Tag Archives: President Trump

The Trump Presidency And Your Wallet

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the impact of the Trump economy on personal income.

The article reports:

Americans’ personal income in the first four months of 2025 is “almost triple the expectations,” making for a “great” start of the year, CNBC’s Rick Santelli exclaimed on the air, urging viewers to “give credit” to the Trump administration.

The longtime CNBC editor revealed the “powerful” numbers on Friday morning, sharing that personal income increased 0.8 percent in April. 

“This is a great four-month start to any year,” he said.

“When you look at income, for the first four months of the year, they’re powerful numbers — up 0.6 in January, up 0.7 in February, up 0.5 last month, up 0.8 this month. This is a great four-month start to any year.”

Santelli also lauded the fact that 0.8 percent is the “strongest” income month-over-month jump since May 2021, when it was 1.9 percent.

He went on to lament how the Trump administration is “criticized for just about anything under the sun,” despite the president’s “transparency” and positive accomplishments.

The article concludes:

“This administration is criticized for just about anything under the sun. I’ve never ever in my lifetime had glimpses into the politics of an administration in the form of transparency like this one. Why don’t we… give credit where credit is due?”

Part of the reason for the increase in consumer spending power is the lowering of the rate of inflation.

On Friday, The Daily Caller reported:

President Donald Trump achieved an economic victory after a prominent inflation reading dropped to its lowest reading in four years.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, one of The Federal Reserve’s primary inflation measurement models, showed a decrease in inflation in April 2025 to a level not seen since March 2021, according to a Commerce Department report.

The index, which measures goods and services spending, showed an increase of $47.8 billion, or 0.2%, with major gains in housing and health care the report stated.

In April, the PCE and Core PCE, which measures without noting volatile food and energy prices, both rose by only 0.1% from the previous month, according to the report. The consumer price index also indicated a drop in inflation to a four-year low as well, with a seasonal adjusted 0.2% in April, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation earlier this month.

This is the economic relief Americans needed. If Congress would just pass the spending cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Americans would enjoy more financial freedom.

The Problem With People Who Refuse To Leave The Stage

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On Friday, former President Biden gave a speech in Delaware to celebrate Memorial Day. That’s very appropriate–former Presidents are often asked to speak at various celebrations around the country. The speech was typical of his speeches–more about himself than anything else.

Friday night, The Daily Caller posted an article about President Biden and his various speeches since leaving office. The article was less than kind.

The article reports:

Former Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine said Friday on “The Ingraham Angle” that it appears no one in his party will tell former President Joe Biden to stop publicly speaking about the 2024 election, adding that the former president is holding the party back.

After delivering a Memorial Day event speech in Delaware, Biden said he was “very proud” of his “record” prior to dropping out of the race, appearing to suggest President Donald Trump had been “last” in favorability. While discussing Biden’s comments, Fox News host Laura Ingraham told Turrentine that the former president had been “pushed out” of the 2024 race.

“One of the ironies is that as Donald Trump’s poll numbers went down earlier this year, our poll numbers didn’t go up,” Turrentine said. “One of the reasons that they didn’t go up is that we are struggling to move forward, and Biden keeps pulling us backwards.”

Just for the record, President Trump’s approval record has not dropped below 44 percent since he took office. He began his term at about 50 percent. Considering the press coverage he gets, anything above 40 percent is amazing. When he left office, former President Biden’s approval rating was about 40 percent, amazing when you consider the press coverage he got. The current Democrat party rating is at about 35 percent favorable. That might have something to do with their stand on many issues that Americans oppose–open borders, medicaid for people who are here illegally, transgender surgery for minors without parents’ knowledge or permission, and shrinking the government bureaucracy, etc.

Currently the most popular people in the Democrat party are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pete Buttigieg. Right now, that is the future of the Democrat party.

The Fentanyl Tariffs

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On Thursday, The Daily Wire posted an article about President Trump’s attempt to use tariffs as a bargaining chip in the war against fentanyl.

The article reports:

We’ve been trending in this direction for some time now, but after yesterday’s ruling by a three-judge panel on the United States Court of International Trade in Manhattan — which struck down all of the Trump administration’s tariffs — it’s now official: We don’t need any more rulings from federal judges about what the president of the United States isn’t allowed to do. Those are completely pointless. Instead, what we need, in our alleged first-world democracy, is a ruling from some federal court explaining, in as much detail as possible, what exactly the president of the United States does have the authority to do while in office. That would be the most efficient way forward, at this point.

In just the past five months, federal courts have held that the Trump administration has no authority to do the following:

  • Change federal government websites
  • Fire any Executive Branch employees
  • Ban mentally disturbed individuals from joining the armed forces 
  • Eliminate slush funds for corrupt NGOs
  • Stop funneling billions of dollars of taxpayer money to anti-white universities like Harvard
  • Eliminate wasteful “administrative spending” that’s tacked onto every single scientific grant
  • Deport illegal alien gang members — even the wife-beaters and terrorists
  • Cut federal funding to child castration services for children

When I read this list, I wonder exactly what the courts are willing to allow the President to do!

On May 30th, The India Times reported:

The tariffs in question were put in place to encourage the countries behind the fentanyl crisis in America to crack down on the manufacture and transport of the drug. Admittedly, the drug comes into America because there is a market for it here, but it would be nice if we could all work together to solve the problem.
The courts have wandered far out of their lane. It’s time the Supreme Court stepped in and stopped this nonsense. However, I am beginning to wonder how many of the Supreme Court Justices are interested in following the Constitution rather than their political or personal leanings.

Forcing Congress To Do Its Job

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On Tuesday, updated Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act. This Act would begin to move a large part of responsibility for making laws away from the Executive Branch (bureaucratic regulations) and into the Legislative Branch (Congress actually passing laws).

The article reports:

When the House of Representatives last week passed Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” there was a poison pill for the regulatory state buried within: the long-lingering REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act that proponents have been trying to send to the Oval Office for signature for 16 years. The implications of such a bureaucratic dressing-down would reverberate throughout all of U.S. industry and consumerism.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin told Just The News, No Noise TV show that his hope is that it gets over the finish line and once it does, a cascade of other burden-easing improvements can take place. “As you look forward with the legislative agenda, there will be other opportunities to get permanent reform done, NEPA (National Environamental Policy Act) reform to make it easier to invest in America at less cost, taking less time and having more certainty,” he said. 

