ROOKE: JD Vance Explains MAGA’s Appeal In A Way Liberals May Finally Understand thumbnail

ROOKE: JD Vance Explains MAGA’s Appeal In A Way Liberals May Finally Understand

By The Daily Caller

The D.C. establishment seems confused about why President Donald Trump and his administration are doing so well with American voters. Still, if they had been paying attention, Vice President JD Vance explained this months ago.

A post from a left-wing account came across my X feed over the weekend. It included a screenshot of an interview with Vance discussing how older Ohio voters understand national conservatism even if they don’t follow along online.

The post said, “Fascinating Vance quote. It really sums up the whole thing.”

Fascinating Vance quote. It really sums up the whole thing pic.twitter.com/OvpzXhF46X

— LowρUF👁️ 🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 (@LowRhoUfo) March 23, 2025

Of course, the anonymous poster was being sarcastic in the sense that he didn’t actually believe what Vance said was “fantastic.” Instead, it was an attempt to attack Vance for his views on the American electorate. But if the left were smart, they’d read Vance’s entire interview because he perfectly encapsulated why Trump won in November and why the American people are giving his administration a glowing review.

The interview with Vance occurred at a conservative conference in 2021, three years before he knew he’d be running as Trump’s vice president. Still, what he said was as accurate back then as it is today. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

“The left is committed to brain-dead Bidenism,” Vance said. “Biden’s entire political project is harmonizing various parts of the American left that don’t make any sense. And the American right, at the establishment level, is a series of dogmas that existed 40 years ago and are totally exhausted. And then there’s this thing called national conservatism,” he continued, “and it is vibrant and young people are excited about it.”

Drinking With J.D. Vance: ‘Israel is a country and a nation that doesn’t hate its own fucking people’https://t.co/DfflWVuhiU

— Tablet Magazine (@tabletmag) July 16, 2024

This idea that Republicans have to reach out to the “vibrant and young people” excited about national conservatism to remake the party in their image got Trump over the line in November. Trump did historically well among young voters.

Democratic firm Blue Rose Research recently released voter data from the 2024 election showing just how bad former Vice President Kamala Harris faired with voters under the age of 25.

“[I]f you look at people under the age of 25, every single group — white, nonwhite, male or female — is considerably more conservative than their millennial counterparts. And it even seems that Donald Trump narrowly won nonwhite 18-year-old men, which is not something that has ever happened in Democratic politics before,” said David Shor, head of data science with Blue Rose Research.

Still, Trump needed more than just young voters to win back the White House. His populist movement would have to translate on the ground with all Americans. Vance read the writing on the wall and felt they did.

“Does a normal Ohio voter read Yoram Hazony and Mencius Moldbug? No. They’re old people. They live their lives, they support their family, they want jobs,” Vance said. “But do they agree with the broad thrust of where we think American public policy should go? Absolutely.”

“Translating the impulse of the multiracial, multicultural middle class turned working class—there’s a lot of work to do,” he continued. “But the instincts of the middle-class Black voter, the middle-class white voter, the middle-class Latino voter, are the same.”

“We love our country, but we don’t want to live in a sh*thole,” Vance added.

Shor admitted that Blue Rose Research found that “40 percent of the country identifies as conservative.” That’s across racial lines. This likely stems from the complete neglect of our middle class by our elected officials (both Republican and Democrat). For decades, Americans have watched their towns decimated by the ever-encroaching death march of globalism that stripped them of good-paying manufacturing jobs and placated their lack of purpose with pills and social media.

“The reality is if all registered voters had turned out, then Donald Trump would’ve won the popular vote by 5 points [instead of 1.7 points].”

https://t.co/R8wt1nXEfj pic.twitter.com/7lBTdFmiUr

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) March 18, 2025

Vance talked about this during his recent address at the 2025 American Dynamism Summit, where he detailed a conversation he had with a tech CEO who said he wasn’t worried about the middle class losing their jobs and, with it, their purpose due to globalism because they would replace it with “digital, fully immersive gaming.”

His wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, apparently texted him from underneath the table, saying, “We have to get the hell out of here. These people are effing crazy.”

“For far too long, we got addicted to cheap labor—both overseas and by importing it into our own country—and we got lazy.”

Read more from VP @JDVance‘s remarks at @a16z‘s American Dynamism Summit in Commonplace: pic.twitter.com/HWxQ4afn5Z

— Commonplace (@commonplc) March 20, 2025

While the Vances have been very successful, they still seem to understand the plight of regular Americans who long for purpose and to see American Exceptionalism as the official policy of the federal government. A majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, and Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark.

While it seems the left is overwhelmed by the national conservative uprising from the American electorate. If they want to understand why Trump’s populist movement resonates with so many Americans, all they have to do is read Vance’s 2021 interview.

AUTHOR

Mary Rooke

Commentary and analysis writer. Follow Mary Rooke on X: @MaryRooke. Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Illinois Bill Would Let Failing School System Send Homeschooling Parents To Jail thumbnail

Illinois Bill Would Let Failing School System Send Homeschooling Parents To Jail

By The Geller Report

Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools.

Not a single student can read at grade level in 30 Illinois schools.

The Democrat’s solution? Jail parents who want better for their children.

By: Diana Sroka Rickert, The Federalist, March 21, 2025

A new bill requires parents to report themselves to their local school district, and parents who do not will be considered truant.

Homeschool parents would face fines, misdemeanor charges and even jail time if they do not report themselves to local public school officials, under a new proposal from Illinois Democrats.

Parents also would be required to provide public school officials with a “portfolio” of their children’s work at any time, at any interval and frequency, until that portfolio meets the public school’s satisfaction.

The bill, dubbed the “Homeschool Act,” requires parents to report themselves in writing to local school officials starting in 2026. Parents who do not will be considered truant. They face Class C misdemeanor charges, which are punishable by up to 30 days in jail. They also face fines and lengthy hearings forcing them to comply with the Act. Under this proposal, parents also face investigations by state child welfare officials.

“I would argue that it is actually a really good thing for the good homeschool parents,” says the bill’s sponsor, suburban Chicago Democrat Terra Costa Howard. “The ones who are doing it the right way … they’re going to be able to do that.”

The thinking from bill sponsors, of course, is that parents are inadequate to teach their own offspring how to read, write, and prepare them for adulthood. It is time to bring in the professionals, aka the government, to “protect” these children from mom and dad. Let’s take a look at how things are going at schools run by these so-called professionals.

1. A Majority Of Illinois Public School Kids Struggle in Reading and Math

More than two-thirds of Illinois eighth graders are not proficient in reading or math, according to results from the recent National Assessment of Education Progress. Worse, the public school system is failing minority children in a devastating way. Only 16 percent of black eighth-graders in Illinois are proficient at reading, and only 8 percent of black Illinois eighth-graders do math at grade level.

2. Extremely Limited Education Choices In Illinois

Unless your parents homeschool you, the only way to avoid public school in Illinois is to be rich enough to afford tuition at a private or parochial school, or lucky enough to earn a scholarship. Illinois has no education savings accounts, no school vouchers and no tax credit scholarships. In fact, Illinois notably became the very first state in America to shut down a school choice program funded by tax credits in 2024.

That’s how bad the state’s politicians want to trap kids in failing public schools.

3. Physical Abuse Was Only Recently Outlawed in Illinois Schools

Up until 2021, many Illinois public schools used seclusion rooms and face-down restraints to punish students. The practice was finally banned after the Chicago Tribune and other news outlets published exposés reporting that “some schools routinely locked children in closet-like seclusion rooms to force them to complete schoolwork, for being disrespectful to employees or for behavioral infractions as minor as spilling milk. Inside the small spaces, children sometimes cried for their parents, tore at the walls, or urinated when they were denied use of the bathroom.”

Worse, parents often were powerless against such treatment of their children and often viewed as part of the problem or kept in the dark about the practices altogether.

4. Sexual Abuse in Public Schools

Just this week, a special ed teacher in suburban Chicago was charged with molesting a student. Unfortunately, this story happens over and over again, every school year, statewide. In Chicago Public Schools alone, the office of the inspector general has logged more than 400 investigations into sexual assault involving district teachers and staff every school year since 2018.

In one case, a middle school charter teacher in Chicago met a 16-year-old student on an online dating app, and proceeded to have a sexual relationship with the student. But state child welfare officials refused to pursue the case. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, at the time led by the famed Kimberly Foxx, also refused to pursue charges against the teacher demonstrating that state child welfare workers and those tasked with protecting children are failing at defending minors truly put in harm’s way.

In another case, an elementary school teacher in Chicago Public Schools kissed a student on the lips during class. An investigation into this incident revealed at least six separate allegations against the same teacher dating back six years that had never resulted in the teacher being removed from the classroom.

5. The Law’s Flawed Premise

Costa Howard and her homeschool-hating colleagues have peddled a mistruth that homeschoolers are more likely to abuse their children. Per an Illinois Public Radio story: “An advocate for more homeschool regulation argued there is a link between homeschooling and abuse and neglect that often goes unnoticed.” (Yet this so-called “advocate” has failed to provide credible statistical data to that effect.)

Costa Howard continuously cites in interviews the tragic story of “L.J.,” whom she claims was abused because Illinois allows parents to homeschool their children without obtrusive government involvement. But in this sad story, as well as other examples cited by Costa Howard, the children in question weren’t actually homeschooled. Their parents did no actual educating at home and instead were simply crummy, abusive parents. But all of these children were under the surveillance of state welfare officials, who left them in abusive homes for a year or more.

Certainly, Illinois’ public education system has its fair share of problems. And in Illinois, the state’s lead child welfare agency, the Department of Children and Family Services, is universally accepted to be “beleaguered” and “troubled.” The five items mentioned above don’t even scratch the surface of what public-school families in Illinois face when it comes to a radical woke ideology that is pushed as normal, obscene transgender policies forced upon students, bullying so rampant it recently led an 11-year-old to suicide, peer pressure, school violence, and other problems that keep parents awake at night and checking their cell phones incessantly during the school day.

Homeschool families in Illinois are very aware of these issues, and these certainly are reasons enough to take on the task of educating their beloved children themselves. But parents also choose to homeschool for a litany of other reasons that are based solely on ensuring their children receive the very best education possible, in a way that is completely custom to each individual child.

Continue reading.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

House Republicans Zero In On 26 ‘Vulnerable’ Democratic Incumbents thumbnail

House Republicans Zero In On 26 ‘Vulnerable’ Democratic Incumbents

By The Daily Caller

Twenty-six House Democrats have been deemed “vulnerable” in the 2026 midterm elections by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), posing a prime opportunity for Republicans to expand their razor thin margin over Democrats in the House.

Five months after Republicans won a government trifecta in 2024, the NRCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) both released lists of at-risk Democratic seats. The lists are extremely similar, showing a growing consensus between parties that many Democrats might be in hot water in 2026.

The lists identify nine freshman lawmakers and 13 representing districts that President Donald Trump carried in the November election.

California hosts the most vulnerable Democrats, with Reps. Josh Harder, Adam Gray, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min all viewed to be in danger of losing their seats, according to both the NRCC and the DCCC. Gray, Whitesides and Tran all unseated GOP incumbents in November.

New York also has freshman Democratic lawmakers who flipped Republican seats in 2024, including Reps. Tom Suozzi — who won his seat in a Trump district — Laura Gillen and Josh Riley, who are all predicted to be at risk of losing their positions, the lists say.

In Nevada, where Democrats spent more than 100 times as much as Republicans in ad space, Democratic Reps. Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, who won in a Trump district, were also included on the NRCC and DCCC list. Trump notably won the swing state 50.6% to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 47.5%.

States with large hispanic populations are also epicenters for shaky Democrat-held seats due to Republican gains with Latino voters, according to the NRCC. Democratic Reps. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas as well as Nellie Pou of New Jersey are all a part of the GOP’s expanding offensive map for 2026. Each of the representatives won their seats in red Trump districts. 

“House Republicans are in the majority and on offense,” said NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson in the committee’s press release. “Meanwhile, vulnerable House Democrats have been hard at work demonstrating they are painfully out of touch with hardworking Americans. Republicans are taking the fight straight to these House Democrats in their districts, and we will unseat them next fall.”

A recent poll by the Democratic group Navigator Research shows an alarming stance Independent voters have taken against Democrats, with just 27% believing Democratic leaders are focused on helping Americans, and only 37% believing party leaders have the right priorities. A majority of 56% think that Democrats are not looking out for working people, according to the poll.

