? Paging through humanity’s history, time, and again we find numerous instances of costly mistakes where people ignore facts and reason by entrusting their lives to a “savior.”

And time and again, we have ended up paying the price for our folly. If we are not genetically doomed to make these ruinous mistakes—which I am certain we are not—then do we commit them out of wishful thinking, laziness, desperation, or some combination of the three?

To illustrate how mistake-prone we are, a few examples will suffice. To address “economic disparity,” a pivotal concern of humanity, Karl Marx showed up trumpeting his battle cry, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Marx announced that the proletariat is the producer of wealth and that capitalists are leeches robbing them of the fruits of their labor.

In effect, Karl Marx originated the concept of class warfare, the poor against the rich. He urged the workers to rise, rid themselves of the rich, and take full possession of their own self-produced goods. Humanity’s poor masses found their messiah in this ideologue, rallied behind him, and got to experience a Marxist paradise. While Marx’s summons was aimed at the laboring class of industrial Europe, the peasantry in both Russia and later in China enthusiastically answered his call.

The results: many of the rich went to early graves, only to be replaced by a new class of overlord apparatchiks, and the poor continued to be poor. In the process, the disciples of Marx and Lenin, such as Stalin and Ma,o subjected over 100 million to death, and untold millions suffered for many decades while the promised workers’ paradise never materialized.

Democrats and Incentive

Disincentive was the “Achilles Heel” of Marxism. Except for the ruling class, whether you worked hard or loafed, you basically got the same incentive under Marxism. The Democrats and Biden basically want to transform America into cultural Marxism: a failed economic philosophy, in a poorly disguised form that this Party has been relentlessly pushing. Democrats’ redistribution of wealth does nothing but disincentivize an individual’s prime motive force,“self-exertion” for “self-reward.” Democrats feel the rich have too much and the poor should simply get a much bigger share of what the rich have. If that is not the exact Marxist failed philosophy, then what is it?

While Marx’s workers’ paradise ideal continued to struggle and kept failing miserably to deliver its promises, its offshoots, such as European Socialism and now American Redistributionism under Democratic leadership, still aim to create a society where those who succeed in generating wealth turn over the major share of their earnings to those who do not.

Disincentivizing individual exertion through confiscatory taxes is the surest way to reduce the overall wealth of any society. The rich resort to strategies that shelter their wealth,h become discouraged in investing their funds, and then the overall wealth of the society declines. It is an investment by those who have funds that creates wealth and jobs. And it is jobs that are the best way to help the have-nots, not government handouts.

In order to address economic issues effectively, government policies should facilitate all individuals and companies to create more wealth, not penalize those who have managed to create and acquire wealth by over-regulation and excessive taxation. The last thing any government should do is to use the ineffective, deadly weapon of classism, pitting the poor against the rich.

Hitler’s ‘Salvation’

Not long after the launch of Marxism, another “savior,” by the name of Adolph Hitler, rose to power on the promise of fixing humanity’s economic and other problems at its very foundation, based on nationalism. Specifically, he proposed ridding the world of its burden of undesirables and unfit, with Jews on top of his list. Marx’s trump “card” was class warfare. Hitler flashed the ethnic-race card. He claimed that the Aryan race was the cream of humanity’s crop that brought nothing but good to the table, while Semitic, black, and yellow people represented exploiters and aberrations to be eliminated. For good measure, he lumped in the mentally challenged, homosexuals, and the physically handicapped as humanity’s misfits as well to be rid of.

Picking a scapegoat has always worked magic over the millennia, and even Hitler’s syphilitic brain recognized its value for his campaign of mass genocide. The results: Millions died, among them some of mankind’s best-educated and productive Jews. Hitlerism and Communism, for all intents and purposes, either died or went on life support, providing ample opportunities for other saviors.

Islam to the Rescue

In contrast to Marx’s class warfare and Hitler’s ethnic-race rallying cries, Khomeini and Bin Laden hoisted the ever-effective battle call of religion.

In no time at all, Islam, long fractured, lethargic,c and dormant, found a new vitality under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, who raised the Black Standard and promised Allah’s paradise to the totality of mankind for the simple price of accepting his Shiite brand of Islam. A naïve dreamer of an American President, Jimmy Carter, hailed Khomeini as a saint-savior, an answer to a prayer, so to speak. Not to be left out, shortly after the Shiite Khomeini’s lightning success in Iran that deposed the Shah and established the Islamic Republic, a Sunni Muslim “Osama Bin Laden” launched his campaign of bringing about a worldwide Caliphate, as the sure cure for humanity’s ills.

In contrast to Marx’s class warfare and Hitler’s ethnic-race rallying cries, Khomeini and Bin Laden hoisted the ever-effective battle call of religion. The very concept of religion that stands for uniting people has been subverted, time and again, by clever and devious opportunists as a means of pitting people against each other.

America at a Critical Point

The great nation of all nations, America, is at a critical point and crossroads. The current uprising under the direction of BLM and Antifa (funded by George Soros? encouraged by Obama?, certainly encouraged by the DNC) has been abysmal in all areas vital to our nation. Islamist jihadists are on the march, Democratic leaders are paralyzing the police, and democracy is in retreat.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is rapidly moving toward acquiring nuclear weapon capability.

Domestically, our house is in shambles. The national debt inherited by Trump is staggering. If Biden is elected, the nation’s debt will exceed that of our obligation under all previous administrations combined. Our children and grandchildren will have to service this debt at economically soaring rates. Even today, forty cents of the Federal tax dollar go to servicing the loans—much of it to China and foreign entities.

It is imperative that we, as a nation, live within our means, just like families do. In like manner that families should cut back on everything they can, in order to live within their means, the Federal Government needs to do the same. It must reduce the size of government and eliminate hundreds of bureaucracies that are redundant or completely useless as President Trump has done.

We, as responsible citizens, must make sure that the president we vote for believes in and acts on these truths.. Otherwise, America, as we know it, will not be recognizable.