It was originally introduced in 2009 by then-Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., with the goal of increasing congressional oversight of federal agency rule-making. The current version of the bill stipulates that agency rules with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more, significant cost or price increases for consumers or industries, or substantial adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or US competitiveness, would require explicit approval from both the House and Senate via a joint resolution and then be signed by the president before taking effect.

The article notes:

A wide range of industries would likely see a tectonic shift, including energy, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, manufacturing and construction, transportation, agriculture and food safety. 

Phil Kerpen, who serves as president of American Commitment, referred to it as “unfinished business from the Tea Party era” and told Just The News that this could be the most significant aspect of the bill because it “would be a massive, positive change, and stop this pendulum from swinging wildly back and forth with the party in the White House. We’d have a lot more policy stability.”

In addition to concrete steps towards regulatory overhaul and passing Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” if Republicans remain committed to the issues upon which they were elected, they could quite possibly remain in the majority, thus granting Trump two more years to govern without obstructionist Democratic Party constraints. 

The REINS Act would definitely bring us closer to the government our Founding Fathers envisioned.

A Story That Needs To Be Shouted

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On Wednesday, President Trump met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. During the meeting, President Trump played videos of the genocide that is currently occurring in South Africa–a genocide that is being overlooked and denied by much of the world. The genocide is against the white farmers there. The white farmers own a large percentage of the farmland because when the Boers settled South Africa, they started farms. The current generation of farmers was not involved in that. The Boers mistreated the South African natives and the situation was not unlike America before the Civil Rights Movement. Unfortunately, when things began to change, the change did not stop in the peaceful area of the spectrum, it continued to the other side. For a number of years, white farmers have been being killed and their land seized.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

President Trump showed Cyril Ramaphosa a video of political activists within South Africa calling for the murder of white farmers, and then later video showing thousands of white crosses erected to call attention to the issue. Every element of media’s cultural Marxist army has been denying the atrocities while using political correctness as both a cover and justification for the slaughter. President Trump put a spotlight on years of international lying, Ramaphosa, did not know what to say.

…To give you an example of the DC media gaslighting, consider this phrase extracted from Politico as they attempt to deny what President Trump was outlining:

…”Additionally, the president’s claims of land seizures are exaggerated. While Ramaphosa signed a law earlier this year laying out circumstances in which the state can seize land for public purposes, most landowners are compensated.”… (link)

Land seizures are “exaggerated” because “landowners are compensated.” Can media even hear themselves, or read the typeset they use?

The farmers do not want to sell their land.  The farmers do not want to be “compensated.”   The compensation is irrelevant in the review of seizure.  The forced taking of the land, with or without compensation, is the seizure.

The murder of the white farmers is the issue, not “how many” of them are murdered.

The United Nations spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and many celebrities refused to perform in the nation. Where are they now?

President Trump’s Counter-Revolution

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

When discussing forms of government that America might take, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison in January 1787, stated: “I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing.” He was referring to his belief that no form of government is perfect since they are all controlled by fallible human beings who can, and should be expected to, deviate from the sound principles essential to liberty and freedom. When this happens, the people should rebel against these errors and force their political leaders to return to the essential principles and practices needed to ensure the survival of a free representative government by the people, not the ruling elite and bureaucrats.

I clearly remember President Trump, in his last state of the union speech before Congress in his first term in office, stating that America will never become a socialist country. That was the speech at which the Democrat Speaker of the House tore up her copy of President Trump’s speech right in front of not only Congress, but millions of Americans watching on television in as brazen and disrespectful act towards the office of president that I have ever seen. President Trump could clearly see that the country was being moved in the wrong direction.

President Trump, in the short time he has been serving his second term, has launched a wide series of reforms and actions that can best be described as a “counter revolution” to correct and reverse the Leftist/Marxist actions taken by the Biden administration. By doing so, President Trump is fulfilling his pledge to the citizens of this country to preserve and strengthen our constitutional representative Republic. Abraham Lincoln once said that if America is ever to be overthrown and its freedoms destroyed, it will not come from the hands of foreign enemies, but rather from having destroyed ourselves from within. A recent poll conducted by “You Gov.” reported that 96% of Republicans but only 58% of Democrats said that they are proud to be Americans. For many of these people, patriotism and love of country are clearly on the wane.

President Trump’s make American great again campaign is clearly a message to return to the principles and actions that made America the freest and most prosperous country on earth. He is reversing the Leftist/Marist actions such as open borders, destroying the traditional family (replacing it with dependence on the government, and bureaucrats controlling our lives). Policies such as Diversity/Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandated by the Biden administration are nothing more than denying the responsibility of each person for their own success and achievement and providing rewards that they did not earn. This is clearly out of the Leftist/Marxist playbook that states, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Human beings operate best when they are rewarded for their effort and achievement. This is the reason that no Leftist/Marxist country has ever been successful and eventually descend into authoritarian dictatorships. Compare North Korea and South Korea or Cuba and Japan.

President Trump has issued more executive orders in his short term in office that return freedom to the people than any other president. The range of these directives is so extensive they can only be seen as an effort to reverse not only economic but cultural issues. His actions against leftist universities are long overdue, since they are a source of indoctrination of our youth that must be reversed.  Similarly, his action to remove federal funding of National Public Radio, which is controlled by the Left, as well as prohibiting boys from competing against girls in sports, shows the wide range of issues that he is reversing. This can best be seen for what it is:  a counter- revolution to return this country to its founding principles. We must encourage our state and federal legislators to enact laws that will ensure that this effort cannot be easily changed by future presidents and governors. The future of this country is at stake!

The Big Beautiful Bill Advances Slowly

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On May 19th, NewsMax posted an article about the passage through the House Budget Committee last night on its way to the House Rules Committee. All of the members of Congress need to remember that if this bill is not passed, almost all Americans will see a major income tax increase next year.