The poll also found that 69% of Independent voters view the Democratic Party as “too focused on being politically correct,” while 51% of voters generally considered the party to be “elitist.”

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, addressed these sentiments in a memo dated Feb. 18, in which he shared that Americans are increasingly perceiving the Democratic Party as “the party of elites.”

“For the first time in modern history, Americans now see the Republicans as the party of the working class and Democrats as the party of the elites,” Martin said in his memo. “I fundamentally believe that our party is grounded in the values, principles, and aspirations of the working class. As Chair of the DNC, that belief will guide my decisions and approach in the years ahead.”

Despite polling that suggests voters view the Democratic Party as of out-of-touch, Democratic Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the leader of the DCCC, projected optimism for Democrats in 2026, arguing in a statement that her party should shift its focus to issues such as the cost of living, and straying from the “hyper partisan rhetoric.”

“House Democrats overperformed across the country in 2024, powered by our battle-tested candidates who won despite the NRCC’s false bravado and these Frontliners will win again in the midterms,” DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The truth is House Republicans are running scared and refusing to hold town halls because they don’t want to get yelled at for their failure to lower prices, bungling the economy, and cutting Medicaid in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires like Elon Musk.”

Democrats have recently struggled to establish a clear party leader as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both representing New York, were at odds over how to respond to the GOP-backed government funding bill. As multiple Democratic politicians ponder whether to run for president in 2028, Democrats appear to be staring down multiple vulnerable seats in the House, with no leader to push the party forward into midterms.

The NRCC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a comment provided by the DCCC. 

AUTHOR

Andi Shae Napier

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

While Dems Flounder, GOP Speeds toward More Wins thumbnail

While Dems Flounder, GOP Speeds toward More Wins

By Family Research Council

Just how bad are things for the Democratic Party? Apart from the quiet mutiny against Senate leadership, the party of Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is staring down its worst approval ratings in the history of NBC polling. Only a quarter of voters (27%) have positive views of the party, and a microscopic portion (7%) say those views are “very positive.” Making matters worse, the panic is blinding Democrats to their biggest threat — a Republican Party that keeps on winning.

At this point, pollster Jeff Horwitt shook his head, “The Democratic Party is not in need of a rebrand. It needs to be rebooted.” CNN’s grim numbers confirm it. Like NBC, the outlet found that the party’s favorability was also at a historic low, dropping 20 points (to 29%) since Joe Biden won the White House. But the problem staring down the grassroots is the same one facing headquarters: who should lead?

Most voters had trouble rallying around any one person who they felt “best reflects the core values” of the party. Managing just 10% of the vote, the Squad’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) just barely edged out former Vice President Kamala Harris (8%) as a possible standard-bearer. Ironically, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who isn’t even a Democrat clocked in at 6% with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) tying him at 6%. Four percent named former President Barack Obama and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), and the current persona non grata, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), in the basement at 2%. Perhaps more telling, more than 30% of participants couldn’t say. “No one,” one respondent answered. “That’s the problem.”

The Democrats’ identity crisis exploded on Thursday when Schumer shocked both sides by announcing his support for the GOP bill to keep the government open. Hardline leftists melted down, urging, as Crockett did, for Democrats “to decide whether or not Chuck Schumer is the one to lead in this moment.” Former Obama advisor Van Jones invoked former Senate Minority (and Majority) Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the kind of sandpaper Democrats need. “I remember when Obama had all the cards, Mitch McConnell drove Obama nuts — twisted his pinky, broke his kneecaps, and got stuff done for Republicans when they shouldn’t have gotten an inch. They got miles. We have a Senate majority leader who is beloved in this party, but we want somebody who’s gonna stand up to this bully.”

Others, like the only House Democrat to vote for the Republicans’ bill to extend government funding — Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) — believe the American people want a party that will stop “shift[ing] into full resistance” to Donald Trump and get something done. Asked if his party was any closer to finding a “cohesive message and strategy,” the Mainer bluntly replied, “No.” In fact, he told NBC, the party is farther than ever from finding a solution to the blowout of last November. I think it’s very important that Democrats not forget to focus in on ourselves, why the American people voted, not just for President Trump, but for a Republican-led Congress in both the Senate and the House. And we better figure it out,” he warned.

While Golden’s party is scrambling, congressional Republicans seem more galvanized than ever. Fresh off their miracle government funding win, Johnson’s team is full speed ahead on the next big-ticket items on the docket: appropriations, rescission, and reconciliation. While the Democrats quarrel, the GOP is moving on an “aggressive timetable,” the speaker insisted to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill.” The goal? Getting that “one big beautiful bill” on tax cuts, border security, defense, and the debt ceiling to the president’s desk by Memorial Day. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work around the clock,” Johnson stressed, “quite literally.”

Before the spat over a government shutdown, Johnson pulled off another stunner — squeaking the House framework for reconciliation through his chamber by a 217-215 vote. Now that his party agrees on the blueprint, they’ll get to work on the particulars of this process which would essentially roll all of Trump’s biggest legislative priorities into one package that can be passed by a simple majority. As Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reminds everyone, this strategy is how most modern presidents have won their most transformational agendas. “They passed Obamacare through reconciliation. They passed the Inflation Reduction Act through reconciliation,” he said referring to Democrats under Obama and Biden. “It [would] be a political malpractice for us not to do it,” he argued on Thursday’s “Washington Watch.”

Right now, Johnson said, conservatives are looking at a “floor of $1.5 trillion in savings” through reconciliation. “But many of us would like to go much higher than that,” he stressed. “So that’s where all the details, all the negotiation, all the deliberation over the coming weeks will come in.”

But that’s just one part of a three-track train. On top of reconciliation, Republicans are already hard at work on budgeting for the federal agencies, which they’ll have until September 30 to finish. Now that the continuing resolution is in effect, the House is teeing up appropriations for FY 26, “which is the much more exciting prospect,” Johnson believes. “That’s when we will codify all the DOGE cuts of fraud, waste, abuse, [and tap into] the new revenue streams that President Trump and the administration are bringing about. It’s going to be a very different budgeting and appropriations cycle than we’ve ever seen,” he promised. In part, because it could be the first time Congress passes a federal budget through regular order in about 20 years.

In the meantime, the White House is zeroing in on its own basket of cuts that it will send over for congressional approval. “It’s a bit wonkish,” Graham agreed, “but rescission allows [the president] to cut the discretionary budget without 60 votes.” In other words, all of these boondoggles that Elon Musk is identifying can be rolled back legislatively if a simple majority of both chambers agree with the president’s request. “We’re very excited about that,” Johnson said, “because this is the point that we’ve been trying to get to most of our careers. We finally have a White House that is willing to work with conservatives in Congress to scale down government.”

“All of the crazy stuff,” Graham pointed out — the transgender comic books and birth control in Afghanistan and so many other absurd projects — could be erased. “The White House needs to give us the top 10 or 20 examples of wasteful spending that DOGE found, send them over to the Senate and the House — and within 45 days, we have to act. I want the American people to see … that we’re going to clean the underbrush and take the garbage out of the budget. And I want them to see that we’re going to rebuild our military and secure our border” — and still spend less than Biden.

When it comes to waste, “We’re going to qualify it, quantify it, and then codify it,” the speaker declared. And there’s no time like the present, Graham agreed. “We’ve had the House, the Senate, and the White House as Republicans four times in the last hundred years.” This is our chance, he urged. “We should take it.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

My Own Personal Trip Through the Devolution of Medicine thumbnail

My Own Personal Trip Through the Devolution of Medicine

By Kelleigh Nelson

“The real cure for what ails our health care system today is less government and more freedom.” — Steve Forbes

“Americans oppose Obamacare because they understand that it is inconsistent with our liberties and our idea of limited government and that it will destroy the best health care system in the world.” — David Limbaugh

“In 1932, the predecessor organization of the CDC, took 299 black sharecroppers from the South who had syphilis. They offered them free healthcare, hot lunches, and free burial. They said you can only come to us for healthcare. These were men who were sharecroppers, and they had syphilis. They were never told they had syphilis.” —  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“The U.S. health care system is on a dangerous path, with a toxic combination of high costs, uneven quality, frequent errors, and limited access to care. — Michael E. Porter  He is a renowned strategy expert, who argues that the healthcare system needs a fundamental shift towards value-based care, focusing on improving health outcomes per dollar spent rather than just cutting costs, and competition should be based on results, not just price. This is what RFK Jr. also believes.

After eleven hours in the ER, I was finally shown to a room on the ninth floor of the University of Tennessee Medical Center.  It was 11 p.m.  Three nurses came into the room and I looked at the bed and said, “It looks as though an elephant last slept here.”  There was a huge dip in the middle of the bed.  They said nothing.

After they hooked me up to all the monitors, I got myself situated to where I thought I could sleep and the bed started beeping.  Yes, beeping!  I called the nurse.  She came in and thought she fixed it, but shortly after I fell asleep, it started beeping again and again the nurse thought she fixed it.  When it happened a third time, she said she would get the maintenance techs to look at it.  So, I stretched out once more until the two men entered and not only fixed the bed, but blew the mattress back up.  Why didn’t the nurses notice that to begin with?  It was 4:30 in the morning and at 7 a.m. the loudspeaker announced breakfast was being served.

After reading these other ER horror stories, I felt blessed, although I’m going to request an itemized list of the charges during my ER and hospital stay.

The map shows the ER waiting times in each state.  Remember, these are average times.

Prior to being admitted, I had been seen by my internist, two walk-in clinics, twice at Tennova Hospital’s ER and twice by my dermatologist.  I had been given three different antibiotics, including one bag of IV antibiotics in Tennova’s ER, none of which stopped the infection from a wound on the inside of my left calf. A plastic doggie gate had fallen over and skinned it.  My calf was swollen to twice its size.  After almost two months of this, my husband called our internist and actually demanded another appointment, not a month from now, but immediately and I saw him the following day at 11 a.m.

The internist took one look at the wound and the size of my very swollen leg, and sent a number of orders to the ER.  Once there, I sat and waited in this huge room filled with every specimen of humanity one could imagine.  I felt as though I was in a Petrie dish of bacteria and couldn’t escape.

My husband went home and later brought me back some lunch.  Meanwhile, I was checked in, and after three hours saw a PA who hooked me up to an IV of antibiotics and gave me a tetanus shot.  Then I waited another several hours for an ultrasound and CT scan.  I waited again until finally at 7 p.m. an ER room opened up.  I was hooked up to several monitors and another bag of IV antibiotics.  At 8 p.m., no one had come to check on me and I needed some help.  I disconnected everything I could except the IV, and waited over two hours, yet no one came into the room.  Obviously, I wasn’t being monitored.  I could have been dead in the room and no one would have known.

At 10 p.m., I called my husband and asked him to call the ER and tell them that I couldn’t reach the bathroom in the room to even get a drink.  A little black gal from another department came in and unhooked me.  Finally!  I thanked her profusely and told her I couldn’t get any help from anyone.  She said they were very busy and as always, short staffed.

I walked out into the hall and stopped a downwardly mobile male nurse who had a beard, long hair, tattoos and a nose ring and asked him if I was going to be admitted or if I could go home.  He said I would be admitted but I had to wait for a room.

The hospitalist, a female physician, came in and said they were admitting me, and asked what medications I took.  She said I would most likely be given strong IV antibiotics to kill the cellulitis infection and it could take several days.  I was thinking that I’m just too busy to spend days in a hospital, but if they could get rid of the pain and the swelling, I’d be happy.

At 11 p.m., my husband was with me and I was finally shown to a room.

After two and a half hours of sleep, on Friday morning, they actually brought in a really lovely breakfast, and several nurses came in to introduce themselves as the day nurses for the next three days.  They work three 12-hour shifts and then have four days off.  The charge nurse was a gorgeous little gal by the name of Emily.  She was training two newer gals.  After telling her about my ER experience, she said she knew exactly what I had been through as she had been there too. She has a heart problem which resulted in surgery where a special bar that monitored her heart was implanted in her chest.  She was very sympathetic.  She is getting married in August, and showed me pictures of the place they’d chosen for their wedding and reception.