Q1 Border Crossings Plummet 95% From Biden Era, Lowest In History

January 20, 2026

By Bethany Blankley

nginx

‘I Can’t Thank You Enough’: Victor Davis Hanson Shares His Gratitude and the Latest on His Recovery

January 20, 2026

By Victor Davis Hanson

nginx

ICE Agents Chowed Down At Local Mexican Restaurant Then Detained Its Illegal Workers

January 19, 2026

By Dr. Richard M. Swier, LTC U.S. Army (Ret.)

Three workers at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant served lunch to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Wednesday before being detained later by the same agents.

A dishwasher and two owners of the restaurant closed early upon learning ICE had dined at their store in Willmar, Minn. before the arrests, CBS News reported. El Tapatio has remained closed since, but the owners’ son said he would reopen today for customers.

In a statement obtained by Willmar Radio, Willmar Mayor Doug Reese reminded residents that “ICE is a federal agency carrying out federal responsibilities” and also called for respect for “peaceful, lawful protest.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the target of the detentions as illegal alien Jose Rosario Gomez in a statement to the Daily Caller.

The “officers … conducted a vehicle stop later in the day and apprehended the target and two additional illegal aliens who were in the car, including one who had a final order of removal from an immigration judge,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in her statement.

The same day, ICE agents were verbally abused in a Minneapolis restaurant.

RESTAURANT RAGE: Federal law enforcement agents were forced to leave a Mexican restaurant in St. Paul, Minnesota after diners began shouting expletives at them, demanding they leave the business. pic.twitter.com/YlLreAidJp

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 15, 2026

Willmar residents noted increased police activity on the streets and said some businesses have closed as a result, while streets yesterday appeared “normal,” according to CBS News.

Willmar is about two hours west of Minneapolis where anti-ICE protests have entered their second week following the fatal shooting of a protester who attempted to run over agents with her car. In a second incident, federal law enforcement officers shot an illegal Venezuelan national when they were ambushed Wednesday while trying to make his arrest.

AUTHOR

Alex McKenna

Contributor

RELATED ARTICLES:

Minnesota Democrat Live-Tweets ICE Agent Locations, Teaches Constituents How To Spot Unmarked Vehicles

“Angelic Dissenters” on Thin ICE!

Democratic Rep Eric Swalwell Makes Bizarre Threat Against ICE Agents, Then Calls Them As*holes

Jake Tapper Confronts Democrat Sen. Ruben Gallego Over Past Support For ICE Funding He Now Opposes

“Angelic Dissenters” on Thin ICE!

January 19, 2026

By Beverly Newman, Ed. D.

Justin J. Pearson:

“The ramming of a marshal at a peaceful protest in Memphis by the Tennessee Highway Patrol is disturbing, dangerous, and troubling especially in these times. I’ve seen enough videos and heard from enough attendees from the ICE Out march to believe that there needs to be an investigation done by TBI of the Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer’s actions. In the morning, I will be sending them a letter and requesting a meeting upon our return to Nashville this week.

The first amendment is sacred and the people who are angelic dissenters to the status quo must be protected. No officer or official, no matter how high up, may abridge this right or endanger the lives of my constituents.”

WATCH: Senator Kennedy on U.S. Senate floor—The Somali fraud in Minnesota is a clown world on steroids

Woke TN Democrat Has Viral Claim About ICE Debunked After Dashcam Video Drops

By Rusty Weiss

A Tennessee lawmaker known for ridiculous antics attempted to push a narrative that a state trooper had rammed an anti-ICE protester with a patrol vehicle during a heated confrontation in Memphis, only for the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) to release dashcam footage that clearly proved the claim false.

WATCH: THP responds to viral video after claims trooper hit protester at anti-ICE protest

The alleged incident took place on Sunday when hundreds of demonstrators took part in an “ICE Out” protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies.

As has been the case of late, tensions escalated between protesters and law enforcement, culminating in at least one arrest—a woman charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, indecent exposure, vandalism, assault, assault on a peace officer, and obstructing a highway. Aside from that, she was having a perfectly normal one. Something you might expect from a purple-haired charmer.

What really took off, however, were claims from Justin Pearson, a Democrat member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, who accused a THP officer of “ramming” a marshal at the protest. And by marshal, he means some rando who decided to wear a reflective safety vest.

“The ramming of a marshal at a peaceful protest in Memphis by the Tennessee Highway Patrol is disturbing, dangerous, and troubling, especially in these times,” the Democrat wrote in a Facebook post. “I’ve seen enough videos and heard from enough attendees from the ICE Out march to believe that there needs to be an investigation done by TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) of the Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer’s actions.”

How Islam Is Reshaping the West—and Why Debate Is Forbidden

January 19, 2026

By The Geller Report

In TWestern societies—especially in Europe—are undergoing a gradual but profound transformation driven by Muslim immigration, higher fertility rates, and conversion, coupled with “ideological capture.” This is not a sudden conquest but a demographic and cultural shift unfolding within democratic systems, while open debate about it is stigmatized or criminalized.

The stealth jihad operates on two tracks: physical replacement (mass immigration, welfare incentives, and fertility differentials) and ideological conquest (information warfare and narrative control). Below, High Fitzgerald explains how state-backed media and digital influence—particularly from Qatar, Iran, and Turkey—are central to shaping Western opinion, highlighting the global reach of Al Jazeera and alleged manipulation of platforms like Wikipedia. He also emphasizes the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he says advances influence through mosques, NGOs, schools, political parties, and “patient extremism” that reframes Islamist goals in progressive language.

The essay cites political developments in Europe and the United States as evidence that demographic change is translating into policy influence, warning that Western “ideological paralysis” enables this shift. Unless Western societies confront demographic realities and organized digital propaganda openly, they risk losing cultural and political coherence through their own institutions rather than by force.

And Western society has criminalized discussion about it.