The article reports:

House Speaker Mike Johnson took a “historical” active role in seeing that legislation passed the chamber’s Budget Committee, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., told Newsmax on Monday.

Johnson, Bergman, and other members of the committee worked late Sunday night to advance the chamber’s massive tax cut and border security package.

“I think as a as a historical note, I believe that the attendance of the speaker of the House at pre-meeting, last-minute, backroom negotiations was a first for a current speaker of the House to be attending a budget committee markup,” Bergman said on “Wake Up America.” “So that’s one historical data point.”

Bergman credited Johnson and committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, with agreeing to “some compromises.”

“This is all about moving a logical, if not perfect … remember, we’re trying to create a more perfect union here, not a perfect union with our with our form of government … but to move that big bill forward, to get it into rules, make the necessary changes and … to get it voted on the House floor sooner rather than later to meet those timelines that we’ve agreed to get President [Donald] Trump’s agenda, especially one of the first fiscal base parts of that agenda in play here by around the 4th of July,” Bergman said.

The article concludes:

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said he voted “present” for the bill to advance “out of respect for the Republican Conference and the President,” conceding that it needs improvements. In a statement on X, he also objected to the bill’s provisions around green energy tax credits and Medicaid.

“Tonight, after a great deal of work and engagement over the weekend, the Budget Committee advanced a reconciliation bill that lays the foundation for much needed tax relief, border security, and important spending reductions and reforms,” he wrote. “Importantly the bill now will move Medicaid work requirements forward and reduces the availability of future subsidies under the green new scam.”

“But, the bill does not yet meet the moment – leaving almost half of the green new scam subsidies continuing. More, it fails to end the Medicaid money laundering scam and perverse funding structure that provides seven times more federal dollars for each dollar of state spending for the able-bodied relative to the vulnerable,” he added. “This all ultimately increases the likelihood of continuing deficits and non-Obamacare-expansion states like Texas expanding in the future. We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”

I met Representative Bergman when he was a Marine Corps General stationed in New Orleans. I am thrilled that he is a Congressman. He represents the integrity, ability, and intelligence that our Founding Fathers hoped would be found in our elected officials.

It’s Only A Problem When President Trump Does It!

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On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about the airplane Qatar is giving to America to replace Air Force One. It seems that this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision by Qatar.

The article reports:

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) pointed out that talks regarding Qatar giving the United States a plane to temporarily replace Air Force One began under the Biden administration.

In an interview on CNN, Mullin pointed out that the U.S. needed a temporary replacement for Air Force One since President Donald Trump was “flying around on a 40-year-old plane.”

“Here’s what’s interesting to me, what the media isn’t telling you — what no one’s talking to you about, is the same 747 has been in negotiations for a year,” Mullin said. “The Biden administration is the one that started these conversations. It didn’t start underneath the Trump administration. Why? Because we need a back-up for Air Force One.”

“The President of the United States is flying around on a 40-year-old plane, and there is no back-up for it,” Mullin continued. “The back-up we had, the air frame started having structural issues. No one’s discussing that part.”

The article concludes:

Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the U.S., previously described reports that Qatar was gifting a plane to the U.S. during Trump’s visit to Qatar as “inaccurate” and said the “possible transfer” of a plane to the U.S. was “under consideration.”

“Reports that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate,” Al-Ansari said in a statement. “The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made.”

As usual, the political left is creating much ado about nothing.

Overlooked By The Media–But Very Important

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Can you imagine being charged with breaking a law that you had no idea existed? Not knowing the law is not an excuse. Furthermore, there are some laws so obscure that most of us have broken them at one time or another. Many of these ‘laws’ are not actually laws–they are simply regulations put in place by unelected bureaucrats.

On Thursday, Issues & Insights posted an article about a crime committed in Grand Teton National Park last fall.

The article reports:

Not long after Michelino Sunseri, a professional mountain runner, finished a race across Grand Teton last fall, he found himself on the receiving end of a Justice Department criminal charge. His offense? Running on a closed trail, for which he could end up serving six months in jail.

We are not making this up.

Last Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to prevent such gross abuses. It is one of the most important – and underappreciated – actions he’s taken.

The “crime” Sunseri committed wasn’t a federal law passed by Congress. It was a crime invented by the National Park Service – one of some 300,000 federal crimes (although nobody knows exactly how many there are) that unelected bureaucrats have conjured up when writing regulations.

The article notes:

In testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee last week, GianCarlo Canaparo, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, listed some of the absurdist crimes on the books:

  • It is a crime to sell a tufted mattress unless you have burned nine cigarettes on the tufted part of it.
  • It is a crime to sell a package of bacon unless the packaging includes a transparent window that ‘shall be designed to reveal at least 70% of the length (longest dimension) of the representative slice, and this window shall be at least 11⁄2 inches wide.’
  • It is a crime to submit a design to the Federal Duck Stamp contest if your design does not primarily feature ‘eligible waterfowl.’
  • It is a crime to sell a toy marble across state lines unless it is marked with a warning that says ‘this toy is a marble.’

I can safely attest to the fact that I have never committed any of the above crimes.

The article concludes:

Trump points out another problem with this criminalization overload.

“Overregulation privileges large corporations, which can afford expensive legal teams to navigate complex regulatory schemes, while disadvantaging small businesses and individual Americans and stifling new market entrants.”

Incredibly, we could only find three news outlets that covered this executive order: Reuters, the Daily Signal, and Reason magazine.

Who cares about civil liberties when there’s a Trump tweet to freak out about?

We truly have a President who can identify with those of us who cannot afford a group of lawyers to defend our every move.

 

A Chance For Peace In The Middle East

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On Wednesday, Robert Spencer posted an article at PJ Media about President Trump’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The article reports:

On Wednesday morning, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who from 2017 until January of this year, was known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “Syrian Liberation Group,” a Sunni jihad group that had been linked to al-Qaeda and was working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In January 2025, HTS finally attained its goal. Assad fled to Russia. Al-Julani took control in Damascus and announced that he was establishing a regime that would respect the rights of all Syrians. He insisted that he had broken with al-Qaeda years before, and to signify that he was a new man, he shed his nom de guerre and reverted to his birth name. He trimmed his beard, took off his fatigues, and donned a suit.