I fully believe that every one of the female nurses and the techs, who constantly monitor your blood pressure, were hired by this hospital because they were beautiful, with gorgeous skin, and upwardly mobile, no tats, no piercings, no nose rings.  They were lovely young women and not just attractive, but talented and exceptional care givers.  And they saw to it that four bags of IV antibiotics were put through me every 24 hours, totaling 10 hours of antibiotics per day.  The day shift was from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Two items are posted on the walls of every room.  I took a picture of them simply because they tell a story themselves about both patient attitudes and patient care.

I had told the hospitalist in the ER the meds I normally take, but no one brought them to me on Friday or Saturday.  Thankfully, I had my own two meds in the bag my husband brought me.  The hospital usually substitutes the meds you are taking as they don’t want you to bring your own.  Saturday afternoon a new hospitalist came to see me.  He told me what was being done, answered some questions and spoke on the phone to another physician in South Carolina who knew my situation.  I chose to follow what the SC physician suggested, especially after I was discharged.  I told this new hospitalist that I hadn’t received any meds, but it didn’t matter to me.  Then they started showing up.

The hospitalist spoke to me for a good while and told me that both Covid and inflation had caused a huge number of problems in hospital care.  Apparently, many nurses left during Covid and they were short staffed everywhere.  I told him I was going to write about it and he said that was great, it needs to get out.

He also told me that I didn’t need the horrid heart monitor attached to me 24/7 as it was heavy and I had to carry it around everywhere.  I took it off.  The next morning, a tech came in and told me I had to wear it because it was ordered, but she couldn’t tell me who ordered it and obviously didn’t have the hospitalist’s orders for it to be disconnected.  I refused.

My night nurse for three nights was a young man named Chad.  He was fantastic, and brought me two Tylenol every night along with the bags of antibiotics.  He would tell me tales about his two little nephews and had me laughing to the point of tears.  Really a terrific young man and great care giver.

I was released on Monday afternoon and a prescription for oral antibiotics was called in.  A dear friend of mine who had been through the same diagnosis, but spent weeks in the hospital with IV antibiotics said, “The minute I am in a hospital I want to go home, and I have to adjust my attitude in order to cope with the long stay.”  He was right and that’s what I had to do.

It will be another four to six weeks before the residual effects of this infection are totally gone. I never again want to go through what I’ve been through since January.

My internist wants me to come in for another blood test and a final checkup. Not all of his orders were followed by the ER or while in the hospital.  He never visited me while I was there.  Once I was home, I got a call from his office wanting to know what the diagnosis was.  I told the gal that he has access to all of the information regarding my care in the hospital and it would behoove him to check that rather than having me tell him as I may leave something out.  I also told her that I would come in for a follow up appointment when I felt comfortable doing so.

Conclusion

One needs to have the patience of a saint while sitting in today’s ERs.  The hospital nightmares are the result of laws passed by Congress, the devastating destruction of Covid, the shortage of healthcare workers and Biden’s massive inflation.

I am blessed to have a husband who came to the hospital twice a day, brought me lunch and iced tea and anything else I needed, but not everyone has someone who can watch over them as an advocate for care.  Advocates and families during Covid were not even allowed to be with their loved ones.

I would urge you to read Charline Delfico’s article, COVID Era Hospital Nightmares – Neglect and Abuse.  Many of the hospital horrors of the last five years were caused by the Covid plandemic.

The fundamental cornerstone of today’s US health industry is the monetization of suffering, because treating illness will always be more profitable than curing.

Our new Secretary of Health and Human Services will have his hands full trying to straighten out the disaster of America’s healthcare.  The decline started in 1984 when Dr. Anthony Fauci was appointed as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

RFK Jr. only has four years to fix 40 years of destruction.  Pray for him and pray he succeeds.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: RFK, Jr.: FDA to remove exemption that allows harmful chemicals in food.

EPA Slashes Climate Change Red Tape, Claws Back $20B Climate Slush Fund thumbnail

EPA Slashes Climate Change Red Tape, Claws Back $20B Climate Slush Fund

By Family Research Council

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a vast reversal of the regulatory-heavy, climate change fear-based policies of the Biden administration, announcing Wednesday that it is taking 31 actions to remove red tape for the energy and automotive industries and lower the cost of living for Americans. The agency also announced the termination of a $20 billion fund parked in a commercial bank by the Biden administration to avoid government oversight that was used to award money to climate activist groups.

Characterizing Wednesday’s initiative as “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin remarked that the effort “driv[es] a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion” by “roll[ing] back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families.” The EPA further declared that the venture will “unleash American energy” by reconsidering regulations on power plants, the oil and gas industry, coal-fired power plants, the steam electric power industry, wastewater, and other measures.

The plan would also address “lowering the cost of living for American families” by reconsidering electric car mandates, grocery store regulations, environmental regulations that “shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses,” and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) arms of the agency, among other actions.

On Tuesday, the EPA also announced that it was shutting down a Biden administration program that it described as a “‘gold bar’ scheme,” in which an eye-popping $20 billion was released in the final week of former President Joe Biden’s term to award to various pop-up climate activist groups via a program known as the National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. In a hidden video, a former Biden administration official described the program as “throwing gold bars off the edge” of the Titanic.

Since President Trump assumed office on January 20, the funds have been held in a Citibank account in order to avoid federal scrutiny. Zeldin described how the funds were moved through eight “pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new NGOs.” The EPA and the Department of the Treasury ordered that the funds be frozen, and the Department of Justice and FBI have opened a criminal investigation into the matter.

Lawmakers such as Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) welcomed news of the EPA cutting red tape and cracking down on wasteful taxpayer spending.

“[C]ommon sense is finally back at the EPA,” he declared during Thursday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “… For example, … I remember starting that fight back in the Obama administration back in 2015, and both Obama and Biden tried to stretch the rule to expand EPA’s authority to things like roadside ditches or farm ditches or farm ponds, things that were clearly not navigable waters. The Clean Water Act of 1972 says ‘navigable waters’ 50 times, and they totally tried to get rid of that meaning. … [W]e’re also going to be rolling back the Clean Power Plan, which was going to do things such as shut down our very clean burning coal plant in Nebraska. They’re going to get rid of the greenhouse gas reporting rule, which would be an attack on our natural gas facilities, which again, is a big source of power for Nebraska and many states. And frankly, natural gas is one of the reasons why we are the only industrialized country that’s actually reducing our greenhouse gases.”

Ricketts went on to note the EPA’s rolling back of the electric vehicle (EV) mandate. “This is one that I’ve been fighting because EVs don’t make sense in big rural states with cold weather. The adoption rate in Nebraska is 2%, and under the Biden administration, they wanted two-thirds of all new vehicles being sold in 2032 to be EVs. That just wasn’t going to happen.”

Ricketts further emphasized the cost that the Biden-era regulations imposed on American families and businesses. “[T]he Biden administration rolled out 5,000 regulations. … [T]he average cost of that to the American family was $3,300 a year. And not just once. It’s $3,300 every year until those regulations are rolled back … so this is going to be a good start in rolling those regulations back and saving American households money. But when you put this layer of regulation on, you put a wet blanket on innovation and small businesses who create most of our jobs in this country.

Ricketts concluded by expressing confidence that the EPA’s actions will be part of a revitalized economy that will thrive under the second Trump administration.

“[T]his will be part of how the Trump administration unleashes the economy again,” he predicted. “I mean, we saw some of the best economy we’ve ever seen under the first Trump administration. You go look at the job participation rate by Americans. … We saw great unleashing of our economic power here, and it’s because, in part, the Trump administration took off a bunch of regulations that were preventing our innovators, our small businesses, and our families from being able to invest or spend the money that they otherwise would have.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Efficiency a Biblical Idea?

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Democrat Party: The Enemy Within? thumbnail

The Democrat Party: The Enemy Within?

By Amil Imani

The Democrat party is not simply irrelevant. Rather, it is America’s greatest adversary, driven by globalist priorities and divisive policies — a decaying shell scheming to undermine the nation that Donald Trump revived. From the Rio Grande to the Rust Belt, patriots see the truth: This is a radical mob set on tearing apart our borders, our jobs, and our freedoms. Republicans — especially in Texas, where the battle feels personal — must defeat this threat before it drags the whole country down. This is war — for America, not just Austin.

Once a cornerstone of American political life, the Democrat party has morphed into something unrecognizable — a force that now threatens the fabric of the nation. Historically a party of working-class advocacy and progressive reform, it has abandoned its roots in recent years to embrace a radical, anti-American agenda. This transformation demands scrutiny.

The Democrats once waved the blue-collar flag — FDR, JFK, all that jazz. Now? They’ve betrayed the working man. Newsweek nailed it post-2024: They lost the heartland — Pennsylvania, Michigan, and even Texas saw ranchers and oilmen switch to red. Why? Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) pushed her “Jobs for All” bill in January 2025, promising jobs but delivering billions to green-energy fat cats while rig workers in Odessa barely get by. Trump’s tariffs rebuilt steel towns; Democrats promote solar panels that nobody requested. America First means jobs, not handouts.

The Democrats’ border policy hits hard, especially in Texas, where illegal crossings overwhelm towns like Del Rio. Since 2021, Biden’s administration has allowed in over 10 million, according to Politico, flooding the streets with drugs and crime. Kamala Harris, the laughable “border czar,” smirked on CNN in 2024, cooing, “We’re a nation of immigrants.” Tell that to the ranchers dodging cartel bullets. Now, in 2025, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pushing through his “Pathway to Citizenship Act,” a February amnesty bill to secure blue votes nationwide. Trump’s wall helps stop the bleeding; Democrats tear it wide open.

Foreign policy is in disarray under the Democrats. They’ve aligned themselves with the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 2015 nuclear deal; Trump terminated it because it funded terrorism. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted in 2023, “Sanctions are economic warfare,” advocating for leniency toward Tehran while it attacks Israel. In contrast, Trump’s Abraham Accords advanced peace through strength. In 2025, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt., essentially a Democrat) criticized Trump’s China tariffs in a March speech, calling them “regressive” while Beijing continues dismantling American factories. From Houston to Harrisburg, Democrats betray us to tyrants.

Democrats oppose law and order — end of story. San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, regarded as a puppet of George Soros, released felons until voters pushed back in 2022. That’s their playbook: defund the police and embrace criminals. ABC News revealed GOP ads in 2024 criticizing blue cities for it — think Chicago, not just Dallas. Now Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) promotes her 2025 “Community Safety Act,” which cuts police budgets for “restorative justice” rhetoric — because feelings can prevent carjackings. Trump’s firm approach succeeds; Democrats encourage chaos.

The Democrats cater to globalists, not to Americans. According to The Guardian, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act funneled $369 billion into climate initiatives, while Texas drillers and Ohio miners received nothing. In February 2025, House speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) promoted the “Global Climate Partnership,” tying U.S. energy to U.N. authorities. Forget that — we’ve got oil in Midland. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized Trump’s China tariffs in a March op-ed, lamenting that they “hurt consumers,” oblivious to the fact that they preserved jobs from Laredo to Lansing. It’s always elites over workers, every single time.

Democracy? They rig it!

Don’t fall for their “save democracy” tears. The Journal of Democracy reported that 20% of Democrats supported violence in 2021 — less than the GOP’s 30%, but still despicable. They cheered the riots of 2020. Harris tweeted support for bail funds — then cried when Trump defeated them in 2024. Now Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) proposes his Electoral College “reform” bill in 2025, a blatant power-grab aimed at eliminating 2025 states like Texas. Trump won big; they can’t stand it.

According to Newsweek, the 2024 election proved one thing: Trump flipped Nevada as voters nationwide turned away from Harris’s woke rhetoric. Pew Research reported Democrats at 31% approval in 2023 — lower than a snake’s belly. From Schumer’s amnesty to AOC’s disdain for law enforcement, their actions reflect contempt for America.

Texas feels the strain at the border, but this is a battle for every patriot — our kids, our flag, our future. Trump is draining the swamp again; Republicans must leave these traitors behind. No mercy, no retreat.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: The ‘Smith-Mundt Modernization Act’ Signed by Obama is a Government License to Lie

5 Reasons Why We’re Finally Seeing Democrats Implode thumbnail

5 Reasons Why We’re Finally Seeing Democrats Implode

By The Daily Signal

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION— After years of breathtaking incompetence and failure under Joe Biden, Donald Trump decided once again to put his very comfortable private life on hold and embark on an unprecedented rescue mission to save America. And as President Trump campaigned for re-election, he was hounded by four bogus indictments from weaponized prosecutors seeking to jail him, as his political enemies simultaneously tried to bankrupt him and remove him from the ballot.