By Hugh Fitzgerald, FPM, January 14, 2026

Through demographic shifts, and ideological subversion, Islam continues to conquer, in slow motion, the European countries of the West. More on Islam’s march to victory in Europe can be found here: “The Islamification of Western democracies: The great, dangerous silent takeover – opinion,” by Eliyahu Haddad, Jerusalem Post, December 31, 2025:

What once required 500 years of military conquest now unfolds in just 50 years through immigration and demographics. Europe’s Muslim population has surged from less than 1% in 1970 to a projected 10 to 14% by 2050, a transformation

There are now 46 million Muslims in Europe, out of a total population of 745 million.

Western civilization faces not conquest but replacement through its own democratic processes and ideological paralysis.

This transformation is “silent” not because it’s invisible – the changes are obvious – but because Western societies have criminalized discussion of it. The takeover operates on two fronts: physical replacement through demographics and ideological conquest through digital warfare.

Muslim numbers in Europe constitute an ever greater proportion of the total population for three reasons: first, there is continued immigration by Muslims, both legal and illegal, that amounts to about two million a year. Second, the much higher fertility rates of Muslim women in Europe, as compared to the indigenous Europeans, whose fertility rates have fallen below replacement level of 2.1. Muslim mothers have an average of one more child than non-Muslim mothers. Third, several hundred thousand Europeans convert to Islam every year.

Physical replacement requires no invasion – only open borders, welfare incentives, and a fertility differential that guarantees Muslim demographic growth while native populations collapse.

Ideological conquest has weaponized social media on an unprecedented scale. State actors – primarily Iran, Qatar, and Turkey – invest billions in bot networks and media empires amplifying pro-Islamic and anti-Israel narratives.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera has become one of the largest media organizations in the world, and its journalists are encouraged to spread their pro-Islam, anti-Israel propaganda in every news story. And Israel is the only country in the world to prevent Al Jazeera from operating within its borders. In addition to Al Jazeera, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have well-financed government-owned broadcasters. Muslim editors outnumber Jewish ones on Wikipedia 40 to 1; they have had a tremendous influence on how the world understands the Arab-Israeli conflict, and have prepared tens of millions of Wikipedia’s readers to take a dim view of the Jewish state, while holding up the terror groups — Hamas, Hezbollah, and Hamas — as engaged in legitimate “resistance.”

The Muslim Brotherhood operates through seemingly independent channels: media outlets, NGOs, political parties, and mosques. Through “patient extremism,” MB branches present violence as “resistance,” casting genocidal vows as “anti-colonialism,” thereby recruiting Western progressives….

The Muslim Brotherhood has taken in Western “progressives.” Brotherhood members have a tremendous presence everywhere in the Islamic lands, and in some non-Islamic lands as well. The Brotherhood controls mosques, owns its own media outlets, including several satellite channels, runs NGOs, and controls political parties. It runs a huge network of schools, including in the West, that in many cases hide their links to the Brotherhood.

Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s mayor symbolizes the transition from cautious immigration to actively reshaping American policy. He is the first Muslim mayor of America’s largest city….

Mamdani is determined not just to be the mayor of New York. He wants to shape American policy toward Muslims and Israel at the national level, intending to continue his policy of defending Islam and Hamas, and of attacking, in every conceivable way, the Jewish state that he accuses of “genocide.”

The Michigan city of Hamtramck became America’s first to have an all-Muslim city council, immediately banning Pride flags on public property. Muslims now constitute one of Michigan’s largest ethnic groups, and their support arguably secured Trump’s victory in this crucial swing state.

Here the writer is wrong: the Muslim voters in Michigan were not responsible for Trump’s victory, though they like to claim having been so. Muslims constitute only 1.8% of those who vote in presidential elections in Michigan. Their effect was inconsequential.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s greatest innovation replaces physical conquest with digital conquest. Iran operates the world’s largest bot networks. Qatar’s Al Jazeera media reaches 430 million viewers across 150 countries, systematically shaping narratives against Israel. The impact is staggering: Fifty percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, a complete inversion from previous generations.

Al Jazeera has a greater global reach than any media company save for the BBC. It feeds its audience a steady diet of misinformation and lies that has shaped the narrative about Israel, and turned much of the world against the Jewish state. For all the talk about how “Jews control the media,” the Israeli presence in the media is fifty times smaller than that of Al Jazeera alone. The Al Thani family that owns Qatar has poured billions into Al Jazeera, its broadcast network and its journalists; Israel simply cannot compete.

Perhaps most insidious is Wikipedia manipulation. With 6 billion monthly visits, pro-Palestinian editors outnumber pro-Israel editors 40-to-1 on relevant articles, ensuring systematic bias in humanity’s largest information resource.

The Arabs know that Wikipedia is where most of the world now goes to find out, not just the current news about a subject, but also the history of conflicts, including the Arab-Israeli war. Their Wikipedia editors outnumber pro-Israel editors 40 to 1; the Israelis have not provided enough resources to pay the same number of editors as the Arabs.They need to be persuaded to devote more money to hiring more recruits in the never-ending Battle of Wikipedia.

Schumer Vows to Reverse DOGE Cuts and Expand Spending if They Win Midterms

January 19, 2026

By The Geller Report

Chuck Schumer announces Democrats will reverse all DOGE cuts made under President Trump if they win the 2026 midterms.

What rational American, hell, what rational human being would vote for waste, fraud and corruption? If they win, it’s election fraud.

Senate Minority Leader Schumer targets Transportation, Housing and Urban Development programs in spending talks

By Leo Briceno, Fox News, anuary 16, 2026 7:19pm EST

Chuck Schumer says he aims to undo DOGE cuts to HUD programs and even expand them

The Senate minority Leader aims to implement his plan through bipartisan negotiations on future funding packages. (Credit: Center For American Progress)

House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would press to restore funding cut by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and even add to the original amounts.

Schumer made the comments when he was asked Thursday if he would work to replenish funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at a forum held by the Center for American Progress.

