“The word ‘Medicaid’ is NOT EVEN in this bill.”
– Majority Leader Scalise REFUTES Democrat Talking Points…again!
“Look, Medicaid has never been on the chopping block.”
– House Speaker Mike Johnson
“The entire cabinet on behalf of President Trump and his extraordinary leadership is getting the lies out of our schools, the men out of women’s sports, the poison out of our foods, the woke out of our military, the predators off our streets, and the illegal aliens the hell out of our country.“
-Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff
“The reason Donald Trump can fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? Because he serves at the pleasure of the president, and we have a civilian led military. Everyone can stop with the hysterics now.”
– Scott Jennings, CNN Commentator
“Putin launched his war not because he was worried about Nato – that’s pure Kremlin propaganda – but because he is a ruthless opportunist, who had been in power for two decades, and who thought he could revive his political fortunes with a short, sharp war to rebuild the Russian empire… and everybody can see that Volodymyr Zelensky is not a dictator but a democrat courageously defending his country against an aggressor. He doesn’t shoot journalists. He doesn’t poison his opponents or send them to the Gulag. That’s Putin.“
– Boris Johnson, Former Prime Minister of the UK
“The government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.“
– Ronald Reagan
“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
– Milton Friedman
“We have now reached the point where virtually everything that serves black ‘leaders’—dependency, grievance-hunting, racial hype and paranoia—are major disservices to the cause of advancing blacks, at a time when their opportunities have never been better.“
– Thomas Sowell
“Intolerance may not promote progress but it can promote survival. An intolerant Islamic world may outlast the Western world that seems ready to tolerate anything, including the undermining of its own fundamental values and threats to its continued existence.”
– Thomas Sowell
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville
“I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”
– Jeff Bezos, Owner Washington Post
Governing vs Authoritarianism: Liberals are screaming that Trump is an “authoritarian” and lying to protect big government and the swamp’s bureaucracy.
Trump won the election! The Electoral College AND the National Popular Vote.
Trump becomes the President and therefore gets to govern.
Trump appoints his cabinet; they get to lead on policy and personnel.
Trump gets to set policy, implement his policies, and hire his team.
This is NOT authoritarianism; this is democracy at work. Trump won, and therefore he gets to govern. Just because you don’t like his policies, his style, or his objectives, Americans voted for him and his policies. That’s how democracy works.
So, stay calm, my friends.
The Art of the Deal: Someone came to Washington and didn’t do his homework. An embarrassing display of disrespect and lack of understanding with regards to the mood in America and the financial pressures taxpayers are under.
I watched the entire exchange 3 times… amazing miscalculation and shocking lack of civility towards someone you’re asking for a huge commitment of funds and potential boots on the ground. I’ve never heard a conversation like that.
Diplomacy can be messy and difficult, but today President Trump let the world know it’s not going to be business as usual. America’s interests and costs need to be taken into consideration.
Good thing our European allies are stepping up and are willing to help Ukraine. One would hope when the time is right, Mr. Zelensky will reach back out to the United States to help make a peace deal.
President Trump reiterated his support for NATO and specifically Article 5.
President Trump told the UK’s Prime Minister if they and Europe engage and support Ukraine, the United States will support them and back them up. He has told other European leaders the same.
Congressional leaders have made it clear the United States continues to support Ukraine, NATO and believe in peace through strength.
The Europeans are stepping up. Putin needs a deal as Russia’s economy spirals down, has lost nearly a million young men who have died for his arrogant vision of grandeur and the world keeps on squeezing his war machine. You would think Ukraine would like a deal, but maybe just not yet?
I would fire the lobbyist, consultants, analysts, or whomever briefed Zelensky and suggested he act, talk, argue, let alone dress like that while going to meet the President in the Oval Office.
It’s still early; there will be a lot of moving parts…give it time, recalibrate, and give peace a chance.
Secretary Rubio Explains America’s Position: Excellent discussion and analysis of what and why things spun out of control at the Trump & Zelensky meeting… if you want to understand where Trump is coming from.
Democrats Lying: As soon as Republicans passed the budget in the House, the Democrats engaged in shameless scare tactics, claiming Republicans were cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
That’s a lie.
The budget bill NEVER even mentioned the words Medicare or Medicaid. There are NO cuts in this bill.