Democrat politicians, the biased liberal media, activist judge, and deep pocketed leftist think tanks relished in throwing everything they could muster at the man. Then, the American people got involved and made it clear who makes the decisions in our constitutional republic.

On Nov. 5 voters rejected the vile actions of the radical left and propelled Trump back to the White House with a clear mandate to govern. Trump’s amazing, against all odds victory created hope for America’s future just when we needed it most.

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

As a result, the Democrat Party and the entire entrenched power structure on the Left are collapsing before our eyes. Here are five examples suggesting the end of the radical Left is near.

The Talent Problem. As Trump delivered his game-changing first address to Congress since his inauguration, it was impossible to miss the rows of joyless left-wing politicians sitting in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. After watching the spectacle unfold, the main takeaway was that the Democrat Party has absolutely no “bench” to speak of.

There are no leaders on the left who possess the “right stuff” necessary to win future presidential elections, such as authenticity, credibility, and electability. So, there’s a good reason Trump is dominating and the crazed resistance is falling flat: there’s no messenger; and perhaps just as importantly, there’s no compelling message either.

The America First Problem. Today’s Democrats have both a patriotism problem and an America problem. Their shameful antics during Trump’s big speech before Congress were seen by millions and showed a broken party incapable of even cheering for the best citizens among us who deserve praise.

Democrat politicians are so adrift, so Trump-deranged, so out of touch, they refused to applaud for a 13-year-old cancer survivor, the safe return of a hostage, a young man accepted to West Point, the family of the heroic Corey Comperatore, the grieving widow of a slain police officer, or the family of Laken Riley. This is sick behavior; and evidence of a party that is very ill—perhaps even on its deathbed.

Let’s face it, if you no longer have the decency or compassion to even support your own countrymen, it might just be time for some soul-searching.

The Broken Status Quo Problem. The Democrats have no answer to Trump’s common-sense America first reform agenda. In the face of a $36 trillion-dollar national debt, the response from the Left has been to attack Trump, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, for having the audacity to cut wasteful spending and shrink the size and scope of government.

Similarly, Democrats’ response to Trump’s border security policies, is only to double down by attempting to thwart criminal deportations and side with illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities instead of American citizens. Yet another tone-deaf position that makes America far less safe.

The Democrats are also refusing to help reform our broken education system, lower energy costs or end the war in Ukraine. Taking up the mantle of the broken status quo—low test scores, high prices and forever wars—is a recipe for disaster.

The Radicalization Problem. Liberalism—and socialism for that matter–has always been about expanding the central government, higher taxes, more spending and less liberty. And in 2025, there’s really no appetite for it in the United States of America.

This is a bitter pill to swallow for leftists, but it must be acknowledged, or the Democrat Party will continue to fail. It was the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who said, “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Well, with an unsustainable national debt and annual budget deficits stretching as far as the eye can see, America is out of money and on a glidepath to bankruptcy unless the Trump-Musk spending reforms become codified into law.

The Weakness Problem. In order to change—or moderate—Democrats must stand up to their radical base and their stable of deep pocketed anti-American benefactors.

In the first two months of the Trump administration, they appear too weak-kneed to acknowledge this. If anything, career Democrat politicians are digging in on dangerous and rejected policies such as diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory.

Today’s Democrat Party can’t even change direction on the crystal-clear issue of banning men from competing in women’s sports. Politics is a numbers game, and if you hang your hat on opposing “80-20” issues it doesn’t take a genius to know where you’ll end up as a party.

Going woke means going broke, but Democrats are refusing to listen to the American people. Arrogance like this will get you a one-way ticket to the ash heap of history.

After the fake impeachment investigations, after the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, after weaponizing the justice system, and after all the inflammatory rhetoric paved the way to two assassinations attempts, the Democrat Party is floundering badly.

Thanks to President Donald Trump, their corruption, deception and failed policies of the past are finally being exposed for all the world to see.

Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

AUTHOR

David Bossie

David N. Bossie serves as president of Citizens United and Citizens United Foundation. He served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President in 2016, a senior advisor to Trump/Pence 2020, and as a senior strategist for the 2020 re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘Meteoric Rise’: How A Fishing Trip And A Phone Call Made Tom Homan ‘Border Czar’ thumbnail

‘Meteoric Rise’: How A Fishing Trip And A Phone Call Made Tom Homan ‘Border Czar’

By The Daily Caller

Tom Homan was shaking hands with colleagues around President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security in Jan. 2017, just days before President Donald Trump was set to take office for the first time. It was Homan’s retirement party, celebrating his more than 30 years of working in immigration enforcement.

But in the middle of saying goodbye to his colleagues, his chief of staff called. It was an emergency, she said. Amid packed-up boxes in his office, Homan took one more call.

On the line was Trump’s incoming Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly.

“I remember him saying, I know it was bad timing, but the president-elect wanted me to stay and run [ICE],” Homan told the Daily Caller.

Homan took the weekend to think about it. He had already accepted a retirement job in the private sector. He needed to talk to his family.

“Monday morning, I called [Kelly] and said I want to come back,” Homan said.

It didn’t end up being the only time Homan would come out of retirement for President Trump. Eight years later, he would end his retirement again to become the infamous border czar. He didn’t even have to think about it the second time.

“Tom’s answered the call every time in the past,” Bob Wallis, a former ICE special agent in charge and Homan’s long time mentor, told the Caller. “It didn’t surprise me when I saw that he was asked to take this very challenging, very challenging position.”

Just days after defeating Kamala Harris, Trump quickly started staffing up his White House. His first pick was Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Tom Homan was the next name on the list. Trump announced that Homan would serve as his “border czar,” a title Republicans mockingly called Vice President Kamala Harris under the Biden administration.

“I think I was the first person he called outside of Susie. He called me on a Friday night and asked me if I felt ready to come back. And I told him I was,” Homan told the Caller.

🚨 President-Elect Trump has named Tom Homan as Border Czar. pic.twitter.com/XNfp4to0Ev

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 11, 2024

Coming out of government retirement to take the job was a no-brainer, Homan said, because of the immense border crisis left behind by the Biden administration.

Homan’s role as border czar is a White House job and thus did not require Congressional approval; Homan was clear when Trump offered him a job that he no longer wanted to oversee an agency.

“He asked me what I wanted to do, I said ‘run the border.’ So he gave me the border czar job. Told me to secure the border and run the deportation operation,” Homan told the Caller.

Homan hit the ground running. The 2024 U.S. fiscal year was the second worst in history for illegal immigration, so Homan spent the time between the election and inauguration making plans on how the federal government would execute Trump’s agenda.

By February, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the administration had marked the lowest single-day apprehension of illegal crossings in over 15 years, with 200 migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border on Feb. 22. 

Homan’s work is a part of what his long-time mentor Bob Wallis calls a “meteoric rise.” Homan has become a hero to the GOP, as social media users and pundits alike create memes and photos celebrating him and the work he is doing on the border crisis.

The border czar’s climb has been years in the making. Homan has worked for six presidents. He started his government career as a border patrol agent under President Ronald Reagan and served in both Bush administrations, and under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Obama honored Homan’s career with the highest civil service award, the Presidential Rank Award, in 2015 for his work deporting illegal immigrants. He was known as the “deporter-in-chief” under the Democratic president.

“I tell people all the time that my job is to work within the framework provided to me by the administration,” Homan told the Caller.

Homan’s journey to becoming the border czar begins in Upstate New York in the mid-1980s. Living in West Carthage, New York, Homan was working as a police officer, just as his grandfather and father once did. All six of his siblings went into public service, becoming either a police officer, firefighter or a nurse.

One day, he and his colleagues went fishing on the St. Lawrence river — a place he went to often as a kid — which in some areas makes up a significant chunk of the New York-Canadian border.

“We ran into a border patrol agent that was docking on Dallas Bay. And I’ve always seen border patrol on that route but didn’t know what they did … when we sat there to talk, he told me what he did,” Homan told the Caller.

A few months later in 1984, Homan took the Border Patrol test and was hired on as an agent.

Homan later transitioned to become an investigator with what was then Immigration and Naturalization Services (its functions have since been split between USCIS, CBP, and ICE). That is where he met Wallis, who he worked under in the Office of Investigations.

In 2003, Wallis and Homan got called to an assignment in Victoria, Texas. More than a dozen migrants had died from suffocation in the back of a truck as they attempted to sneak across the border. The duo found a deceased father and his young son, still wrapped in an embrace, in the truck trailer.

“I was standing next to Tom Homan when he saw that child,” Wallis told the Caller. “I have two daughters, young daughters. At the time, he had a son, and I saw how he reacted to that.”

“You could tell he was just thinking about how it must have been towards the end of that little boy’s life,” Wallis recalled.

“At that moment, I said, this guy’s all in. He’s all in. He’s going to find out why this happened, who was involved, and he’s going to bring him to justice. Now, that’s a cop’s cop,” Wallis added.

Under Obama, Homan rose to be the executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE. That was the job that was the most impactful in Homan’s eventual appointment to border czar, Wallis explained. It wasn’t easy, and Homan weighed the pros and cons of taking the position with his mentor. Wallis told the Caller that working in immigration enforcement requires one to be fully committed in a way that often impacts family life, especially due to the high volume of travel. But it can also be a fulfilling role and a great career opportunity.

“This is something that’s going to stay with you and allow you to flourish after your career is long over,” Wallis remembers telling Homan.

Homan took the job. He was tasked with carrying out the president’s “prosecutorial discretion” policy, which called on ICE to focus on its efforts on illegal immigrants who were criminals or national security threats. He was also asked to manage the 2014 unaccompanied minor crisis, when a surge of tens of thousands of children crossed the southern border without any parents or guardians.

“We’re sons and daughters. We are family people too. It’s not like we go to work, we take our heart out of our chest and hang it out on our wall … I’ve seen a lot of terrible things in my career,” Homan reflected.

Obama was sharply criticized for placing the children in detention facilities, a decision that was brought up again in response to Trump allegedly putting “kids in cages” during his first term in office. Homan maintains the approach was the best way to keep the nearly 70,000 unaccompanied minors safe and healthy.

“Under [DHS Secretary] Jeh Johnson, when we had a family crisis, we built family residential centers — the so-called ‘cages,’” Homan remembered. “But they weren’t cages at all.”

“We had chain link fence dividers to keep adults away from unrelated children … we had these fences we put up to keep adults away from children who were raped,” he explained. “We built family residential centers. We helped families long enough for those residents to see a judge.”

Homan retired for the second time in 2018 after serving as Trump’s ICE director. He joined the Heritage Foundation as a fellow and was a contributor on Fox News.

🚨TOM HOMAN CALLS OUT GOV KATHY HOCHUL🚨

“NYPD were assaulted by illegal alien gang members. You had a woman BURNED ALIVE by an illegal alien on the subway. Your governor stands on national TV [and says] I think criminal aliens SHOULD be deported. What’s one of the first things… pic.twitter.com/aCc8CwpidA

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2025

Homan also started a nonprofit, Border 911, focused on informing the public of the benefits of a secure border. According to Dale Wilcox, the chief executive officer of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) and a longtime colleague of Homan’s, he wouldn’t accept anything greater than a $1 annual salary at his nonprofit. Homan would never himself tell anyone about that act of altruism, Wilcox said, because of his humble nature.

Homan and Wilcox worked together at the IRLI starting in 2020. While there, Homan helped the organization prepare Freedom of Information Act Requests and was their immigration law enforcement expert and spokesperson. Wilcox told the Caller that Homan turned down multiple six figure contracts for his work with the organization.

Traveling together for years, Wilcox had the opportunity to see Homan behind closed doors. He recalled a trip to Israel where they inspected the country’s border policies. The group’s tour guide outfitted their entire party with hats reading “HOMAN” — much to Homan’s embarrassment.

“Everywhere we would go, we couldn’t have a meal without people coming up and asking for a photo, saying something to him, asking for an autograph. He was always very gracious. I never saw him once turn someone away,” Wilcox told the Caller.