“If you look at the budget we’re working on right now, we restore most of the cuts. And even go higher than previous years on many of the programs that DOGE slashed,” Schumer said.

“We have worked really hard and gotten bipartisan support to increase these amounts and undo a lot of the cuts which are essential.”

He did not describe which specific programs he hopes to supplement.

Lawmakers have not yet released a final text for the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill for 2026. The Senate Appropriations Committee has proposed a plan that would increase its fiscal year 2026 funding by $5 billion over fiscal 2025 levels.

Since the Trump administration began making cuts through DOGE, Democrats like Schumer have largely condemned them, calling them an attack on government resources and services.

Republicans, by contrast, have framed the effort as a way to remove waste, fraud and abuse. According to the DOGE website, the group believes it has eliminated $215 billion in waste.

Republicans made $115 billion of those spending reductions official through a bill passed last year.

Since then, lawmakers have not advanced another rescissions package, a bill that helps lawmakers fast-track spending reductions at the request of the president.

Republicans like Aaron Bean, R-Fla., chairman of the House DOGE Caucus, say the GOP’s cost-cutting efforts are still ongoing in the background.

“DOGE is still alive,” Bean told Fox News Digital in December. “We’re going to get it rocking. I think that will come down the road.”

Bean noted that several pressing issues have captured Congress’ attention in the last few months.

“I think, you know, the shutdown set everybody back a little bit. These credits, with the budget, with everything,” Bean said, referring to the COVID-era Obamacare tax credits that were at the heart of the 2025 government shutdown.

Leftists Play-Acting At Revolution Are Mad The Cops Won’t Play Along

January 19, 2026

By Chris Bray

nginx

Trump: ‘It’s Time to Look For New Leadership in Iran’

January 18, 2026

By The Geller Report

History does not move in a straight line. It advances in rare, fleeting moments—cracks in the wall—when the future can be bent, for good or for evil. Such moments are unmistakable, and they do not linger. The unraveling of Iran’s mullahcracy is one of them.

For decades, the Islamic Republic—the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror—has spread bloodshed far beyond its borders, not only by its own hand but through a web of proxies stretching from Afghanistan to Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. Its reach has been global; its toll incalculable.

Today, the people of Iran are paying for liberation with their lives—by the tens of thousands—rising against a jihadist regime that has brutalized them since 1979. Their courage is not theoretical. It is written in prisons, in mass graves, and in the streets.

We must hear their cry—not only for their sake, but for our own. From the murdered Marines at Beirut to the long trail of American dead through Iraq and beyond, the Iranian regime’s war against the free world has never ceased.

This is the moment. The risks are grave, but the cost of inaction is graver still. When history opens a door like this, to hesitate is not restraint—it is surrender.

Robert Spencer: Whether he will now make good on his promise to the protesters that help was on its way remains to be seen, but at least at this point he is no longer credulously claiming that the Islamic Republic has stopped killing protesters.

“Trump to POLITICO: ‘It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,’”

By Sophia Cai, Politico, January 17, 2026:

President Donald Trump on Saturday called for an end to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year reign.

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told POLITICO, as widespread protests calling for an end to the regime appear to have waned….

Trump, after being read the posts, said Tehran’s rulers rely on repression and violence to govern. “What he is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,” Trump said. “In order to keep the country functioning — even though that function is a very low level — the leadership should focus on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control.”

“Leadership is about respect, not fear and death,” Trump added.

The exchange underscores a sharpening rhetoric between Washington and Tehran at a volatile moment for the region, and as Khamenei recently made a public address in which he claimed that “the Iranian nation has defeated America.”

Trump went further in personal terms, denouncing Khamenei and the Iranian system of governance.

“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said. “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”…

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

POSTS ON X:

Every Criminal Illegal Alien Deported is One Less Vote for the Democrat Socialist Party

January 18, 2026

By Dr. Richard M. Swier, LTC U.S. Army (Ret.)

When ICE goes into a community and arrests a criminal illegal alien that ends up being one less vote for the Democrat Socialist Party in 2026 Midterm and 2028 General Elections.

The whole reason that Biden opened our borders was to bring in illegal voters, period.

WATCH:

STEPHEN MILLER: ‘This was the plan all along… get them here illegally then give them access to the voting booth!

Biden Let ‘Immigration Activist’ Turn America Into an Open-Borders Country | Victor Davis Hanson

The Democrat Socialist Party Plan

The Prison Policy Iniative in report titled “New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations” reports:

Local jails and police departments are key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda because they facilitate ICE arrests of people who are already in police custody. In the first year of Trump’s second term, the administration has intensified the criminalization of asylum seekers and immigrants, pushed immigrant detention to all-time highs, and indiscriminately raided city after city. Despite all of this, the Trump administration remains well behind their mass deportation goals, in large part due to state and local efforts to protect immigrant communities and limit cooperation with ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies.

A whirlwind of developments in the past year have changed how the immigration system works. The Trump administration has made it harder for people to make claims in immigration court, and deployed plain-clothes federal agents to arrest people that show up for hearings. They have limited access to legal information and attorneys while people are detained, and tried to eliminate regular types of release from detention like bail. Further, they fired immigration judges unaligned with their mass deportation agenda, and advertised their positions as those of “deportation judges.” Accordingly, immigration judges now frequently function as a rubber stamp on the regime’s actions; the case-by-case, inherently individualized decision of whether or not to detain and deport someone has shifted away from judges in courtrooms to the cops on the streets.

Meanwhile, ICE agents are given arrest quotas and required to detain nearly everyone they suspect lacks U.S. citizenship. They are heavily reliant on local police to arrest people and identify them for later pick up from the local jail by ICE agents, often before any criminal charges have been resolved (whether dismissed, acquitted, or convicted). To be clear, large numbers of ICE arrests at local jails are not an indication that immigrants and asylum seekers are more likely to be arrested for a crime; robust data from Texas, for example, showed that undocumented immigrants had much lower arrest rates than U.S.-born citizens. In too many cases, a traffic stop can mean deportation.