…In many ways, Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa is as momentous, and could be more momentous, than his first-term overtures to Kim Jong Un. The two meetings come from the same wellsprings: Trump is attempting to break longstanding logjams and end the status quo that the foreign policy establishment, both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, had come to take for granted.

…So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria. It could happen. The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests.

The article concludes:

Nevertheless, Trump’s attempt to create peace based on common interests and move beyond the present logjam is as welcome as it is audacious. Once again, Trump appears to be way ahead of everyone else, as he was when he established the Abraham Accords even as John Kerry was confidently telling the world that such a thing was impossible.

The establishment will howl at Trump’s meeting; that’s only to be expected. The president, meanwhile, is moving ahead with astonishing vision, immense confidence, and considerable imagination. The peace and stability of the Middle East, and of the entire world, are riding upon his success.

President Trump is essentially saying to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, “Put up, or shut up.” I have no doubt that continuing on the path of murdering Syrians that oppose the regime or aligning with terrorist forces in the Middle East will have dire consequences for Syria. This is their chance to become a successful and prosperous country.

If you are unfamiliar with Robert Spencer, here is his background:

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 30 books, including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, The Critical Qur’an, and Muhammad: A Critical Biography. His latest book is Antisemitism: History and Myth, and coming in Nov. 2025 is Holy Hell: Islam’s Abuse of Women and the Infidels Who Enable It. Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy.

No, It’s Not Illegal

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On May 14th, The Daily Caller posted an article including Attorney Alan Dershowitz’s comments on whether or not President Trump should accept the gift of an airplane from Saudi Arabia.

The article reports:

Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz on Tuesday detailed two reasons President Donald Trump would probably be able to keep a 747 reportedly being gifted to the United States.

Qatar offered Trump the $400 million Boeing 747-8 for modification into a VC-25 configuration to serve as Air Force One, with the jet being donated to Trump’s presidential library after his term in office ends. Dershowitz, on “The Dershow,” noted that the Constitution’s “emoluments clause,” something cited by some critics, actually would not prohibit the gift to the United States government.

“Okay, here’s what the Constitution says: No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States,” Dershowitz said. “In other words, we don’t have sirs and knights, or anything like that. So we can’t grant titles of nobility and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, that means the president, shall without the consent of Congress, and this is the key, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, emoluments, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state. Now, obviously, Qatar has the king. Oh, I guess he’s the emir, doesn’t say emir, he’s the emir, I know, I met him three times, the emir of Qatar, I know he’s an emir and I guess he comes under the category of king, prince or foreign state.”

This is how Attorney Dershowitz applies the law:

“Now this means no person shall receive the gift,” Dershowitz said. “We know that gifts are given to governments all the time… when you go to the Oval Office, where the White House, you see all over the place, gifts that have been given by foreign governments to the White House, great portraits of Winston Churchill and other things that are gifts the British government or other governments have been given to the United States. But when the incumbent president or any officer leaves, he doesn’t take the gifts with him, he leaves them. There have been a couple of occasions where the presidents of taken a few gifts, for example, letters they take letters now letters could be worth a fortune… I think presidents have taken some of those, but mostly they go to the Library of Congress or to the Smithsonian or to the presidential libraries.”

“Now presidential libraries are not the property of the president himself or of the former president,” Dershowitz continued. “They are the property of the Smithsonian Institute, the archives. They are the property of the United States of America, and so, if the emir of Qatar or the Qatari state gives the president of the United States a $400 million dollar airplane, that is not a violation of the emoluments clause, it’s perfectly constitutional.”

Dershowitz said that even if Trump were to keep the plane for his personal use, which would possibly make the plane a gift and thus conflict with the constitutional provision, critics of the gift still faced an additional hurdle beside the legal merits when it came to bringing the case in court.

Please follow the link to the article for further details. The bottom line is that this is much ado about nothing–typical for the Democrats.

I’m Skeptical, But I Would Love To See This Work

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On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to meet with the Syrian Foreign Minister on Thursday in Turkey.

President Trump will greet Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Riyadh tomorrow. 

My favorite quote from the article:

Trump will talk to anyone who sincerely wants to talk to him. It’s like his magic power.

Ahmed Al Sharaa has been serving as President of Syria since January of this year. He is from a Sunni Muslim family.

The article notes that he has not been an exemplary leader so far:

By the beginning of March, it was pretty clear a jihadi leader now using his given name – Ahmed Al Sharaa – in a $4000 suit was still a jihadi at heart. Al-Sharaa’s boys were having themselves the rampaging adventures of a lifetime, systematically exterminating Druze and Alawite communities all over northern Syria with impunity. Oh – and trying to find the five or six Jews left in the country.

We haven’t heard much out of the area since, except for reports that detail American and Israeli strikes on targets in the area. Most associated with the ongoing cat and mouse game the Houthis had been playing and the assorted Iranian militias supporting them, who operate freely all through the southern portion of Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, as President Trump noted during his speech in Saudi Arabia today.

I applaud President Trump providing an avenue for Al-Sharaa to reform, but I am skepticall. Any time you are dealing with an Islamist, you need to consider the Islamic concept of taqiyya. This is a concept in Islamic law that translates as “deceit or dissimulation,” particularly toward infidels. It is generally described as lying for the sake of Islam.

However, there may be some possible rewards for making nice to Syria.

To quote Shaun Maguire on X:

The article at Hot Air notes:

This also helps keep Turkey on the spot because, should Al-Sharaa start to see the fruits of cooperation with the US pay off and Syria begins to rise from the dead, he becomes a hero, and there’s nothing more these egotists love than being loved. He won’t let Erdogan interfere with that, whatever he owes him.

The other is the pressure from Saudi Arabia on Syria now. They facilitated this come to Trump moment. The crown prince would take it ill if the jihadi reappeared after making a public spectacle of the Saudis’ belief that he was worth cultivating and his country worth saving.

The Saudis do not take embarrassment lightly.