Both Wallis and Wilcox raved about Homan’s passion for his work. Today, Homan is often doing emotional TV hits, speaking with great intensity about the border crisis and the cases he is working on. Wallis encouraged people to read Homan’s book to help understand what Homan has seen during his career and how that motivates him to keep going.

HOMAN: “I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing hell with me.” pic.twitter.com/Ph2CaxAeRo

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 22, 2025

“This man is a machine. He is tireless. He lives on energy drinks. Everywhere he would go, we’d have to find him an energy drink … it was mostly Red Bull,” Wilcox said.

Once, while traveling to Florida for an event, Homan began struggling with some back issues.

“His back went out as he was getting out of the car, and they literally had to cut the clothes off the man and take him to the hospital. He refused. I mean, he was already having issues and needed surgery, and he refused. He just kept going. This man’s a machine,” Wilcox asserted.

The administration is already celebrating the early success of Homan’s work as the border czar. Vice President JD Vance took his first trip to the southern border since taking office in early March, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Senior agency officials told the New York Post that, in less than two months, ICE has already yielded a quarter of the 114,000 arrests made in the entire final year of the Biden administration.

But Vance reminded reporters during the trip that there is still work to do. Homan is aware of the monumental task ahead of him and his years of experience will fuel him to finish what he’s started.

“People are asking me, ‘Why are you yelling at members of Congress? Why are you so emotional?’” Homan told the Caller. “Because if they saw what I saw in my career, they would understand that a secure border saves lives.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Border Patrol Apprehensions Reach Lowest Average In History

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EPA Announces 31 ‘Historic Actions’ to Unleash American Energy thumbnail

EPA Announces 31 ‘Historic Actions’ to Unleash American Energy

By The Geller Report

Sweeping Deregulation, Cancels Over 400 Grants Saving Taxpayers $1.7 Billion. 

“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.

“Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission,” added EPA Administrator Zeldin. 

“The greatest day of deregulation in American history.”

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency will undertake 31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history, to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the most momentous day in the history of the EPA. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.

These historic actions will roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden “taxes” on U.S. families. As a result of these announcements, the cost of living for American families will decrease. It will be more affordable to purchase a car, heat homes, and operate a business. It will be more affordable to bring manufacturing into local communities while individuals widely benefit from the tangible economic impacts.

These actions will create American jobs, including incredible progress to bring back American auto jobs. The Biden and Obama era regulations being reconsidered have suffocated nearly every single sector of the American economy.

Today, EPA Administrator Zeldin announced the following actions:

UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY 

  • Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
  • Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry (OOOO b/c)
  • Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS)
  • Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program)
  • Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards (ELG) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG)
  • Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG)
  • Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule)

LOWERING THE COST OF LIVING FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES

  • Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)
  • Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding)
  • Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)
  • Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)
  • Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
  • Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze)
  • Overhauling Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon”
  • Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion)
  • Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI)

ADVANCING COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM 

  • Ending so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” which the Biden-Harris Administration used to expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program’s traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all State Implementation Plans
  • Working with states and tribes to resolve massive backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve (SIPs/TIPs)
  • Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events)
  • Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC)
  • Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule)
  • Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene

Just the News: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that the agency will take 31 “historic actions” to roll back the Biden administration’s climate agenda in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “Unleash American Energy.” Zeldin said the actions will lower costs for things like purchasing a car, heating homes and operating businesses. Among the regulations Zeldin said the EPA would reconsider are the “illegal” Clean Power Plan 2.0., the endangerment finding, the electric vehicle mandate, and rules regarding particulate matter (Just the News).

Lee Zeldin: EPA is initiating 31 historic actions to Power the Great American Comeback in the greatest day of deregulation in American history (X)!

EPA Cancels Over 400 Grants Saving Taxpayers $1.7 Billion

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, with the assistance of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), identified and cancelled more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs totaling $1.7 billion in savings for the American people. This marks the fourth round of EPA-DOGE partnered cancellations as the Administrator oversees a line-by-line review of spending, bringing the total taxpayer dollars saved to more than $2 billion since being sworn in (EPA).

Daily Wire: The agency is working to claw back $20 billion in funds that the Biden administration doled out under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The funds were turned over to Citibank in the months leading up to the election and held under the names of eight nonprofits. Those nonprofits intended to disperse the funds to other groups and programs. Citibank has frozen the funds while the Department of Justice probes the issue (Daily Wire).

Zeldin moves to undo Biden ‘Green New Deal’ and EV rules with sweeping deregulation

By: Callie Patteson and Maydeen Merino, Washington Examiner, March 12, 2025:

he Environmental Protection Agency initiated over two dozen actions overhauling numerous green and climate-related regulations implemented by the Biden administration in what Administrator Lee Zeldin described as an effort to “end the Green New Deal.”

The EPA announced 31 actions Wednesday afternoon, with Zeldin describing it as the “greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.”

Through these actions, the agency is overhauling, walking back, and reconsidering dozens of Biden administration environmental standards, such as the Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, vehicle emissions rules, the Good Neighbor Plan, air quality standards, water regulations, and more.

“By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” Zeldin wrote in an opinion article published in the Wall Street Journal.

He said deregulation would lower the cost of living, including for vehicles, heating, and other business operations.

“Today marks the death of the Green New Scam. The EPA recognizes that environmental protection and economic prosperity aren’t mutually exclusive goals,” Zeldin said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are recommitting to the core American values of innovation, growth, exceptionalism and opportunity.”
Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: “Everything Was Destroyed”: Tens of Thousands of Amazon Rainforest Cut Down To Build Highway For UN CLIMATE Summit

RELATED VIDEO: Marc Morano from Climate Depot explaining the rot that has festered in the EPA since 2009

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Is Elon Musk’s DOGE a Chainsaw to Government Waste or a Spotlight on Democratic Weaknesses? thumbnail

Is Elon Musk’s DOGE a Chainsaw to Government Waste or a Spotlight on Democratic Weaknesses?

By Amil Imani

Elon Musk, the relentless force driving electric vehicle dominance and  SpaceX into the cosmos, has redirected his insatiable appetite for disruption toward an unexpected target: the sprawling machinery of the U.S. federal government. On January 20, 2025, through an executive order signed by President Trump, Musk took charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new entity tasked with dismantling bureaucratic bloat and curbing excessive federal spending. Far from a ceremonial position, this role has positioned Musk as a one-man audit squad, equipped with a mandate—and perhaps a literal chainsaw—to cut through decades of accumulated waste.

What began as a fiscal experiment has transformed into something more revealing: a relentless spotlight on the Democrat Party’s entrenched priorities, operational dependencies, and, increasingly, strategic struggles in the face of Musk’s unorthodox crusade. His involvement doesn’t just threaten budgets or jobs—it exposes the fault lines in Democrat rhetoric and resilience, forcing them into a reactive scramble that’s as public as it is politically perilous.

Musk’s DOGE mission began with a promise to modernize federal technology and eliminate waste, a goal that resonates with fiscal conservatives. Reports from NBC News indicate that within weeks, DOGE operatives were integrated into almost every federal agency, targeting inefficiencies and laying off tens of thousands of workers. Musk himself has claimed to have fed agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development “into the woodchipper,” a move that has sparked lawsuits and outrage from Democrats who view it as an attack on essential services.

This aggressive stance has put Democrats on the defensive, and Musk’s actions are revealing layers of what some Republicans describe as Democratic hypocrisy. For example, when DOGE shut down a multi-million-dollar grant program program for dairy businesses in Wisconsin, Democratic lawmakers scrambled to save it—despite their frequent criticism of corporate welfare. Musk’s team pointed to the program as an example of excessive spending, forcing Democrats to justify their preferred projects in real time. CNN noted that while Republicans directly texted Musk to negotiate reversals, Democrats struggled, lacking the personal access to influence him.

Musk’s visibility—brandishing a literal chainsaw at CPAC—amplifies this dynamic. His posts on the X platform, which reach over 219 million followers, dismiss Democratic objections as performative, framing their resistance as evidence of entrenched interests. This narrative aligns with Trump’s rhetoric, as demonstrated in his joint address to Congress, where he lauded DOGE for revealing “hundreds of billions” in fraud—claims that Reuters later identified as exaggerated. Nevertheless, the spectacle keeps Democrats responding rather than leading, highlighting their difficulty in countering a tech titan who flourishes on disruption.

One key exposure is the Democrats’ reliance on the federal bureaucracy. The Atlantic reports that as DOGE slashes agencies like the FAA and IRS, Democrats warn of widespread harm to Americans; yet, their messaging often feels abstract compared to Musk’s tangible cuts. For instance, when DOGE operatives were briefly barred from the U.S. African Development Foundation, Democrats hailed it as resistance, but Musk’s team still gained access, highlighting their inability to halt his momentum. This depicts Democrats as defenders of a status quo that many voters, according to Politico, view as wasteful.

Musk’s personal style further underscores the disarray within the Democratic Party. His interview with Fox Business revealed plans to double DOGE’s staff, indicating no retreat despite pushback from congressional Democrats and even some figures within Trump’s Cabinet. Democrats, unable to wield subpoena power while in the minority, cannot investigate Musk’s potential conflicts of interest, such as Tesla’s scrutiny by the CFPB or SpaceX’s contracts with NASA. Instead, they are compelled to file lawsuits—17 against DOGE alone—while Musk and Trump dismiss these actions as partisan noise.

Republicans, meanwhile, leverage Musk’s clout. Politico notes that he’s met with GOP senators, reassuring them amid voter angst over cuts, while NBC News reports he’s shaping shutdown negotiations. Sidelined Democrats decry DOGE as an oligarchic overreach, but their critiques lack punch without concrete countermeasures. Musk’s “ghost employee” obsession, rooted in his Twitter takeover, now targets federal payrolls, forcing Democrats to defend workers whose roles he questions—often without clear evidence.

Critics like David French argue DOGE’s theatrics — chainsaws and all — won’t address structural deficits, exposing Democratic fiscal critiques as equally hollow. Yet, Musk’s real impact may be political: The New York Times suggests Democrats see him as a “serious liability” for Trump, with private polling swapped among operatives. Their new ads cast Musk as an unelected overlord, but his unpopularity hasn’t slowed DOGE’s march.

As Trump reins in Musk’s authority—clarifying that Cabinet secretaries control staffing, per NBC News—Democrats gain little traction. Musk’s retort, “If they don’t cut, then Elon will,” keeps him central, per The Guardian. His DOGE website, riddled with errors, still projects savings that Democrats struggle to debunk effectively. In this chaos, Musk isn’t just reshaping government—he’s exposing Democrats as reactive, divided, and ill-equipped to counter a disruptor who thrives on their discomfort.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Trump’s ‘Office Of Shipbuilding’ Might Be Just What America Needs To Revive Its Power On High Seas thumbnail

Trump’s ‘Office Of Shipbuilding’ Might Be Just What America Needs To Revive Its Power On High Seas

By The Daily Caller

While America’s maritime power has been left to languish and China’s influence on the high seas continues to grow, experts say President Donald Trump’s new “Office of Shipbuilding” is a crucial first step to the U.S. regaining its naval prowess.

Trump announced in his joint address to Congress in March that he would create the office with the intent to revive both commercial and military shipbuilding in the United States. America finds itself in dire straits in maritime power as the manufacturing base continues to shrink while China continues to outpace the U.S., with experts telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that Beijing’s dominance poses serious national security risks.

“The U.S. is ranked 14th in the world. We are basically just barely above Iran, which I don’t think is some major shipbuilding power,” Colin Gabrow, policy analyst at the CATO Institute, told the DCNF. “Look at data from the last five years, the U.S. is behind Norway and the Netherlands, tiny countries. We’re well behind.”

Currently, the office is only in its planning stages, with the executive order to officially create it still in the drafting stage, according to U.S. Naval Institute News (USNI). The National Security Council would lead the office.

The U.S. Trade Representative and the secretaries of Defense, Commerce, State, Transportation and Homeland Security would have six months after the order is signed to draft a plan to revive American shipbuilding, according to USNI. The order also calls for an investigation into China’s “unfair targeting of maritime logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.”

China’s market share for industries such as high-technology ships, maritime engineering equipment and “green” ship building have all ballooned since 2011, prompting Beijing to set even more ambitious goals. As a result, China’s shipbuilding market share has increased from approximately 5% in 2000 to over 50% today.

“They have the world’s largest shipbuilding industry, and many of our allies rely on Chinese shipyards for fixing their commercial ships and building their commercial ships,” Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. “So the Chinese, in many ways, control the terms of trade.”