Nonetheless, these changes mean that local law enforcement across the U.S. have day-to-day operational discretion about who is detained and deported from communities. States like Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia have required local law enforcement to deputize staff to serve ICE, leading to high numbers of arrests. Others like Illinois, New York, and Oregon have managed to suppress arrests by limiting cooperation and blocking access to sensitive areas of public buildings. And states like New Jersey, which have prohibited formal deputization while allowing federal agents informal access to people in custody, have swept hundreds of people out of local jails and into the hands of ICE.

[ … ]

Conclusion

Despite overwhelming displays of power and intimidating rhetoric, the federal government nonetheless relies heavily on state and local collaboration to enact its mass deportation agenda. The Trump administration is therefore vulnerable to state and local policy action that goes beyond merely limiting sheriffs and police from deputizing officers to work as immigration agents. This weakness is evident in the data, which show significantly smaller jumps in arrest rates in states where advocates have most aggressively worked to reject collaboration, and much higher rates in states that have embraced it. In the case of New Jersey, it’s clear that moderation on ICE collaboration does little to stem rates of arrest. Advocates targeting ICE’s reliance on local jails could potentially save thousands of people from the horrors of torture and abuse in federal custody and deportation.

Click here to read the full report.

Here’s the Data by State

Blue states do not want criminal illegal aliens deported, while red states work closely with ICE. The data proves it.

This charts show the differences by state:

The Bottom Line

The nation wide initiative to find, arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens is just one of the needed steps to have free and fair elections.

Every criminal illegal is a voter for Democrats.

While this effort is ongoing and will impact the 2026 Midterm Elections, it will have a major impact on the 2028 General Election and who becomes our next president and the number of House and Senate seats held by each party.

This is why deportations are critical, as are impementing Real Voter IDs, purging voter rolls of illegal alien voters, and other efforts by this administration to secure our election process to keep our Contitutional Republic intact.

So when you see Democrat Socialist Party members, i.e. the DeMS13 Party, and its anti-ICE terrorists, think of our future and vote accordinly.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Here’s Why There Are More ICE Raids in Blue States

ICE Agents Chowed Down At Local Mexican Restaurant Then Detained Its Illegal Workers

DOJ Reportedly Investigating Tim Walz, Jacob Frey For Obstruction

Here’s Why There Are More ICE Raids in Blue States

January 18, 2026

By The Daily Signal

The Left is desperate to make lawful deportation in America a giant, impossible mess to deal with.

According to a new media narrative, President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are behaving irresponsibly by conducting more immigration raids around the country, which in turn have allegedly led to violence against innocent civilians and illegal aliens.

And if you’ve been listening to Democrats, you’d think that the reason that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is particularly active in blue states is that the Trump administration is being mean to them for political reasons.

Their reasoning goes that Trump wants to occupy and bully their states with ICE “terrorists” who spend their time murdering innocent American citizens for no reason other than to cruelly “own the libs.”

“This is retribution-style politics,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a recent CNN interview. “This is drama. This is performance politics at its worst, and it’s hurting people and it’s making us less safe.”

This is projection. It’s Frey and friends who are all about “performance politics.” They desperately want to convey the idea that Trump’s immigration enforcement policies are the real problem.

But the narrative that aggressive ICE enforcement in blue states is just some kind of political retribution is bunk for many reasons. The biggest one is that Democrats have actively pursued policies that would lead to a confrontation with the federal government over immigration law.

This is happening by design.

Sanctuary city and state policies aim at blocking the federal government from carrying out federal laws through non-compliance. If the federal government still intends to carry out the law, it doesn’t have the same process at its disposal to do that as it does in states that cooperate.

The Trump administration has generally prioritized bringing in illegal aliens with a criminal record. This can be done more easily in states that cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security. Generally, local authorities detain individuals for various crimes, and when they discover that the criminal is an illegal alien with a deportation order, they hand them over to federal officers.

Not so in blue states, where the federal government must actively pursue illegal aliens if it wishes to detain and deport them.

CNN actually covered this issue in August.

“In states that voted for President Donald Trump, ICE agents are far more likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails,” CNN reported.

“In Democratic-leaning states, by contrast, ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don’t have any criminal record,” CNN continued.

CNN further found that “59% of arrests in red states took place in prisons and jails, while 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community. That partisan gap between red and blue states existed before Trump’s second term began–but it has widened since last year.”

The sanctuary policies are triggering the federal government to engage in aggressive raids. These raids are less efficient, riskier, and more likely to sweep up illegal aliens who don’t have an extensive criminal record outside the initial crime of violating U.S. border laws.

This is a point my wife, Inez Stepman, and Vice President JD Vance recently made on X. Needless to say, I agree.

Democrat politicians and their activist supporters certainly know that sanctuary policies encourage more aggressive ICE enforcement.

The Prison Policy Initiative, a left-leaning non-profit organization, highlighted how the data shows sanctuary policies “work.”

Their December paper, titled “New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations,” notes that enforcement strategies differ in blue and red states based on the level of local cooperation.

“Local jails and police departments are key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda because they facilitate ICE arrests of people who are already in police custody,” the paper began. It celebrated that the administration was behind on its deportation goals “in large part due to state and local efforts to protect immigrant communities and limit cooperation with ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies.”

Instead of just accepting de facto nullification of federal law, the Department of Homeland Security has stepped up ICE raids to make up for non-cooperation in places like Minnesota.

When you combine that with an aggressive, activist street element and irresponsible Democrat politicians like Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, you get situations like the ones that led to the ICE shooting of Rachel Good.

The blame for this messy situation doesn’t fall on the Trump administration. It falls on those who don’t accept the results of the 2024 election, who insist that the results of the open borders insanity of President Joe Biden be locked in forever, and now look to do everything in their power to undermine the law.

AUTHOR

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.” Send an email to Jarrett. Jarrett on X: @JarrettStepman.