President Trump made it clear that DOGE is finding billions of dollars (If not over a trillion) in fraud and waste within the system. There are savings to be had.
House Republicans are committed to preserving and strengthening Social Security and Medicare!
Senate Republicans are committed to preserving and strengthening Social Security and Medicare!
DOGE is finding BILLIONS in fraud and abuse that will go a long way to guaranteeing seniors a reliable and safe retirement.
Do NOT buy into the Democrats scare tactics and deceptive rhetoric.
Democrats are lying!!!
Democrats Orchestrate Outrage: Funny how that works.
Left-wing opposition groups, Democrat party operatives, and radical progressives are organizing themselves to show up to Republican town hall meetings to try and harass, embarrass if possible, and distort what the Trump Administration is doing.
The fake outrage at DOGE at GOP town halls is being coordinated by a Soros-backed NGO called Indivisible. President Trump and his DOGE efforts are overwhelmingly popular among Republicans and Independents. Even a majority of Democrats approve of the cost-cutting.
It’s all for show… they normally wouldn’t show up to a Republican member’s town hall… but there is an online effort to “ask the right questions” and astro-turf “outrage” to get media coverage.
And the mainstream media dutifully obliges.
Cutting government is a good thing.
Cutting waste and fraud in government is a GREAT thing.
We have a huge budget deficit and a growing debt… American taxpayers need to rein in the runaway spending and wasteful programs that so many on the left love… sorry folks.
We finally have a TAXPAYER’s President… I, for one, am grateful.
Common Sense Election Reform: President Trump presented a plan to ALL the Democrats from virtually every state… just plain common sense to avoid the appearance of impropriety and ensure fair and transparent elections… basic election integrity.
– Paper ballots, numbered and with watermarks
– Voter/Photo I.D.
– Same day voting
– Verify citizenship upon voter registration
Europe Stepping Up in Ukraine: Billions of dollars of military aid have been committed to Ukraine on the Third Anniversary the vicious Russian attack on Ukraine by Putin.
Russia’s “3-day war” has turned into a “3-year nightmare” for Moscow.
Russia bombed civilian sites, kidnapped infant children, murdered civilians… literally committing war crimes on a daily basis as the world watched.
Now… deliver the promised aid sooner rather than later. “Standing” with Ukraine doesn’t win the war… many NATO members haven’t spent 2% of GDP, let alone getting to 5%.
NATO allies, Biden and Obama had tied one hand behind Ukraine’s back as they trickled in support, restricted their ability to fight this war, and continued to fund Russia’s war machine by buying energy and more from Russia.
Peace is easy… all Russia has to do is pull its troops OUT of Ukraine and stop bombing its neighbor!
Reagan on Peace: Yes, my friends, in the words of the late, great Ronald Reagan you and I have a rendezvous with destiny…
“There is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond for which they must not advance.”
“Let’s set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace–and you can have it in the next second–surrender.”
One of the best 2:34 minutes of Reagan you’ll ever hear…as relevant today as it was then!
Read more below and follow me on X & GETTR – @sanuzis
–Saul Anuzis
Saul’s News Weekly Rewind Video
This Week: Congressman Derrick Van Orden sets the record straight on lies surrounding the budget process, Kevin O’Leary says DOGE is not cutting enough, President Trump approval rating high, and President Ronald Reagan gives inspirational advice!
Trump-Zelensky summit explodes: “He can come back when he is ready for peace”
The main event of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House was supposed to be the signing of a minerals deal, but it quickly devolved into a heated argument with President Trump and Vice President Vance.
The latest: After an explosive Oval Office meeting in front of the press, Trump released a statement saying that he had determined Zelensky is “not ready for Peace if America is involved.” Lunch and a joint press conference between the two leaders were canceled.
Victor Davis Hanson: Who Caused the Counter-Revolution?
At some point, some president was going to have to stop the unsustainable spending and borrowing.
To have any country left, some president would eventually have had to restore a nonexistent border and stop the influx of 3 million illegal aliens a year.
Some commander-in-chief finally would have to try to stop the theater wars abroad.
But any president who dared to do any of that would be damned for curbing the madness that his predecessors fueled.
And so none did–until now.
Not since Franklin Roosevelt’s rapid and mass implementation of the New Deal administrative state have Americans seen such radical changes so quickly as now in Trump’s first month of governance.