China also holds a significant advantage in military shipbuilding, surpassing the U.S. Navy’s total ship count in 2020 with 360 ships compared to just 296 in the U.S. fleets, according to a January Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. Naval ship building in the U.S. has been plagued by massive delays, with some contractors extending their deadlines for ship delivery by up to three years.

The national security implications of commercial shipbuilding are also worth considering, albeit less than obvious, are also worth considering, Gabrow said.

“This is perceived as a national security vulnerability,” Gabrow told the DCNF. “You want to have a vigorous, vibrant shipment industry, which has some military utility to repair and build ships in times of war. This needs to be turned around I think is the mentality, hence the talk of the establishment of the Office of Shipbuilding.”

The wider U.S industrial base has declined alongside maritime output, with manufacturing jobs declining from an all-time high of 19.6 million in 1979 to just 12.8 million jobs in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“In my view, nothing is more important than addressing the critical labor shortages that afflict all of the shipbuilding and public maintenance yards,” Dr. Eric Labs, senior analyst for naval forces and weapons at the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. “For years, recruitment at the yards has been hard. Retention is even harder.”

Shipbuilding jobs have been virtually wiped out in the U.S., declining nearly 80% since the 1950s, with the number of shipyards rigged for large ships also declining at roughly the same rate, a McKinsey report concluded.

“It’s more than just ship building,” Sadler told the DCNF. “I think it’s maritime industrial base, which is ship building, shipping, port infrastructure, and naval ship building and repair. But what’s missing is, and I think this is what the president was getting at in his speech, is there’s probably the need for something like a ‘maritime czar,’ someone who can coordinate from the economic side, the National Economic Council, but also the national security aspects of this through the National Security Council.”

One first step the office should implement is an update to National Security Directive 28 promulgated in 1989, which was intended at the time to combat the rising threat of the Soviet Union in maritime power, Sadler said.

“I would have that signed by the President, that would make very clear what the priorities are in this industrial base, and then set some very clear goals,” Sadler told the DCNF. “How many ships will we get? Will we meet the need to have tankers in the Navy, and who will be responsible? Not just submit a plan, but more ‘I want this many ships per year.’”

“President Trump has long discussed rebuilding America’s shipbuilding capabilities,” Anna Kelly, deputy White House press secretary, told the DCNF. “The White House, however, does not have any formal announcements to make at this time.”

AUTHOR

Wallace White

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Smartest Guy In The Room’: Meet The Man Trump Just Tapped To Head America’s Highest Military Office

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: How Chris Wright Plans To Help America Climb Out Of Energy ‘Hole’ Dug By Biden Admin thumbnail

EXCLUSIVE: How Chris Wright Plans To Help America Climb Out Of Energy ‘Hole’ Dug By Biden Admin

By The Daily Caller

HOUSTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained his plans to fortify America’s fragile power grid and a host of other energy policy issues in a Monday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Wright has his work cut out for him atop the Department of Energy (DOE) after the Biden administration and former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm left him with elevated energy prices and fragile power grids in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Before addressing other topics, like the massive portfolio of green energy loans he inherited from his predecessor and the future of climate alarmism politics, Wright made clear that the first step toward strengthening the grid is to “stop digging” a deeper hole with policies that undermine power supply. 

nergy Secretary Chris Wright signed a LNG export permit extension for Delfin LNG this morning to start his post-keynote presser.

Delfin LNG was affected by the Biden pause on LNG export approvals.

In his kickoff speech at @CERAWeek, Wright emphasized that the Trump… pic.twitter.com/ri7IU37TMR

— Nick Pope (@realnickpope) March 10, 2025

“I’m very concerned about the grid, very concerned about the grid,” Wright told the DCNF, noting that average electricity prices surged on the Biden administration’s watch despite relatively limited growth in demand over the same period of time. “We have to make significant changes in a complicated system. Changing permitting laws is part of that, changing how regulation is done, and then just some common sense moves to enable technology to get more to the existing grid in the time that demand is arriving. We have to increase throughput with the existing physical assets. I think it can be done, but it is a daunting challenge. And I wish we weren’t walking into the hole we’re in right now, but we were dug a hole by the previous administration, and that’s our starting point.”

Grid experts and operators have warned that the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda for power plants threatens grid reliability in the U.S., with huge swaths of the country already facing risks of inadequate supply in the event of stronger-than-usual conditions in the summer or winter. Shoring up the grid is an even more urgent task in light of the projected surge in aggregate demand analysts are expecting to come from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the power-hungry data centers needed to sustain the cutting-edge technology.

In Wright’s view, part of the solution to America’s power grid problem is using the levers of government to forestall the retirement of coal-fired power plants capable of providing cheap, reliable power to the grid, he told the DCNF.

“If you want to grow your supply, the first thing to do is stop digging the hole. We’ve been closing coal plants for quite some time now. That’s gotta stop. We have to keep these firm, reliable existing plants online. That’s objective number one,” Wright said. “And then there’s existing plants that are open that run at low operating percent of the time because of regulations and things put in the way. We have a fair amount of electricity generating capacity that already exists and connected up to wires. So, that’s low-hanging fruit.”

Another lever at Wright’s disposal to ramp up the U.S. power supply is the Loan Programs Office (LPO), a DOE sub-office that provides financing for innovative energy technologies. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act supercharged LPO’s coffers, and the office proceeded to pump billions of dollars into green energy projects.

Wright mentioned “nuclear and next generation geothermal,” as well as grid resilience technologies and other undertakings “that can help resource supply chains for electrical equipment in the United States” as specific things that LPO may look to finance while he runs DOE. However, Wright — a self-professed energy wonk who has worked with a host of different energy sources in the private sector and the founder of Liberty Energy — said that the agency’s general preference is to see the private sector take the lead and innovate.

“The first and primary tool is private capital and private businesses. Most of these things, with a reasonable business climate, will happen in the marketplace,” Wright explained. “That is our preference. But, if there are issues that are critical and have to happen in a timely fashion because of the mess we’re in with our electricity grid today, then we will deploy capital.”

Notably, the Biden LPO rushed to shove billions of dollars in loans and conditional loans out the door in the lame duck period, powering through the concerns of the DOE’s internal watchdog and elected Republicans that the rush to get funding out may have put taxpayer funds at risk of being wasted. Wright told the DCNF that the DOE will honor its end of LPO contracts that it is obligated to fulfill and that the agency will keep an eye on conditional loans to ensure counterparties are meeting conditions, adding that the agency “will deploy capital only if it’s in the best interest of American taxpayers” in situations where DOE has discretion.

Biden Admin Energy Policies Putting Americans Further At Risk In Potential War With China, Analysis Findshttps://t.co/1Q3BG3f0vk

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 25, 2024

Wright is evidently concerned about the condition of the power grid that keeps the lights on for all 50 states, but he is also keen to work with Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory — to address its own ailing power infrastructure.

The energy secretary met with Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón in February to discuss fixing Puerto Rico’s grid, which has been ravaged by hurricanes. The Biden administration made a major push to make the island a “poster child” for the benefits of green energy, but Wright says his predecessors’ efforts did little — if anything — to seriously address the problem, Wright explained.

“Congress appropriated a significant amount of money to rebuild it entirely, and the Biden administration decided they wanted to make Puerto Rico the poster child of renewable energy, and therefore would only fund the building of renewable energy. Needless to say, very little has been built. Electricity prices are high. The grid is unreliable. They’ve had many years in a row of negative population outflow,” Wright told the DCNF.  “The businesses are at risk of being unable to continue to manufacture pharmaceutical drugs, for example, that come into the mainland of the United States, and a new governor got elected to fix this energy problem. We are excited to get to work and invest money already appropriated by our Congress to better the lives of Puerto Ricans, millions of Puerto Ricans.”

“I would say, it’s simply an outrage that the money has been there for years, but since it didn’t fit a political narrative, it wasn’t spent,” Wright continued. “Puerto Ricans are victims of energy politics. We’re humans-first administration. They were a politics-first administration.”

More broadly, Wright believes that commonsense energy politics is overtaking climate alarmism, though declaring the latter dead for good is “too optimistic,” he told the DCNF.

“I think this president, shooting straight on energy, putting humans first, won the election. So, clearly the pendulum is slinging that way. I think President Trump is a good part of the reason that the pendulum is swinging the other way. He had the courage to speak common sense about energy,” said Wright. “He’s been a bold, outspoken person about energy and the interests of American people, and he has started that pendulum going the other way. I am thrilled to be on the team with President Trump to help continue this swing towards what I call ‘energy sobriety.’”

AUTHOR

Nick Pope

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Energy Sec Slams Biden Admin Climate Obsession, Lays Out Trump Admin’s Pivot In Keynote Houston Speech

Biden’s Green Tech Loan Office Potentially Prone To Waste And Abuse, Internal Watchdog Says

RELATED VIDEO: Marc Morano from Climate Depot explaining the rot that has festered in the EPA since 2009

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Sabotage’ Replaces ‘Protest’ as Teslas Torched – ‘Climate Crap’ Gone from Pentagon thumbnail

‘Sabotage’ Replaces ‘Protest’ as Teslas Torched – ‘Climate Crap’ Gone from Pentagon

By Marc Morano from Climate Depot

Watch: Morano on Varney on Fox on how climate change has hijacked the environmental movement & why Trump’s EPA rejects classifying CO2 as a pollutant

Watch: Morano on Fox urges ethics investigation into Sen. Whitehouse for voting for wife’s salary & warns Canada’s new PM Mark Carney as worse than Trudeau

‘Sabotage’ replaces ‘protest’ as Teslas torched – ‘Climate crap’ gone from Pentagon – Antarctica Ice Growing – Reuters admits Net Zero ‘resounding failure’

Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with Molotov cocktails and gunfire at Tesla lots

‘Climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest’ – New ‘manifesto’ urges ‘carrying out clandestine acts of sabotage…targeting the tools, property and machinery of those most responsible for global warming’

CNN: 54% of Americans want DOGE to cut government spending and operations

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: Canada’s Next Prime Minister Mark Carney, WIll Be Trudeau 2.0: Promoted Climate Lockdowns following COVID – Carney’s Agenda is promoted by UN & WEF

Wash Post: ‘Trump withdraws from two key global climate funds’ – U.S. pulling out a UN climate finance program –
Activists freak: ‘U.S. is failing its moral obligation…abandoning the global community’

Reuters now admits total climate fiasco!

‘The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80% of the world’s primary energy’

House Republicans Line Up To Save Biden’s Legacy Climate Law – 21 House Republicans view Biden’s IRA green energy tax credits aligning with Trump’s ‘America First’ vision

Antarctica Ice Growing Across Large Areas for at Least 85 Years, Aerial Photos Show – Study published in journal Nature Communications

Roger Pielke on NOAA Staff Cuts: The agency is ‘reaping the whirlwind’ for ‘cutting corners on science’

Can U.S. survive without military climate spending?! CNN: ‘Officials & experts warn that Pentagon plans to cut climate programs will hurt national security’ – 

Sec. Hegseth: ‘The Dept of Defense does not do climate change crap’

‘Climate Change’ Is Making People Live Longer! – ‘As temperatures increase (if they do), so does life expectancy!’
Statistician Dr. Matt Briggs:  Hawaii, the hottest state on average all year round, with averages around 70 in the coldest months, and near 90 in the summers, had the highest life expectancy (80.7 years), and highest at 65 (21 years).