Ilhan Omar’s Dangerous Neo-Confederate Rhetoric

‘Indisputable’: ICE Officer Involved in MN Shooting Was Within His Rights, Watchdog Group Concludes

Mexican illegal alien Hernando Morales threw a rock through a NJ school bus window fracturing an 8-year-old girl’s skull

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

The Same Leftists Outraged Over Renee Good Didn’t Care About Justine Damond

January 18, 2026

By Jihad Watch

Justine was shot by a Somali. Renee was shot interfering with Somali ICE raids.

Long before Renee Good drove her 4,000 lb SUV at an armed law enforcement officer, Minneapolis made headlines nationwide for the shooting of another woman by a ‘law enforcement officer.’

Justine Damond was shot and killed by Mohammed Noor, a Somali acting as a Minneapolis police officer, Damond had called to report a woman being assaulted. When she approached the police vehicle, the armed Somali opened fire on the unarmed woman. Noor claimed that he felt threatened by Damond, who was on foot and just trying to tell the officers what she saw.

The Minneapolis police department tried to cover up the murder by Mohammed Noor, claiming that she had slapped the back of the police car. Not only was it never explained how this was a threat, but her fingerprints were not found on the vehicle.

After the killing, then Mayor Betsy Hodges issued a statement, not to the murdered woman’s family, but to the “Somali community”.

“To the Somali community: I want you to know that you are a valued and appreciated part of Minneapolis. I stand with you and support you. The strength and beauty of the Somali and East African communities are a vital part of what makes Minneapolis so strong and beautiful. I am grateful to be your neighbor.

“This week a Somali police officer, Officer Mohamed Noor, shot and killed a woman under circumstances we don’t yet comprehend… Justine’s death is a tragedy for our city. We cannot compound that tragedy by turning to racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia.”

Betsy Hodges is currently ranting and raving about Good’s death on her Facebook. “Trump taking over the investigation serves many purposes: creating a fictional narrative for Renee Good’s death, creating a fictional narrative to support increased use of violence domestically, trying to make us doubt our own eyes, and fanning the flames of division. Yes, it’s a cover-up.”

Justine was shot by a Somali empowered by Minneapolis politicians. Renee was shot interfering with ICE raids rounding up Somali illegal alien criminals.

Justine was reporting a crime. Renee was committing one.

Justine was unarmed. Renee was driving a 4,000 lb lethal weapon.

The same DFL establishment that tried to bury Justine’s case is desperately trying to make Renee a martyr. But this was never about justice for a dead woman, it’s about protecting their crimes.

AUTHOR

Daniel Greenfield

The Shock Waves From Trump’s Actions on Iran Could Be Felt Right Here at Home

January 18, 2026

By Jihad Watch

As of Saturday, it has been two weeks and a day since President Donald Trump wrote: “If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.TRUMP.”

It has been four days since he wrote: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”

There has been and continues to be a great deal of speculation as to what has happened to prevent the president from sending the promised help and coming to the rescue of the Iranian protesters. One report stated Trump called off an attack at the last minute at the behest of Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Trump himself, however, has denied that, saying on Friday: “Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself. You had yesterday scheduled over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the hangings. That had a big impact.”

Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi, however, was contemptuous of the claim that the executions had been definitively canceled: “Trump always talks nonsense and without any reason, and he’s out of line. Our response is firm, deterrent and swift. A large number of cases have now led to indictments and have been sent to court.”

Iran’s supreme leader is taking Trump’s inaction as a sign of weakness, and is clearly emboldened. After a series of statements on Saturday morning blaming the U.S. for the unrest in Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei claimed victory and vowed retribution: “Yes, we extinguished the fire of the sedition, but that isn’t enough. The US must be held accountable.” Perceiving Trump as spineless, Khamenei will likely step up his attacks on U.S. interests, and those of America’s allies.

Such a course of action, however, carries considerable risk. There remains the possibility that Trump’s professed credulity regarding Iran stopping executions is just a feint, and that an attack is still coming. Every day that nothing happens, however, reinforces the contention that he was simply issuing empty threats, and cannot be trusted.

If Trump’s apparent decision not to strike the Islamic Republic remains unchanged, and if the Islamic Republic weathers this storm and continues on its bloodthirsty and repressive way, there could be serious consequences not only for American interests in the Middle East, but for domestic politics as well. If Trump does not act against the Islamic Republic after promising so robustly to do so, this is very likely to become a Democrat campaign talking point in both 2026 and 2028.

Trump’s foes will accuse him of conducting a foreign policy whose principal characteristics were naivete and empty bluster, leading to a credulous trust not only of the pro-Hamas Muslim Brotherhood sponsor Qatar, but of the Islamic Republic of Iran as well, even in the hour of the deepest need of those whom Trump addressed as “Iranian patriots.” After the Trump administration has accomplished so very much to unravel the extremely intricate and tangled web of corruption that socialist internationalist authoritarians have woven in order to enrich themselves and keep themselves in power, if he doesn’t end up acting against the Islamic Republic, those same socialist internationalists will exploit that inaction with everything they’ve got.

Just a few years ago, it looked as if the left’s victory in America was assured and very nearly complete. Those who refused to play along with the left’s emperor-new-clothes games were duly deplatformed and silenced. The Biden regime pressured the social media giants to engage in this censorship, and they complied with alacrity. Donald Trump was a “convicted felon” and patriots were “insurrectionists.” The border was a line on a piece of paper, and you were a racist and a bigot if you thought it should be protected.

Trump has made heroic and extraordinary efforts to roll all of that back and make America once again a nation of laws, borders, and national integrity. But the situation now with the Islamic Republic of Iran is extremely delicate, and has made him, in the eyes of all too many, look weak and cowardly. If he doesn’t do something to dispel that impression, and do it soon, all of his good work could come to naught, and the socialist authoritarians will resume on Jan. 20, 2029 the work they did to destroy America between 2021 and 2025.