This is going to be interesting to watch. It would be wonderful to see the Middle East break out in peace.

Moving Toward The Country Our Founding Fathers Envisioned

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Under our Constitution, there are three branches of government–Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Each branch has specific duties. The legislative branch is supposed to make the laws. The legislative branch is held accountable for the laws they make by the election process–the House of Representatives every two years, the Senate every six years. The Founding Fathers did not want an elected Senate–they wanted Senators appointed by the states to make sure the Senators represented their home states. The Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, began the direct election of Senators. Currently, most of our laws are not laws–they are regulations created by unelected bureaucrats. That was never the intention of the Founding Fathers. It seems as though Congress may be getting ready to reclaim its responsibility.

On May 12, The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) reported the following:

While President Donald Trump has made reining in the unelected federal bureaucracy a top priority of his second term, the Republican Congress has thus far largely failed to get in on the action. But that could be set to change with a new bill that strikes at the heart of the Deep State and runaway executive power.

The Regulations From the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act , which Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced in the Senate earlier this year (Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) also introduced a companion version in the House)(H.R.3058) requires that all federal regulations with an economic impact greater than $100 million be passed through Congress. As Politico put it, the REINS Act “would turn Congress into a gatekeeper for certain major rules and allow lawmakers to roll back countless regulations for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.” The outlet further described the legislation as a “rule-busting bill” and “rule-shredding proposal.”

While Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois have criticized the bill as a “war on regulations” (a criticism that will no doubt read as high praise to conservatives), Republicans argue the REINS Act is a long-overdue check on the power of the unelected bureaucracy to impose regulations that have an enormous impact on the economy. “For those who say it would make a radical change, a radical departure from the status quo of rulemaking, I’d say, ‘Thank heaven above for that,’” Lee said.

The article concludes:

The urgency of addressing regulatory burdens is further highlighted in a 2024 report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The conservative think tank found that regulations under the Biden-Harris administration imposed $15,000 in annual costs on the average American household. That’s a serious number, particularly when the median household income is only $80,000 per year.

Congress has an opportunity to lower costs for American consumers and fuel an economic boom by passing the REINS Act – it should seize the chance now.

It would be really great if Congress would pass this bill.

Why Some Imported Products Are Cheaper

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There are a lot of reasons for the decline of manufacturing in America. Many of those reasons are related to trade deficits and the desire for cheap goods, but some are related to the cost of doing business in America. For better or worse, corporations in America who choose to operate within the law are required to pay their employees a minimum wage. We can debate over what that wage should be, but the fact of the matter is that a minimum wage exists. Some other countries have no qualms about employing slave labor or paying people very low wages. The Chinese have used Muslims as slave labor for years. So why would a manufacturing company want to locate in America? There are a number of incentives (in addition to the lowering of the corporate tax rate). America has dependable energy and is moving toward lowering the cost of energy. America protects property rights–the state cannot come in and simply take your business away. Innovation is also protected by patent and copyright laws. America represents a stable environment in which to do business. Changing the structure of tariffs also has moral component.

On May 12, The Federalist reported:

…But Trump’s tariffs were not just economic, they were moral. Rather than relying on foreign countries, particularly China, that benefit from abusive labor practices, Trump put America first by deciding the U.S. must stop pretending inexpensive products come with no human cost. 

…During Trump’s first term, his administration repeatedly highlighted human rights abuses abroad, especially in regions like China’s Xinjiang province, where the Chinese Communist Party is running forced labor camps filled with Uyghur Muslims. More than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been detained by China and sent to reeducation camps in what is called the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Zone” for a range of reasons, including attending religious services, having more than three kids, or texting verses from the Quran. 

China forced many of its religiously and ethnically targeted workforce to toil away in factories, making products distributed and sold across the globe. Muslim slaves in China produce countless store shelves worth of goods, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, such as textiles, hair products, and aluminum, among many other things. They get extremely low pay, can’t contact or visit their families (unless, in some circumstances, they are heavily surveilled by the government), and they can’t leave. 

The article concludes:

Yes, U.S. prices may go up a bit in the short term. Maybe American girls will find two dolls under the Christmas tree instead of 30, as President Trump suggested Sunday on Meet the Press. Maybe U.S. students will sharpen five pencils instead of hoarding 250 like mini office supply tycoons. But maybe underpaid workers in China won’t have to literally slave away making those dolls or pencils for someone else’s kid in a distant Land of the Free. 

President Trump believes temporary price fluctuations are a trade-off worth making in the interim, and he is doing what no other president had the guts to do. There is short-lived pain before lasting progress, and Trump is willing to take the heat now to put human rights and American prosperity over easy profits. 

Searching For Relevance

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It’s rather sad when people who should have left the spotlight years ago suddenly pop up and say ridiculous things, but it seems to happen frequently. Recently Al Sharpton spoke out against President Trump’s plan to grant asylum to refugees from South Africa who are in danger of being murdered for their farms. I understand that racism has been a problem in South Africa for a long time, but that does not justify murdering people because they own farms that have been in their family for generations. Unfortunately, the way the current laws in that country are written, penalties for murdering farmers are rare and lenient. The government of the country is essentially destroying any semblance of justice within the country.

On May 11, Red State reported:

In January 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed South Africa’s Expropriation Act 13 of 2024. It allows expropriation (seizure) of land without compensation. The law mandates “just and equitable” compensation in most cases, with judicial oversight for disputes. 

Ahh, “equitable.” As we’ve learned all too well, for the Democrat Party, “equity” — along with “inclusion” — doesn’t mean to the left what it means to the rest of us, or what it means in the dictionary.

In the wake of South Africa’s Expropriation Act, the Trump administration announced plans to bring more than 50 white Afrikaners to the United States, starting on Monday, saying they are “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

Senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday:

What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution.

Unfortunate to Al Sharpton, race-based persecution only matters when it is in one direction.

Red State reports:

Sharpton promptly and predictably trotted out his special kind of willfull ignorance over the administration’s plan, absurdly contrasting it with President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” of “the worst of the worst” illegal aliens — most of whom easily crossed the Southern Border during Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency — who had committed violent crimes in their respective countries or origin, including murder, rape, and child molestation.