‘Grift, corruption, & fraud’ – Watch: Morano on Real America’s Voice TV on $20B IN EPA FUNDS GOING TO OBAMA/BIDEN-TIED GROUPS

No, Axios, Climate Change Is Not Making Atlanta’s Allergy Season Worse

Watch: Morano testifies to Oregon Legislature in support of bill that stops climate-inspired shutdowns of reliable energy sources unless they can be replaced with equally reliable energy (Hint: Solar & wind come up short)

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

Listen: Morano on Joe Piscopo Show on Stacey Abrams defending Biden-era EPA funding

Michael Mann’s Big Climate Change Payday Reversed on Appeal

LOMBORG: UN pushes awful green deal policies while also spreading eco lies – UN ‘trying to control what people can hear, read & think about climate change’

No, Yahoo News, ‘Extreme Heat’ Isn’t Accelerating Aging—And It’s Not Getting Worse

Report: 1900 Scientists Say ‘Climate Change Not Caused by CO2’ – The Real Environment Movement Was Hijacked

Bank Australia has ceased car loans for new fossil fuel cars from 2025 – Bank brags ‘Real climate action needs to be bold’

AP touts new poll: ‘Most Americans who experienced severe winter weather see climate change at work’ – ‘Bitter cold — bore all the hallmarks of climate change’

Thanks Captain Obvious! Reuters Admits Pursuit of ‘Net Zero’ Emissions ‘Resounding Failure’

Good for Reuters to come around to the obvious, er, finally. But the meaningless nature of such economy-crippling standards was already circulating in the ether long before Reuters did its about-face. As Climate Depot founder Marc Morano told MRC Business in June 2024, “Net zero in the climate agenda is really nothing short of Soviet-style central planning. Every sector of our economy is subject to long range planning to meet net zero goals.”

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

“This is about a worst-case scenario for Canadians,” Marc Morano, the head of Climate Depot and author of “The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown” told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Morano cited concerns over how a Carney-led government would oppose the latest political and economic trends seen in Argentina, the United States and most recently, Germany, to instead “hammer consumers” and “double down on the green agenda.”

“It’s as if he’s looked at the world the last five years and completely ignored reality,” Morano continued.

Morano described Carney as “Justin Trudeau 2.0” and a “power player” that supports “corporate government collusion,” even comparing him to “BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, in terms of his power, expertise, connections and ability.”

“The world is absolutely going in the opposite direction from everything Carney stands for,” Morano said. He noted that Carney is “poised now to wreak this hellscape on Canadians,” potentially forwarding policies that will cause prices and restrictions to soar.

“It’s easier to transition your gender than it is our energy supply,” Morano said. He asserted that clean energy power supply comes at a “higher cost, and it’s not green.” The author pointed to the fact that it takes 45 tons of non-renewable plastic to make one wind turbine.

Morano also questioned green energy’s profitability, suggesting that if clean energy alternatives were profitable, green energy policies wouldn’t need to be mandated or subsidized. “Why do they have to ban the competition? … Why did you have to mandate them? Why did you have to subsidize them? Why are they the weakest points of energy output?”

NRDC: ‘Average human exhales about 2.3 pounds of carbon dioxide on an average day’ – Human ‘exhale almost three billion tons of carbon dioxide annually’

Top 10 Catastrophic Climate Predictions That Failed

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Who Is Suing DOGE? thumbnail

Who Is Suing DOGE?

By Capital Research Center

Dozens of Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration Filed by Government Employee Unions, Left-Wing Activists, and Democratic Politicians.

“The main function of American trade unions is collective bargaining. It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” — AFL-CIO president George Meany, December, 1955

Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan refused to grant an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The underlying lawsuit, State of New Mexico v. Musk, was filed by 14 Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) who have alleged that creating DOGE without congressional approval violated the Constitution’s appointments clause. The AGs argued an immediate TRO was needed to pause DOGE’s work while the merits of their case were decided.

But Judge Chutkan decided they had failed to prove the “clear evidence of imminent, irreparable harm” needed to impose an emergency halt. The status of the TRO notwithstanding, Judge Chutkan ruled the case is legitimate and will proceed. (Perhaps relevant: She was appointed by President Obama and is not a stranger to lawsuits involving Trump.)

State of New Mexico is just one of dozens of lawsuits on multiple issues that were filed against the Trump administration during its first month in office. Many of them target DOGE or are DOGE-adjacent. Others involve the new administration’s crackdown on border security; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs; and federal transgender policies.

The status of these legal challenges changes daily, sometimes hourly. What follows is an effort to explain what the fights are about, not where they stand at the time this is posted.

General Challenges to DOGE

National Council of Nonprofits v. OMB was the first attack on DOGE. It challenged a Trump administration memo that required federal agencies to pause federal grants and payments, pending a review. At the end of January, a federal judge temporarily lifted the moratorium, and the Trump administration rescinded the memo.

The lead plaintiff in the case, National Council of Nonprofits, represents the supposedly “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs) that have paradoxically been major recipients of government loot and account for many of the plaintiffs suing the Trump administration. (Perhaps, we should begin calling these “basically governmental organizations”?)

Co-plaintiffs in National Council include the Main Street Alliance (a cabal of businesses initially built to promote ObamaCare and other Democratic agenda items), the American Public Health Association (a group of health professionals that reliably supports Democratic Party positions on issues such as climate), and Services and Advocacy for Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Elders.

State of New York v. Donald J. Trump is another direct attack on DOGE, this one from 19 Democratic state attorneys general. It seeks to halt the DOGE team’s access to the federal payment system. If successful, this would be an exceptionally efficient way to render DOGE inefficient.

The Trump administration’s pauses and moratoriums directed at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been challenged by at least four federal lawsuits:

In each of these four cases judges have granted TROs or other requests to delay implementation of the orders while the lawsuits work their way through the system.

Another employment case, Public Citizen, Inc v. Trump, is the merger of several cases that argue DOGE violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The Trump administration does not believe FACA applies to DOGE, while the plaintiffs argue among other points that DOGE should be subjected to FACA’s requirement to be “fairly balanced” in its leadership.

Plaintiffs in Public Citizen include Public Citizen, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Public Health Association, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the VoteVets Action Fund, the Center for Auto Safety, and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

The consolidated Public Citizen case repeatedly references Musk as a “billionaire” and “the world’s richest individual.” The jealousy appeal against Musk’s money isn’t relevant to the dispute any more than the hefty combined annual revenue of his accusers, which exceeds $340 million:

The other Public Citizen co-plaintiff, State Democracy Defenders Fund, was created in 2024 by Democratic Party zampolit Norm Eisen. Suffering from a potentially fatal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Eisen recently partnered on a new media venture with former Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin. Another TDS sufferer, Rubin quit her newspaper job because the Post wouldn’t endorse Kamala Harris.

AUTHOR

Ken Braun

Ken Braun is CRC’s senior investigative researcher and authors profiles for InfluenceWatch.org and the Capital Research magazine.

He previously worked for several free market policy organizations, spent six years as a chief of staff in the Michigan Legislature, and also wrote political columns for MLive Media Group, a consortium including the Grand Rapids Press and seven other mid-sized Michigan newspapers. He is an alumni of Michigan State University.

RELATED ARTICLES:

General Challenges to DOGE

Does Bureaucracy Equal Democracy?
Don’t Quit … but Don’t Do Your Job Either!

Say “Bye, Bye” to DEI

EDITORS NOTE: This Capital Research Center column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

In the next installment, federal bureaucrats sue to keep their jobs.

The post Who Is Suing DOGE? appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.

Dumb Things Socialists Promise thumbnail

Dumb Things Socialists Promise

By The Daily Signal

Socialism is popular!

A Pew study reports that more than a third of American adults view it positively.

How is this possible?

Little has brought more misery—first in the Soviet Union, then in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, now Venezuela …

One reason young people support socialism is because their social media feeds show videos made by popular but economically illiterate people.

TikTok star Madeline Pendleton has 1.6 million subscribers. My new video shows her telling them: “Socialism is working better than capitalism 93% of the time!”

Where does she get 93%?

From a study published in 1986 by self-described Marxists in the Journal of Health Services.

The authors conveniently ignore the United States and other wealthy countries and compare socialist economies to “capitalist” countries like Uganda, Rwanda, and Somalia, some of which were at war.

It’s so stupid. But based on that, Pendleton tells her followers, “We have all the data showing that socialism does work.”

She also celebrates communism because of its “increased life expectancy.”

That’s nonsense, too. People live longest in capitalist countries like Japan (85 years) and South Korea (84 years). Even in the United States (79 years), where more of us die young because we drive more (car accidents), eat more, shoot each other more often, and try more dangerous drugs, we still live longer than people in China (78 years).

Socialism is also superior, says Pendleton, because of “the 90-100% home-ownership rates.”

“One hundred percent,” of course, is just dumb, but China (if you believe the party’s statistics) does have 90% homeownership.

But not under socialism! They achieved that only after privatizing urban housing. Before 1998, when Chinese housing was still socialist, just 20% of Chinese people owned homes.

Several social media stars rave about China. “Socialism worked in China!” says TikToker Dante Munoz. “They lifted over 800 million people from poverty.”

Again, it’s true that in the last 50 years, China’s GDP went from $156 per capita to more than $12,000. But that only happened after China gave up on real socialism and started embracing markets. Hong Kong, which adopted actual capitalism, raised per capita GDP to $50,000.

Before China reformed, millions of people died of starvation.

Another silly social media star, JT Chapman, tells his almost 2 million YouTube subscribers: “The central idea that unites all socialists is maximizing freedom … democratization of power.”

Democratization? In most socialist countries, there’s only one political party.

A popular TikToker calling himself Rathbone tells his hundred thousand subscribers: “capitalism … prioritizes profits over people … [but] socialism … prioritizes people over profits.”

Likewise, Chapman says socialism offers the “guaranteed right to … health care, food, and shelter.”

Well, of course socialism promises those things and claims to prioritize people over profits, but what people actually get is different.

As Cuban doctors put it in this video, “The Cuban health care system is destroyed … People are dying in the hallways.”

Yet Chapman claims, “Innovation can flourish even when people are not motivated by profit. The USSR gave the world the anthrax vaccine, artificial satellites, and one of the earliest mobile phones.”

That is true. But no one uses those phones today. Capitalism just creates much more.

Finally, Chapman says, “Ownership should be collective.”

Collective ownership does feel good. “We’ll share everything!”

But every attempt at collective ownership has failed.

One famous American example: 200 years ago, New Harmony, Indiana, abolished private property, promising a “community of equality.”

The result was famine.

When people realized they could receive just as much barely working as they could working hard, many, naturally, worked less. Within a year, the commune experiment failed and property was returned to private hands.

What do these popular social media stars say when I confront them with these inconvenient truths? Sadly, I don’t know. Not one would appear on Stossel TV to debate.

The bottom line: Incentives matter. No one washes a rental car. Few people care much about what belongs to everyone. It’s just human nature.

Capitalism isn’t perfect, but if we want a better future, and freedom, capitalism is the only thing that works.

COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

AUTHOR

John Stossel

John Stossel is the creator of Stossel TV videos, and author of “No They Can’t! Why Government Fails—But Individuals Succeed.” John on X: @JohnStossel.

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RELATED VIDEO: America should be a DEMOcracy, not a BUREAUcracy!

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Democrat Complains About ICE Arresting Migrant ‘Parent’ Outside School. Turns Out Perp Is Twice-Deported Gangbanger thumbnail

Democrat Complains About ICE Arresting Migrant ‘Parent’ Outside School. Turns Out Perp Is Twice-Deported Gangbanger

By The Daily Caller

A Democratic congressman chided Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for making an arrest near a school building, despite that individual being a confirmed member of a street gang with multiple criminal convictions.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Chuy Garcia issued a scathing statement Thursday evening in reaction to an ICE arrest that took place outside of a Chicago charter school the previous day. Garcia, who referred to the apprehension as an “ambush,” touted legislation he introduced in Congress that would prohibit deportation officers from making such arrests at “sensitive locations” such as schools or hospitals.

“In my district, ICE ambushed a parent while dropping off their child at school. No family should have to fear being torn apart in a safe place meant for learning,” Garcia stated in a social media post. 

“This is why [New York Democrat Rep. Adriano Espaillat] and I introduced the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act — schools, hospitals, and places of worship are off-limits! Congress must act now,” Garcia continued. 

The Illinois congressman was reacting to a Chicago Tribune article about a parent who was apprehended by ICE agents Wednesday morning while dropping off two students at an Acero charter school in Chicago’s Southwest Side. The article did not identify the detained individual.

However, ICE confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that this individual is Francisco Andrade-Berrera, a Mexican national who’s been deported twice, a member of a “violent” street gang and previously convicted of several high-profile crimes. His immigration status was not specified.

“ICE Chicago arrested Francisco Andrade-Berrera, 37, a citizen of Mexico, Feb. 26 without incident,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “Andrade is a known member of a violent street gang with criminal convictions for drug trafficking, gang loitering, and damage to property who was previously removed from the U.S. to his home country in 2005 and 2013.”

The agency’s statement further clarified that ICE supervisors exercise discretion on when to conduct immigration enforcement actions at or near schools. Their operations, the agency reiterated, prioritize criminal migrants and public safety threats.