AUTHOR

Robert Spencer

RELATED ARTICLES:

Trump: ‘It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran’

Iran’s Khamenei Is Talking About Trump Like a Man Who Just Won a War

Islamic Republic of Iran vows mass executions of protesters

RELATED VIDEO: Iran: Who was Ayatollah Khomeini?

Australians Are Dramatically More Likely To Be Victims Of Violent Crime Than Americans

January 18, 2026

By John Lott

nginx

Breaking the Death Grip on Iran

January 17, 2026

By Amil Imani

The current uprising in Iran is no longer a cycle of episodic unrest; it is a structural rupture. As of January 2026, the Iranian security apparatus – comprising the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij, and FARAJA – has effectively moved from “crowd control” to “urban warfare.” The regime’s survival now rests entirely on a “death grip” maintained through a centralized surveillance architecture and physical hubs of command and control.

The security services are not ghost entities; they are housed in identifiable, high-consequence nodes. Across the 31 provinces currently in revolt, these offices and barracks serve as the nerve centers for the National Information Network (NIN) – the “Halal Internet” used to throttle citizen communication while maintaining state command.

The regime’s technological capability to track dissidents relies on these physical installations. These sites house the servers and operators who utilize Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to filter and block international traffic while utilizing AI-driven facial recognition algorithms integrated into the municipal CCTV grids. By maintaining this centralized control, the regime ensures that even when the global internet is severed, their “internal net” remains a weapon of war.

For the Iranian diaspora and U.S. government agencies monitoring the January 2026 near-total blackout, the question of deterrence has shifted. If the goal is to stop the killing, the focus must move to the sources of kinetic and digital power.

The “offices and barracks” are the points from which lethal orders originate. These structures house the Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) collection units and mobile IMSI-catchers used to identify protesters in real-time. Strategically, these nodes represent the regime’s greatest vulnerability.

A coordinated neutralization of a regional command node – such as a provincial IRGC headquarters – would involve more than just a disruption of power. It would require the physical degradation of the facility’s hardened transmission arrays. By utilizing precision-guided, low-collateral munitions to collapse the ventilation and generator sub-structures, the “death grip” is effectively severed at the source.

Should these facilities face targeted tactical disruption, the regime’s ability to coordinate a nationwide crackdown – which has already resulted in thousands of reported deaths – would effectively fracture. Once the physical command-and-control (C2) infrastructure is compromised, the security forces within are rendered blind, unable to receive the lethal orders necessary to sustain a coordinated crackdown. Without centralized command, the “death grip” on the Iranian audience would begin to slip, allowing for a decentralized surge of popular power.

The United States and its allies possess a qualitative edge in electronic warfare that could theoretically render the Iranian security services blind. Beyond standard sanctions, there is an “active defense” capability designed to interfere with the repressive machinery.

The U.S. has the capacity to execute “Denial of Service” (DoS) payloads against the IRGC’s proprietary encrypted messaging servers and deploy “Stuxnet-class” logic bombs to crash the database architecture of the FARAJA identification centers.

Such an “Active Defense” operation would see the total inversion of the regime’s surveillance tools. Imagine the moment the IRGC’s proprietary “Siavash” communication lines are flooded with localized “Denial of Service” (DoS) payloads that mimic internal commands. The resulting “digital fog” would cause the regime’s own tracking algorithms to misidentify security personnel as dissidents, effectively crashing the database architecture of the FARAJA identification centers. In this state of total electronic chaos, the regime’s technological capability to interfere with the citizenry is replaced by a desperate, internal struggle to regain control of its own blinding systems.

Targeting the IRGC’s internal communication protocols would not only save lives on the streets of Tehran and Zahedan but also provide a window of opportunity for the “silent majority” to join the front lines without fear of immediate, automated identification.

Deterrence must also be personal. On January 15, 2026, the U.S. Treasury took the unprecedented step of sanctioning Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security. This move aims to signal that those in the “offices and barracks” are being watched.

However, sanctions are only a slow-acting medicine for a patient in cardiac arrest. What is really required is a more direct approach to dismantle the apparatus of death, for which the following high-priority objectives must be addressed:

Neutralizing Command Nodes: The primary goal is to disrupt the flow of lethal orders. Success in this area results in regional paralysis of security forces, preventing coordinated massacres.
Blinding Surveillance Hubs: By neutralizing facial recognition and tracking assets – including the 15,000 AI-powered cameras deployed in Tehran – the international community restores anonymity to the protesters.
Starving the Shadow Economy: Cutting off the “Bonyad” financial pipelines and the IRGC-dominated crypto ecosystem directly correlates to increased desertion and plummeting morale within the lower ranks.
Breaching NIN Gateways: Force a breach in the information blackout. This allows for the real-time documentation of abuses, which acts as a psychological deterrent to commanders who fear future prosecution.

History shows that regimes fall when the cost of repression exceeds the benefits of loyalty. In early 2026, the IRGC is facing “security fatigue.” By increasing the pressure on their physical and digital infrastructure, the international community forces a choice upon the rank-and-file: continue defending a crumbling fortress or abandon the barracks. Recent U.S. sanctions against top security chiefs have signaled that the era of impunity is over, but as the death toll rises, the demand for more direct interference grows.

The time for diplomatic “carrots” has passed. The Iranian people are facing a regime that has declared a state of exception where “necessity knows no law.” To provide a true deterrent, the international community must be willing to target the very tools of the regime’s survival.

Whether through the digital jamming of SIAVASH-type tactical communications or the physical degradation of command sites, the objective remains the same: to break the tools of the killer so the victim may live.

Lawmakers Tell Trump to Keep Pressuring Iran

January 17, 2026

By The Daily Signal

A group of bipartisan legislators are expressing their support for aggressive action against Iran as President Donald Trump and his administration consider military action.