Americans are watching a long-awaited counter-revolution to bring the country out of its madness by restoring the common sense of the recent past.
It is easy to run up massive debts and hard to pay them back. Politicians profit by handing out grants and hiring thousands with someone else’s money or creating new programs by growing the debt.
Yet it is unpopular and considered “mean” to spend only what you have and to create a lean, competent workforce.
1776, not 1619, is the foundational date of America.
Trump and the polls: Is he up or down?
In recent days, Democrats have been delighted with polls showing a decline in President Donald Trump’s job approval rating. Last Thursday, CNN’s Harry Enten declared the previous 24 hours “the worst polling day for Trump during his entire second term.” CNN focused on four recent polls showing Trump’s job approval underwater, although in the same period, there were four other polls that showed it above water.
Now it is the White House’s turn to hype the polls. A new Harvard-Harris survey, conducted by Mark Penn, the former Clinton pollster, has nearly across-the-board good news for the Trump administration and nearly across-the-board bad news for Democrats.
Start with job approval. The Harvard-Harris survey has Trump at 52% approve, 43% disapprove. Compare that to others in the last two weeks. Rasmussen had Trump at 51%-48%. Economist-YouGov at 50%-47%, Emerson at 48%-42%, Washington Post-Ipsos at 48%-51%, Quinnipiac at 45%-49%, and CNN at 46%-54%.
What accounts for the differences, with approval ranging from 52% at Harvard-Harris to 45% at Quinnipiac? Or for disapproval, ranging from 43% at Harvard-Harris to 54% at CNN?
It’s not the poll question or how it is worded. Job approval is a highly standardized poll question. The Quinnipiac poll asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president?” The CNN poll asked the question in precisely the same words, and the Harvard-Harris poll was very slightly different at: “Do you disapprove or approve of the job Donald J. Trump is doing as President of the United States?” It’s all the same…
…As far as Democrats are concerned, the Harvard-Harris poll reports that the party’s approval rating has fallen to 36%, its lowest level in years. On the other side, 64% of those surveyed disapprove of the Democratic Party. In one remarkable finding, 33%, fully one-third, of Democrats disapprove of their own party.
Taken together, these numbers suggest that Trump, now in his second month in the White House, is moving forward at full speed with solid public support. Obviously he has detractors all over Washington, but he always has. Obviously he has courts trying to stop him, but he always has. And obviously it all could change, quickly or slowly. But right now, it’s not surprising that Democrats are having so much trouble getting their act together when it comes to opposing the president.
Radical transparency is the secret to Trump’s early success
Working fast and out in the open is the kind of customer service Americans can appreciate
The most remarkable thing about President Donald Trump’s whirlwind first five weeks back in office has not been the pace at which his administration has been making major changes, but rather that it has done so without spending much political capital, or, in laymen’s terms, losing much support.
Trump’s slew of executive orders, covering everything from establishing only two genders, to freezing federal spending, cutting energy regulations and much more have been fast and furious.
The pace of change has left Democrats and their media allies flatfooted and confused, punching at quickly changing shadows, as when they laughably pointed to a fired national parks employee who had the only keys to the restroom as evidence of chaos. It’s actually just evidence of incompetence.
Institutional Resistance To Trump Proves The Left’s Disdain For Democracy
Those condemning President Trump’s firings of resistance officials are not attacking the executive — they are attacking our democracy.
Donald Trump is not acting like a dictator. And he’s not acting like a king. He’s governing as the executive — the position to which he was elected by a majority of voters.
Yet with every decision President Trump makes, the left responds with claims that our very democracy is at risk. But, as is often the case, if you allow the ignorant to talk long enough, they shine a light on their stupidity — and their true motives. And with just a month into Trump’s second term, the left has fully revealed that their attacks are not aimed solely at the President, but also target the voters who elected him, proving President Trump is not the threat to democracy. They are.
Americans’ trust in media at lowest point in 5 decades: Survey
Americans’ trust in the media to report the news fairly and accurately has sunk to its lowest point in more than five decades.
Just 31 percent of respondents in Gallup’s latest survey on the topic said they trust the mainstream media “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” while 36 percent said they don’t trust the media “at all.” Another third said they do not have much trust in the media.