It’s not immediately clear how or when Andrade-Berrera was able to re-enter the U.S. after his second deportation in 2013.

Garcia’s office did not immediately respond to a DCNF inquiry asking if the congressman stands by his statement or whether he ever finds it acceptable for ICE agents to perform enforcement actions on school property to remove criminal gang members.

Garcia was not the only high-profile individual angry at ICE. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Stacy Davis Gates called the arrest “an act of terror” in a separate public statement.

“I don’t care what agency they turn out to be, targeting a father as he tries to provide an education to his children at their place of learning is a deliberate act of terror on behalf of this government,” Gates stated Thursday. “Our union will join with the Acero mothers tonight to denounce the targeting of anyone in our school communities and demand leadership from the board, CEO, mayor, and governor that actually stands up to the sadists in charge of federal policy and their corporate friends who bank off their cruelty.”

The CTU did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment regarding Andrade-Berrera’s criminal history.

Controversy surrounding the Chicago charter school arrest follows a January directive by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that freed ICE agents to conduct enforcement actions at so-called “sensitive locations,” such places like schools, hospitals or churches that were previously deemed off-limits. Under the new changes, deportation officers have far more discretion on where to conduct arrests, making it much harder for criminal migrants like Andrade-Berrera to avoid justice.

Federal agents arrested more than 20,000 illegal migrants during the Trump administration’s first month in office, smashing the Biden administration’s pace of illegal migrant arrests, according to DHS. President Donald Trump has vowed to conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and has so far issued a flurry of executive orders and other administrative edicts aimed at restoring order to the immigration system.

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins

Immigration reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ignore the pundits — DOGE is the future thumbnail

Ignore the pundits — DOGE is the future

By MercatorNet – A Compass for Common Sense

If the mainstream media is to be believed, DOGE represents an existential threat to the American republic.

Ask the average American, on the other hand, and you’ll discover high levels of enthusiasm for DOGE and its projected US$500 billion in federal savings.

Results from a Harvard Caps/Harris poll released this week reveal levels of support for the initiative that have surprised even the Trump camp.

When asked if the current level of federal government debt is unsustainable, 67 percent of voters agreed, while 83 percent favoured reducing expenditure over increasing taxes.

Drilling down further, 77 percent said a full probe of government expenditure is needed, 70 percent agreed the government is “filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency” — and most significantly, 60 percent of voters feel DOGE is moving the needle on these glaring problems.

The outrage machine might be in overdrive, in other words, but real-world data suggests the latest spat of Musk Derangement Syndrome is astroturfed.

It’s also a tip-off that the media outlets, politicians, NGOs and federal agencies that are squealing the loudest likely have the most to lose — and that’s great news for struggling US taxpayers who’ve been forced to fund their largesse for far too long.

Looking at the Trump administration more broadly, signs are all around that the voters are happy with their pick back in November.

A CNN poll taken shortly after Inauguration Day found Trump’s net approval rating was at its highest ever, even surpassing any point in his first term.

It’s been mostly up from there. A CBS News poll pegged Trump’s job approval at 53 percent, with 70 percent of Americans feeling he’s delivering on his campaign promises.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen Reports found that 47 percent of Americans now believe the country is on the “ right track” versus 46 percent saying the opposite —  a net positive never seen in 20 years of polling, and way up on the 28 percent reported under Biden last September.

Arthur Schopenhauer might have been a lousy philosopher, but he was right about one thing: “All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident.”

Watch this space: It is my strong suspicion that Departments of Government Efficiency will begin popping up in many more Western democracies over the coming decade.

It’s worth noting that the E in the DOGE acronym is largely possible thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence, which Musk and his team are leveraging in their war on fraud, waste and abuse.

At agencies like the Department of Education, Microsoft’s Azure AI platform is reportedlyanalysing every dollar spent to expose hidden waste in contracts, travel reimbursements and more.

Indeed, Musk has flagged $100 billion in potential Medicare and Medicaid savings and credited this to AI’s ability to detect irregularities easily overlooked by human auditors.

Using AI for such tasks does not come without its commensurate risks, as the corporate press has been at pains to point out. But what AI can identify, humans can later verify. The trick is finding anomalies in the first place, given the sprawling monstrosity that is the US federal government with its more than 400 agencies and departments.

If serious AI data breaches do materialise, I will be the first to eat humble pie. But for now, I’m bullish on a project that was both politically and technologically unimaginable until now.

At this very moment, nameless, faceless hordes lurk in the shadows, scheming how they might weaponise artificial intelligence against our human dignity and inalienable freedoms.

Yet when the world’s most successful entrepreneur wields AI against the excesses of Big Government, not only is he demonised but — in a fit of irony — called a fascist.

More orchestrated than organic, all the hullabaloo from the media and bureaucratic class is failing to pass the sniff test.

They hate it for the same reason taxpayers love it — their grift is finally being exposed.

Just wait until they pretend they supported it all along.

Forward this article to your friends! 

AUTHOR

Kurt Mahlburg

Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.

EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FAA Reportedly Considering Replacing Verizon With Musk’s Starlink For $2 Billion Air Traffic Control Contract thumbnail

FAA Reportedly Considering Replacing Verizon With Musk’s Starlink For $2 Billion Air Traffic Control Contract

By The Daily Caller

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering canceling its $2.4 billion air traffic control communications system contract with Verizon and instead enlisting Elon Musk’s satellite company, sources told The Washington Post.

The potential shift to Starlink, the satellite communications infrastructure under SpaceX, comes after a December General Services Administration (GSA) report highlighting an “urgent” need to modernize the FAA’s dated systems. The SpaceX founder has repeatedly criticized the FAA and suggested Verizon’s systems contributed to recent deadly aviation incidents — though he later issued a correction clarifying that Verizon’s systems haven’t yet been implemented and that L3Harris, a defense contractor, operates the “ancient system” currently running air traffic control infrastructure.

“Correction: the ancient system that is rapidly declining in capability was made L3Harris. The new system that is not yet operational is from Verizon,” Musk wrote.

Correction: the ancient system that is rapidly declining in capability was made L3Harris. The new system that is not yet operational is from Verizon.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2025

Verizon also emphasized that the “FAA systems currently in place are run by L3Harris and not Verizon,” and that the company was at “the beginning of a multi-year contract to replace antiquated, legacy systems” in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The telecommunications company announced its partnership with the agency through the FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) contract in 2023, an initiative meant to modernize air traffic control systems and communication between agency offices — though the FAA said in an X post Monday it has considered switching to Starlink “since the prior administration.” The FAA also said SpaceX employees are already working with the agency to update its aging communications infrastructure and testing Starlink systems at “non-safety critical” facilities in Atlantic City and Alaska. Some SpaceX employees already have FAA email addresses, according to The Washington Post.

“Alaska has long had issues with reliable weather information for the aviation community,” the agency wrote. “That is why the FAA has been considering the use of Starlink since the prior administration to increase reliability at remote sites, including in Alaska. This week, the FAA is testing one terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at non-safety critical sites in Alaska.”

pic.twitter.com/FV1HP5u5JN

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) February 25, 2025

Starlink expects to install 4,000 satellite terminals at these sites over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg.

Democratic lawmakers including California Sen. Adam Schiff and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey have raised ethical concerns ahead of the potential partnership, with Schiff arguing in a Feb. 10 letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that Musk’s financial interests in the contract create serious ethical issues. Markey wrote a similar letter to the FAA on Wednesday.

“Mr. Musk holds substantial financial interests in private companies, including Tesla, Inc., SpaceX, The Boring Company, xAI, X Corp and Neuralink,” the senator wrote. “Mr. Musk’s companies have also been the subject of at least 20 recent investigations by federal agencies, which heightens the risk that Mr. Musk may seek to use his new position to shield his companies from federal scrutiny.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defended the development in a Fox News column on Feb. 19, stating the integration of SpaceX infrastructure in air traffic control systems is “just the start” of the modernization effort.

“The Government Accountability Office stated that among the FAA’s 138 systems, 51 are unsustainable and the agency doesn’t plan to complete modernization projects for some of these systems for at least 10 years,” Duffy wrote. “Additionally, the FAA doesn’t yet have plans to modernize other systems in need — three of which are at least 30 years old … Despite the obvious need for reform, partisans are certain to criticize this upcoming SpaceX visit, manufacturing illusory controversy rather than welcoming progress.”

The FAA and SpaceX did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Thomas English

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Accident Waiting To Happen’: Feds Ignored DC Death Trap For Years Despite Dozens Of Near Misses With Planes, Choppers

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

House Republicans Pass Budget Resolution with $2.6T Projected Savings thumbnail

House Republicans Pass Budget Resolution with $2.6T Projected Savings

By Family Research Council

After two months of negotiation, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a budget resolution (H.Con.Res.14) that House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) estimates will result in $2.6 trillion in savings over the next 10 years. The vote marks “the kickoff in what will be a four-quarter game,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said ahead of the vote, “and that very important, very consequential game begins as soon as we get this thing passed.”

Even after so much negotiation, House Republican leaders were holding discussions with reluctant members “all the way through the close of the vote,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). “This morning, I was counting about 4 or 5 no votes, so the vote would not have passed this morning,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said on “Washington Watch” before the Tuesday night vote.

“I know that the speaker has been working with the members that have concerns about their concerns and how to address them,” Perry added. “I think they are valid concerns. But … this is not the end of the process. It’s actually just kind of the beginning of the process. And so, to do anything, this is where we’ve got to get off the dime.”

The final vote tally was 217-215, with all Republicans voting for the bill except Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who joined the Democrats in opposing it. Republicans could afford to lose Massie’s vote because three Democratic representatives were absent.

The budget resolution declares Congress’s intention to cut spending by $2 trillion and extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts — set to expire this year. On paper, extending the tax cuts would cost the government $4.5 trillion in lost revenue over the next decade, thus increasing the deficit.

However, House Republicans hope the tax cuts will stimulate enough economic growth to save money in the long run. Using one set of economic assumptions, the Congressional Budget Office projected economic growth at an annual average of 1.8%, while House Republicans projected 2.6% economic growth, based upon different assumptions.

If the Trump tax cuts are made permanent, the House Ways and Means Committee predicted one million new jobs created by small businesses, $150 billion in economic growth from small businesses, $284 billion in economic growth from American manufacturers, and $50 billion in economic growth from Opportunity Zones in poor communities.

By contrast, if Congress allows the Trump tax cuts to expire, the Committee predicted six million jobs lost, along with a 22% tax hike for the average taxpayer, while the child tax credit, the guaranteed deduction, and the death tax exemption for family-owned farms would be cut in half.

The budget resolution is not the budget itself, but simply an agreement about how much spending to cut, and from which committees. Legislative committees will still have to decide where and how to cut spending over the coming months. For instance, the budget resolution requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cost savings over the 10-year period.

Congressional Democrats have turned this into a point of attack, accusing Republicans of planning to cut Medicaid and Medicare, since those programs belong to this committee’s portfolio. “Republicans are literally going to gut the insurance program that covers millions of children and seniors,” declared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “This will mean rural hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down, addiction treatment centers will close their doors, and the most vulnerable will die because of the Republican budget.”

“People keep saying it’s $880 billion in Medicaid [cuts.] It’s not going to be $880 billion in Medicaid,” replied House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.). Instead, Speaker Johnson said Republicans plan to root out the “fraud, waste, and abuse” that occurs within Medicaid. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), improper payments from its programs totaled more than $50 billion in a single year, fiscal year 2024.

The budget resolution now heads to the U.S. Senate, which passed its own budget resolution last week as a “backup” to the House plan. “If they pass the bill that’s before the House, it will not pass the Senate without changes,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Washington Watch” before the House vote. “Send it to the Senate, and we will change it in a way to make it more compliant with President Trump’s vision of the tax cuts.”

Graham explained that the House resolution simply extended the Trump tax cuts for another eight years, while “President Trump wants the tax cuts of 2017 to be permanent. So do I. That’s good for the economy.” The Senate version would also address taxes on tips and Social Security payments, he said. “It will come to the Senate,” Graham described. “We’ll change it. Then we’ll have a conference.”

But, “I applaud Mike Johnson for getting the bill this far,” Graham added. “Mike Johnson is dealing with a one-vote majority.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

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