The group of nearly 60 lawmakers, led by Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week, to “express our deep concern regarding the Iranian regime’s ongoing violent suppression of protests across Iran” and “urge the Department of State to continue publicly condemning the Iranian regime’s violent repression of protesters.”

“While we don’t know every step of the plan, we know the man leading it. President Trump’s long laundry list of wins shows he knows what he’s doing, and right now he is putting pressure on the regime, Weber told The Daily Signal. “That is peace through strength, and that pressure cannot waver.”

The lawmakers claim that the protests scattered across Iran make “clear their demand for a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic grounded in political pluralism and respect for human dignity.”

“Protesters have also explicitly rejected all forms of authoritarian rule, whether Iran’s former monarchy dictatorship its current theocratic system, and seek the right to determine their own future,” the group added.

“At this critical juncture, whole-of-government support is essential to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to universal human rights and solidarity with the Iranian people,” the letter concluded.

“Taking out the Ayatollahs Supreme Leader would be a major blow to Muslim terrorists trying to destroy the West,” said Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., of Iran’s Islamic regime in a statement shared with The Daily Signal. “I just signed onto this letter to show support for what President Trump and Secretary Rubio are doing to support the Iranian people as they fight for freedom. We must put an END to the Muslim terror regime in Iran.”

In 2026, human rights organizations like the Human Rights Activist News Agency, claim the regime has killed 2,500 protesters thus far.

The letter was sent as Trump considers wheter or not military action is taken against Iran.

Trump has expressed his support for the Iranian protesters, telling the demonstrators to “keep protesting.”

“KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON IT’S WAY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president has also imposed a 25% tariff on any country who conducts business with the Iranian regime, ratcheted up sanctions, and cancelled all meetings between U.S. officials and the Iranian regime.

Nevertheless, the president has also seemed to dial back the rhetoric surrounding a potential strike.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the U.S. had it “on good authority” that “the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.” The president took the news positively but did not rule out the possibility of a strike.

This week’s letter comes as Congress is increasingly questioning Trump’s foreign policy with respect to Greenland and Venezuela.

Rep. Weber Letter to Sec. Rubio RE Iran Protests 1.14.26 Download

‘Righteous Strikes’: Congress Reacts to Classified Briefing on Narco-Terrorist Strikes

Trump Says US Oversight of Venezuela Could Last Years

GOP Rep Says Some Republicans Will Back Impeachment If Trump Invades Greenland

RELATED VIDEO: The Betrayal of the Iranian People

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Iran: The Great Betrayal

January 17, 2026

By Jihad Watch

Trump’s empty threat could have consequences far beyond the Islamic Republic.

When the Iranian people rose up against their oppressors in 2009, Barack Obama looked the other way. When the Iranian people rose up against their oppressors in 2022, Old Joe Biden sent their oppressors billions of dollars. But Donald Trump was different.

On January 2, Trump wrote: “If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.TRUMP.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and other entities set about killing peaceful protesters with impunity, whereupon Trump wrote on January 13: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”

The Iranian people trusted him. They kept protesting, even as the inhuman guardians of the Islamic Republic mowed them down in ever-increasing numbers, as many as 20,000. They renamed streets after him. They knew that he would send the help he promised. They knew he would help them see the end of the bloodthirsty and demonic regime that has murdered so very many Iranians since 1979. They knew they finally had someone who heard their cries. Someone they could count on.

Yet by Wednesday afternoon, something had changed. Trump said: “We have been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, it’s stopped, it is stopping. And, uh, there’s no plan for executions, or ex— an execution, or executions. So I’ve been told that on good authority, we’ll find out about it.”

There was no reason to believe this, and it was unclear whether or not Trump himself believed it. The Islamic Republic is built on terror and preserves itself through terror, for as an Islamic government, it follows the Qur’an’s guidance for how to deal with its opponents: “strike terror in the enemies of Allah” (8:60). The Islamic Republic will keep killing protesters as long as there is an Islamic Republic.

And despite Trump’s odd statement on Wednesday afternoon, that evening it looked as if the Islamic Republic was finally reaching its end. The mullahs cleared Iranian airspace in anticipation of an attack. The Iranian protesters envisioned the hour of their liberation. The world held its breath.

And the evening and the morning passed, and there was nothing. The Islamic Republic remained in place. Iranian airspace reopened. The mullahs breathed a sigh of relief.

On Thursday morning, Trump attempted a note of triumph: “FoxNews: ‘Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”

Unless this is a strategic feint, as many have claimed, and the promised attack is still in the works, apparently the Islamic Republic will continue as well, hiding its murders behind closed doors instead of parading them before the world. Trump’s promise of help has so far proven hollow. His encouragement of the protesters only ended up getting 20,000 of them killed.

Even worse, there are reports that Trump called off an attack at the last minute at the behest of Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three Sunni states that have long counted the Shi’ite Islamic Republic of Iran as an enemy, but whose solicitude for the well-being of the United States should not be taken for granted.

On Thursday, Reza Amiri Moghadam, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, said that Trump had told the Iranian government that the United States would not attack Iran.

If that proves to be true, and no attack comes, Trump’s promise of help to the protesters, and his exhortation to them to take to the streets, will stand as one of the most craven betrayals in world history. It will also have consequences far beyond the continuing existence of the malignant regime in Tehran. If no attack comes, Trump will have finally handed his opponents a weapon they can use to do him in.

After trying to frame Trump for crimes he didn’t commit, and after even trying to kill him, the leftists to whose plans and agenda Trump has done so much damage will be able to point to his promises to the Iranian people and say simply that Trump cannot be trusted. He is a man of empty words. And in this case, his empty threats led to the murder of 20,000 people.

Trump may have just given his enemies, whose evil endeavors he rolled back in so many areas, the weapon they need finally to do him in, and his movement as well. Trump’s empty threats could result in the final victory in the United States of the socialist internationalist authoritarians whose plan to turn the country into an open-borders socialist hellhole Trump has countered so comprehensively. In the end, he may not have betrayed the Iranians only.

AUTHOR