Gallup began tracking views of the news media in the 1970s when attitudes were overwhelmingly positive and only 6 percent said they didn’t trust the news at all. Nearly 70 percent in that initial survey said they had a great deal or a fair amount of trust.
The numbers have dramatically tumbled in the decades since and continue to decline after a brief tick up in 2017 and 2018, a trend Gallup notes has been most visible among younger adults and Republicans and particularly since the growth of the internet, social media and alternative sources of information.
About 6 in 10 Republicans said they have no trust in mainstream media, with a particularly sharp increase coinciding with President Trump’s rise in politics. Comparatively, 6 percent of Democrats said they have no trust in what’s reported.
71 percent of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts: Poll
Most President Trump voters say they oppose any cuts to Medicaid as Republican lawmakers wrestle with how to reach up to $2 trillion in budget cuts through their reconciliation bill, a poll released Monday found.
The poll from Hart Research conducted for the nonprofit Families Over Billionaires, which advocates in opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy, found 71 percent of voters who backed Trump said cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Voters overall were even more opposed to it, with 82 percent saying so.
Six in 10 Trump voters also said cutting food and nutrition programs would be unacceptable.
Medicaid has increasingly become a hot topic on Capitol Hill as the GOP seeks to advance its budget proposal to pass Trump’s legislative agenda.
The House Rules Committee voted along party lines Monday to advance the budget resolution, allowing it to move to the floor for debate and a vote…
… “Look, Medicaid has never been on the chopping block,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said during a press conference. “If you eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in Medicaid, you’ve got a huge amount of money that you can spend on real priorities for the country.”
Leftist Political Theater Is Back At GOP Town Hall Meetings In Trump 2.0
If it all seems familiar, if you suspect you’ve seen this movie before, it’s because it is and you have.
The liberal spin machine that is the accomplice media want you to know that constituents in congressional districts represented by Republicans are “angry” and “outraged.”
The “hostile audiences” the House members are encountering reportedly are in response to President Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to give the morbidly obese federal government bureaucracy a daily Ozempic injection. Constituents in congressional districts won handily by Republicans are mad as hell about DOGE finding criminal abuses of tax dollars and they’re not going to take it anymore, the corporate media talking points want you to believe.
If it all seems familiar, if you suspect you’ve seen this movie before, it’s because it is and you have. It’s early early 2017 again, and the Trump-hating resistance movement is up to its old tricks. The leftist network is working overtime again to gin up indignation against Trump and MAGA Republicans, recruiting protesters for “raucous” demonstrations lapped up and mass marketed by the Pravda press…
Meet the far-left groups funding anti-DOGE protests at GOP offices across the country
Groups backing anti-DOGE protests have also backed defunding the police, anti-Israel protests and ending cashing bail
The left-wing groups backing the anti-DOGE protests across the country have been funding a variety of progressive causes in recent years, including defunding the police, pushing socialism, anti-Israel protests and opposing President Donald Trump’s agenda in general.
In a press release earlier this month, MoveOn.org announced that it was mobilizing resources as part of a “Congress Works for Us, Not Musk” initiative “aimed at pressuring lawmakers to fight back against the Trump-Musk agenda.”
MoveOn.org has taken millions of dollars from George Soros and his Open Society Policy Center in recent years. Soros is one of the most prominent backers in the United States of left-wing issues, including backing progressive district attorneys that set out to “reimagine policing” in the United States.
Additionally, Fox News Digital has previously reported on the Soros network’s ties to the anti-Israel protests that swept the country on college campuses last year.
Dem Rep Reveals the Party’s Grand Plan to Defeat Donald Trump
Democrats could quickly turn things around if they focus on job creation, fairer trade deals, and not being weirdos. They may be past the point of no return, as they claim the work that President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are doing is unpopular—it’s not. Now, we talk of oligarchies and other messages that are still clearly aimed for the elitist wing of the party.
What about trying to win back the working class? Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) gave the game away, admitting no plan. The Democrats are just waiting for Trump to fail–that’s the grand strategy at the moment. It’s an action plan Khanna doesn’t like, and he ripped his party’s leadership for it. Khanna made his opinions known on The Young Turks (via Daily Caller):
2025’s Tax Time Bomb: GOP’s Last Chance To Prevent Economic Shock
Republicans in Congress are about to make a major mistake on tax policy, and the consequences could slam our economy. While they’re busy posturing about budget numbers and reconciliation procedures, they’re missing the fundamental point: without swift action on tax cuts, we’re heading toward a massive tax increase that will hit every American.