…The white Afrikaners applied for asylum and Trump granted it, Al. 

Is the difference between people who legally apply for asylum based on valid reasons and people who illegally enter the U.S. really that hard to understand? No. Add in proven past criminal actions and convictions, and Sharpton looks even worse, if that’s even possible.

Mr. Sharpton, it is time to leave the stage.

We Have Totally Gone Down The Rabbit Hole

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On Friday, Fox News reported the following:

The controversial “60 Minutes” interview at the center of President Trump’s high-stakes lawsuit against CBS News is now an Emmy-nominated program.

The nominations for the 46th News & Documentary Emmy Awards were announced Thursday.

“60 Minutes” landed several nods, most notably in the Outstanding Edited Interview category for its primetime special featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Other nominees in that category include CBS’ interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the late Pope Francis, as well as NBC’s interview with Celine Dion and ABC’s interview with Brittney Griner.

…Last fall, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit (it has since been increased to $20 billion) against CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global, for what he alleged was election interference with how the network handled its Harris interview in the days leading up to the presidential election. 

The lawsuit stems from an exchange Harris had with “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker, who asked her why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t “listening” to the Biden administration.

Harris was widely mocked for the “word salad” answer that aired in a preview clip of the interview on “Face the Nation.”

It’s sad that the Emmy Awards are now political. They probably have been for a long time, but this is over the top. The interview was edited because Kamala Harris was a very unlikable candidate who was not good at giving logical answers when she was not scripted. President Trump has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, but I am beginning to believe that when it does that it is very purposeful. Vice-President Harris simply was not good at making clear, concise statements about her ideas of policies that she would propose, so CBS helped her. I believe that is a problem.

I believe that President Trump’s lawsuit is valid and am somewhat amazed that the Emmy Awards did not consider that in their nomination process.

This Is Wonderful News

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced the closure of the agency’s last remaining beagle experiment lab over the weekend after former NIH physician Dr. Anthony Fauci’s horrific beagle-testing scandal was exposed.

“It’s very easy, for instance, to cure Alzheimer’s in mice. But those things don’t translate to humans,” Bhattacharya told Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy on Sunday:

…“So we put forward a policy to replace animals in research with technological advances, AI and other tools, that actually translate better to human health.”

When he made the announcement that “We got rid of all of the beagle experiments on NIH campus,” Campus-Duffy said, “Amen.”

NIH confirmed the move on social media, saying it has enacted an “initiative to expand innovative, human-based science while reducing animal use in research, including getting rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus.”

A years-long investigation by medical watchdog group White Coat Waste revealed that the NIH killed over 2,100 beagles in “brutal septic shock experiments” since 1986.

The article concludes:

The Trump administration has been stepping away from animal testing within other agencies as well, with animal rights group PETA praising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for “helping spare tens of thousands of animals each year.”

There are better ways of gathering information than torturing animals. The experiments carried out on beagles during the time Dr. Fauci was in charge were horrific. I am truly glad to see experiments on animals end. Scientists need to find better ways to collect the information they need.

Jurisdiction Matters

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On May 45h, PJ Media reported the following:

When President Trump returned to the White House, he didn’t just get to work cleaning up Joe Biden’s mess—he set his sights on dismantling decades of entrenched bureaucratic bloat, waste, and corruption. With a relentless series of executive orders and policy directives, Trump reignited his mission to drain the swamp—this time with laser precision and zero patience for the status quo.

Predictably, the left went into full-blown panic mode. Liberal legal groups immediately launched a barrage of lawsuits, cherry-picking friendly courts in a shameless attempt to stall Trump’s agenda. They’re terrified of losing control over the bloated regulatory state they’ve used for years to push policies they could never pass through Congress.

But that strategy just hit a major roadblock. In a landmark ruling on Saturday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a decisive legal victory—one that could fundamentally change how activist judges and forum-shopped cases interfere with executive authority. 

“This is a huge victory for President Trump and his Article II powers granted in the United States Constitution. It’s also a victory for US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and VOA,” Kari Lake told Fox News Digital. Lake now serves as a USAGM senior advisor to the Trump administration. “We are eager to accomplish President Trump’s America First agenda which has always been to modernize and make our government efficient while cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Kari Lake told Fox News

The appeals court’s 2-1 ruling Saturday emphasized the judiciary’s deference to executive authority in matters concerning federal employment and contractual decisions.

The court noted that the district court likely lacked jurisdiction to interfere with the administration’s personnel actions and funding decisions, particularly regarding grant agreements with non-federal entities like Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

This ruling  Trump’s March 14 executive order (EO), which aimed to dismantle USAGM operations.

The article at PJ Media concludes:

The significance of this decision extends far beyond these specific cases—it establishes clear jurisdictional parameters that could affect dozens of pending lawsuits against Trump administration policies. While the administration won’t prevail in every case, this ruling suggests courts may need to more carefully consider their jurisdictional authority before issuing sweeping injunctions against executive actions.

The D.C. Circuit Court just handed Trump a game-changing victory that will help him clean house in 2025.

Let’s hope that this is the first of many good decisions by the courts.

Who Are The Migrants Being Arrested?

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On May 2nd, The Daily Caller reported:

During the week marking President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, ICE agents carried out a series of high-profile arrests of migrants with criminal records, according to a document first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Starting the week of his 100-day mark, booking photos of illegal migrants with convictions or pending charges were displayed along the White House north lawn’s perimeter. Throughout the week,ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO made major arrests across the country, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releasing details and photos of five of their most significant cases.

The article has pictures and brief details of five of the most significant cases:

ERO Detroit arrested Ludwig Ivan Castaneda-Gonzalez, a 33-year-old Mexican national, this week in Holland, Michigan. According to DHS, Castaneda-Gonzalez’s criminal history includes a conviction for criminal sexual conduct involving a person aged 13 to 15, which encompasses all sex offenses under Michigan law.

In Texas, ERO’s Houston team arrested Jesus Arriaga-Gamez, a 61-year-old Mexican citizen, for his record of aggravated sexual assault of a child. While DHS documents did not outline his full criminal history, they confirmed his conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child in Cameron County, Texas.

In the sanctuary city of Los Angeles, ERO agents arrested Christian Robles-Andrade, a 34-year-old Mexican citizen. Robles-Andrade, pictured with tattoos covering his body, is described as an active gang member with ties to the 8th Street Gang and goes by the nickname “Tiny.” According to DHS documents, his criminal history includes a conviction for voluntary manslaughter in Los Angeles.

In another sanctuary city on the East Coast, ERO Boston arrested Mario Alexander Ochoa-Lemus, a 33-year-old citizen of El Salvador. His criminal history includes convictions for rape and abuse of a child, child pornography and witness intimidation in Boston.

…On Thursday, DHS announced the arrest of Kwadwo Boaitey Frimpong, a 32-year-old citizen of Ghana, who was detained by ERO Baltimore on Tuesday. Frimpong entered the U.S. in 2019 on an F-1 visa but has since been convicted on seven counts of possession of child pornography, according to DHS. The agency stated he will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of removal proceedings.

These people entered our country illegally. Is there any logical reason to want to keep them here?

The Economic Quest For Peace

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One of the things that President Trump does very well is the waging of economic wars. He understands the leverage America has because it represents large market opportunities for all of its trading partners. That is one of many reasons so many countries are willing to negotiate the President’s tariff policies. One way to encourage peace in countries that don’t necessarily want to make peace is to pull the rug out from under them economically. For example, oil prices today are generally between $58 and $78 a barrel, coming down from a high of $113.90 on March 25, 2022. Russia needs oil prices to be consistently about $80 a barrel in order to support its economy and the war in Ukraine. America’s reach for energy independence presents a challenge to the Russian economy and Russia’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, President Trump is beginning an economic war against Iran.

On Thursday, Just the News reported:

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the United States will impose secondary sanctions on all countries or individuals that purchase oil or petrochemicals from Iran.

The announcement comes a day after the State Department sanctioned seven entities it accused of trading Iranian oil and petrochemical products. 

The president confirmed the new secondary sanctions in a post on Truth Social, warning countries they would not be allowed to do business with the U.S. if they purchase oil from Iran.

The article concludes:

The moves are part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran to help weaken its terrorist activities in the Middle East, including through its use of proxy forces.

The domestic economic problems these sanctions will cause will also create unrest in Iran. A regime change would be nice, but remember, history tells us that regime change does not always go in a democratic direction. Currently, we have the example of Syria. I would strongly recommend that America not meddle in any internal affairs in Iran. Our record of bringing regime change and bringing in new leadership in foreign countries is far from stellar.

A Much-Needed Safety Measure

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On Monday, The Hill reported that President Trump signed an Executive Order requiring commercial truck drivers in the United States to be proficient in English. This makes a lot of sense. The electronic signs along the side of the road often warn of impending traffic jams or accident scenes that require caution. Truck drivers need to be able to read these signs. Often, at the scene of an accident, law enforcement officers are giving verbal instructions. Truck drivers need to be able to understand these instructions. Requiring truck drivers to be able to understand English makes our highways safer.

The article reports the content of the Executive Order”

“Every day, truckers perform the demanding and dangerous work of transporting the Nation’s goods to businesses, customers, and communities safely, reliably, and efficiently,” the order said.

Trump designated English as the country’s official language in an executive order in March. In his order Monday, the president said proficiency in English should be nonnegotiable for professional drivers.

“They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers,” the order said. “Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English.”

Under the order, a driver must be able to read and speak English “sufficiently to converse with the general public” to operate a commercial vehicle in the U.S.

“My Administration will enforce the law to protect the safety of American truckers, drivers, passengers, and others, including by upholding the safety enforcement regulations that ensure that anyone behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle is properly qualified and proficient in our national language, English,” the order said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will issue a new guidance on English proficiency testing and enforcement policies, according to the order. A violation of the English language proficiency requirement would put a driver “out-of-service,” the order said.

“You might not know, but there’s a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials, as well, which obviously is a public safety risk,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Monday.

The decision was celebrated by Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

will issue a new guidance on English proficiency testing and enforcement policies, according to the order. A violation of the English language proficiency requirement would put a driver “out-of-service,” the order said.

“You might not know, but there’s a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials, as well, which obviously is a public safety risk,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Monday.

The decision was celebrated by Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

This is something that has been needed for a long time. Congress needs to get moving and pass this Executive Order as law.

The Change From Politics To Law Enforcement

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On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about the difference in priorities between the Biden Department of Justice and the Trump Department of Justice.

The article notes:

Don’t tell Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), but on April 17, the Department of Justice released detailed evidence demonstrating how Kilmar Armando Abrego García—whom Sen. Van Hollen and his fellow Democrats falsely portrayed as an innocent “Maryland father”—is not only an illegal immigrant but also a violent member of the brutal MS-13 gang. The Department of Homeland Security also provided court documents showing that García’s wife had previously sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, accusing him of assault and other forms of abuse. It’s the clearest sign yet that the adults are back in charge of protecting America’s homeland, and that’s great for America’s safety.

This degree of coordination between the DOJ and DHS under Trump’s leadership stands in sharp contrast to the Biden administration, when both agencies worked together to advance the Biden administration’s radical political agenda instead of protecting public safety.

…Secretary Mayorkas stopped construction on Trump’s border wall and kept ICE and Border Patrol from doing their jobs. When the surge in border crossings Biden specifically asked for became a political liability for Democrats, he and Attorney General Merrick Garland coordinated to massively expand Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and create the CHNV program, paroling hundreds of thousands of unvetted migrants into the U.S. interior ­— complete with an app to streamline the process.

Things weren’t any better at Biden’s DOJ. Garland presided over a DOJ that targeted Catholic parishes, inflated domestic extremism statistics, and labeled concerned parents as potential terrorists. Peaceful pro-life activists were arrested at gunpoint, while left-wing extremists who threatened Supreme Court justices or firebombed crisis pregnancy centers were ignored.

The article concludes:

Now, that’s changing. Trump’s team is showing the country what it looks like when the DOJ and DHS return to their core mission of protecting American citizens.