The stakes couldn’t be clearer. If Congress fails to act by year’s end, the standard deduction for couples will plummet from $30,000 to around $15,000-17,000. This isn’t just a technical adjustment—it’s a direct hit to American families’ wallets. Only in Washington would they create tax legislation with expiration dates like a gallon of milk.
But timing isn’t just about avoiding disaster—it’s about creating prosperity. A tax bill passed in December, as happened in 2017, loses a full year of economic impact. Markets and businesses make their plans well in advance. Republicans need to stop floundering over procedural details and pass significant tax cuts by April or May to affect the 2025 economy.
The path forward is straightforward: focus on growth-oriented tax cuts that go beyond merely extending the 2017 provisions. Eliminate taxes on tips. Remove taxes on Social Security benefits. Cut the corporate tax rate to 15% for domestic profits. And yes, reduce the capital gains tax—a move that historically increases federal revenue immediately as people unlock their accumulated gains.
IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn leaked Trump’s tax returns, but we’re now learning how much damage he really did
For much of President Donald Trump‘s first term in office, the coalition of Democrats, activists, and media figures known collectively as the Resistance believed that obtaining Trump’s tax returns would be the key to bringing down the president. Finally, on Sept. 27, 2020, at the height of Trump’s reelection campaign, the New York Times reported that it had “obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office.” The paper published several long articles based on the information.
Voila! The Holy Grail of the Resistance! The problem was the stories came and went and did not become the huge, earthshaking scandal the anti-Trumpers had hoped. The long-awaited bombshells weren’t really bombshells, and the political world moved on.
They crossed the Darien Gap to reach the US. Now, boat-by-boat, migrants are returning
They once braved the jungles of the Darien Gap, trekking days along the perilous migrant passage dividing Colombia and Panama with a simple goal: seek asylum in the U.S.
Now, boat-by-boat, those migrants – mainly from the Andean nations of Venezuela and Colombia – have given up after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum, and are returning to the countries they once sought to escape.
One of those speed boats zipped through dense jungle-cloaked rivers near the Colombia-Panama border on Sunday, headed south. Inside were around 20 migrants clinging to their backpacks and shielding themselves from the water’s spray.
Many of those same people waited months, sometimes more than year in Mexico to get an asylum appointment in the U.S. through a Biden-era CBP One app, which ended under Trump.
“ When Trump arrived and eliminated the application (CBP One) all our hopes went up in smoke,” said Karla Castillo, a 36-year-old Venezuelan traveling with her younger sister.
It’s part of what authorities call a “reverse flow” of migrants. The speed boats depart from a rural swathe of Panama and cross the seas in packs, hopping island to island until they reach the northern tip of Colombia.
World Order Is Not Falling Apart. It’s Being Restored.
Reading these headlines from The Wall Street Journal, “Trump’s Attack on Zelensky Signals New World Order Taking Shape,” and MSNBC, “Trump and his MAGA subordinates are ushering in a new world order,” you are supposed to believe Trump is destroying the world — again. The latest iteration of Trump’s transgressions is prompted by his administration’s direct negotiations with the Russians to end the war in Ukraine.
Contrary to the foreign policy blob, ending the war in Ukraine would be a crucial step toward restoring global stability and would better position the United States to address the primary challenge to international order — China — which directly impacts U.S. interests.
One of the most persistent claims since Trump came to office is that the rules-based international order is on the verge of collapse. To state the obvious, every major international institution established after World War II — the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization (formerly GATT)—still exists and continues to operate. NATO countries are finally starting to increase their own defense spending, the European Union endures even without the UK, and the global economic system continues to be governed by international rules and agreements. The idea that negotiating peace in Ukraine is going to end the entire structure of international relations is ridiculous.
Moreover, Ukraine is neither a NATO nor an EU member, meaning its war with Russia does not directly implicate the core security guarantees of the West. In reality, Ukraine was not invited into the EU and NATO for legal, economic and political reasons. Ultimately, neither European nor American leaders saw fit to allow the country into the same formal economic and security agreements enjoyed by the rest of the continent. Treating Ukraine, because of the Russian invasion, as if it’s the same as NATO or EU makes no sense.