They’re working together to go after real threats—not parents, not pro-lifers, not credit card companies. But violent gang members, abusers, and foreign nationals who break our laws and endanger our communities.

Restoring credibility and functionality to these agencies after four years of abuse is a significant step in rebuilding trust with the American people.

Real justice means enforcing the law fairly, consistently, and with the goal of public safety. And for the first time in four years, that’s finally happening.

It will be interesting to see how a Justice Department focused on dealing with actual crimes will impact the crime statistics for 2025.

A Promise Fulfilled

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This is great news. On Monday, Red State reported that Vice-President J.D. Vance has fulfilled the promise he made at the Republican Convention and celebrated his mother’s 10th sobriety anniversary at the White House.

The article reports:

It is a truly inspiring and heartwarming story.

Vance’s mother, Beverly “Bev” Aikins, plays a significant role in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” where she is portrayed as a complex and troubled figure whose struggles profoundly shaped Vance’s life. 

In the book, she is described as a woman caught in a cycle of instability, addiction, and personal turmoil, which mirrors some of the broader challenges he attributes to the “hillbilly” community.

In the 2020 Netflix film adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy,” directed by Ron Howard, Bev is played by Amy Adams.

“I’m proud to say that tonight, my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober. I love you, Mom,” Vance said as the cheers cascaded down from the crowd in attendance.

Chants of “JD’s mom” could be heard echoing in the arena. That’s when Vance had an idea.

“You know, Mom, I was thinking. It will be 10 years officially in January 2025. If President Trump is okay with that, let’s have the celebration in the White House,” he said.

Journalist Salena Zito reports that Vance, happily, has now been able to fulfill that promise.

“Well, here we are. And you made it, and we made it. And most importantly, you’re celebrating a very, very big milestone,” the Vice President said, according to Zito. “And I’m just very proud of you.”

The article notes:

“A full-circle moment. Not just for her, but for the millions of moms who fought like hell to give their kids a better life,” writes podcast producer James Laverty.

“Who dreamed of something more, even when the world gave them every reason to quit. Not perfection, but a fight,” he added. “And she lives to see the other side, the dreams realized.”

Beverly “Bev” Aikins represents all Americans. We are not perfect. Some of our struggles are more challenging than others, but when we persevere, we win. Mrs. Aikins, you are an inspiration because of who you are and what you have overcome, and your son is an inspiration because of the love and respect he has for you despite the hard times in the past.

A Very Honest Picture Of The War In Ukraine

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On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness detailing the current status of the war in Ukraine. The article summarizes where we have been, where we are, and where we are probably going.

The article reports:

Aside from the rhetoric, there is a growing consensus among Western diplomats, military analysts, military officers, heads of state, and even much of the media about how to end the endless Ukrainian war.

A proposed peace will see a DMZ established somewhere along an adjusted 1,200-mile Ukraine-Russia border. Tough negotiations will adjudicate how far east toward its original borders Russian forces will be leveraged to backstep.

Publicly in the U.S. and covertly in Europe, all accept that a depleted Ukraine will not have the military strength to retake Crimea and the Donbas.

In 2014, both were absorbed by Russia during the Obama administration. Neither that administration nor any since has advocated a military effort to reclaim them.

Loudly, the U.S.—and again quietly Europe—concedes that Ukraine will not be in NATO—a confirmation that Russia will use to justify to its people its disastrous invasion, and even many Ukrainians will accept.

How will the West deter Putin from his inevitable agenda of reclaiming lost Soviet territory and Russian-speaking peoples? For now, his army is exhausted, its arsenals depleted, and its reputation shattered.

In the future, a commercial corridor, anchored by concessions to American and international mining concerns, will supposedly serve as a tripwire to deter Putin from attacking in-the-way noncombatant Americans.

The media spin on a ceasefire is predictable:

If Trump can coax even a ceasefire, the oddly bellicose left will still rail about “Munich” and Trump as “Putin’s puppet.”

But after perhaps 1.5 million total Ukrainian and Russian dead, wounded, sick, and missing, transatlantic leftists will quietly admit they never had any realistic plan to win by fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.

And they certainly were not willing—despite what they claimed in their spasms of braggadocio—to send U.S., U.K., European, or NATO ground troops into Eastern Ukraine.

The article concludes:

So, Putin knows that India, China, and others who buy his oil will not if he reneges on his willingness for a ceasefire.

If and when peace comes, we can already foresee the misinformation that will follow: Trump deserves no credit. Zelenskyy remains the true hero. A now hollowed-out Russia was the real winner.

The only mystery?

Since when did the anti-war left prefer an endless and horrific war to a difficult, messy peace?

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is one of the best summaries of the situation I have read.

Leveling The Playing Field

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On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article about one result of President Trump’s tariffs.

The article reports:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday suggested that Canada would drop its tariffs on U.S. goods if President Donald Trump eased up on his tariffs on Canadian goods.

During an appearance with CNBC’s Ross Sorkin, he stated that the impending tariff war is “just going to hurt American jobs” and that Trump “said he was going to create jobs, create wealth, reduce inflation.”

Sorkin asked whether Ford believed it was fair that Canada has “tariffs on a whole number of products.”

Ford replied, “And we’d be willing to take those off tomorrow if he took all the tariffs off” and suggested that “China is the problem.”

The host asked why Canada wouldn’t have these negotiations before Trump imposed his tariffs.

The premier responded:

Well, we’ve had this conversation for over the last month. We don’t want tariffs. We have another $65 billion dollars with a tariff to launch today. That’s the last thing we want to do because it’s just, again, it’s going to hurt both countries. It’s going to hurt American workers. That’s the last thing I want.

That statement is a very diplomatic way of saying nothing.

America has been paying tariffs on its exports to other countries for years. It is not unreasonable to expect that at some point the playing field would be made more level. It is not up to us to bankroll the rest of the world by letting other countries impose tariffs on us without imposing tariffs on them. I suspect that President Trump’s tariffs are not yet set in stone and are still in the negotiating stage. We do need to put tariffs on other countries, but the final details may be different from what we are currently hearing.