Trump’s Ukrainian Tightrope
Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 because he saw weakness in the West, but now both he and the world want an end to the war—Trump may be the only one willing to cut an imperfect but necessary deal.
To find an impossible peace between Ukraine and Russia we must understand the recent history of the war and the European and American roles in it. So, Americans should revisit some fundamental realities and questions from which to remember before going forward:
Why Did Putin Invade Ukraine in 2022?
Putin did start the war. Trump’s trolling aside, he knows that because he correctly pointed out that Putin invaded his neighbors in three of the last four administrations—but not his own, given Trump’s deterrence.
The most obvious answer why Putin did is that he thought he easily could. But why in 2022—as he had in 2008 and 2014?
Putin has nonending opportunistic desires to recombobulate what he thinks properly is and will always be Russian—whether territories to be formally absorbed or as coerced satellite states. But he moves on them only whenever he thinks the benefits outweigh the costs.
And by February 2022, he certainly felt they did.
The U.S. and NATO had lost all appearances of deterrence vis-à-vis Russia. Joe Biden had been part of the Obama-Biden administration that had naively appeased Putin for some eight years. Remember their 2009 reset by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was based on numerous flawed and disastrous assumptions:
A quick way to cut $1 trillion in federal spending
President Trump was on to something when he suggested that state governments should have the primary responsibility for handling disasters — and most other matters as well. The federal government taxes individuals who send their tax dollars to Washington, and then the feds hand back to the states more than a trillion dollars each year. Do we really need that federal middleman? Why not lower federal taxes, leaving more money with individuals? States could then access those funds to address their needs.
In fact, if Trump succeeds in drastically shrinking the federal workforce, states may have little choice but to take the lead in meeting whatever challenges they may face.
In fiscal 2023, federal transfers to state and local governments came to $1.1 trillion, about 17.6 percent of all federal spending, according to USAFacts.com.
Federal government handouts to state and local governments had been gradually rising since 1990. However, 2020 saw a significant increase as the feds started shoveling out pandemic-relief money to the states, peaking at $1.4 trillion in 2021, then declining slightly to $1.3 trillion in 2022.
It’s understandable why the government would ladle out money during the early days of the pandemic when much of the economy was shut down. But the pandemic has dramatically declined and is mostly an annoying blip today. Even so, federal handouts remain elevated.
Angry Democratic donors turn off the flow of money
Democrats are anxious to rebuild their party on the heels of President Trump’s victory in November. But they have a major problem as they try to refashion their brand: The money isn’t there.
Democratic donors — from bundlers to small dollar donors — say they are still angry about the election results and uninspired by anything their side has put forward since then.
“I’ll be blunt here: The Democratic Party is f‑‑‑ing terrible. Plain and simple,” said one major Democratic donor. “In fact, it doesn’t get much worse.”
A second donor was equally as pointed. “They want us to spend money and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward thinking,” the donor said. “The thing that’s clear to a lot of us is that the party never really learned its lesson in 2016. They worked off the same playbook and the same ineffective strategies and to what end?”
Much of the consternation among the donor community stems from the unprecedented 2024 election cycle, where many felt misled by the party and former President Biden’s reelection campaign. Until the Democratic debate in June, donors and fundraisers were led to believe that Biden could once again defeat Trump, even as many had serious reservations about it.
Wisconsin Democratic governor proposes replacing ‘mother’ with ‘inseminated person’ in state law
Wisconsin budget proposal recommends changing ‘paternity’ to ‘parentage,’ and ‘father’ to ‘parent’ in certain parts of state law
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, is facing backlash for introducing a budget recommendation that changes the word “mother” to “inseminated person,” and “paternity” to “parentage” in certain parts of state law.
The Evers administration’s budget recommendation for the 2025-2027 fiscal period advises several other gendered terms be changed, as well. References to “wife” or “husband” are changed to “spouse” in the proposal. In other places, the word “father” is changed to “parent,” and “mother” is swapped out for the phrase “parent who gave birth to the child.”
The budget was introduced by the state Senate’s Joint Committe on Finance on Tuesday.
Wisconsin radio host Dan O’Donnell noted the language change in a post on X, calling it “beyond parody.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, commented on the post, writing simply “red flag!”
United States Senate Fails First Test on Balancing the Budget
Congress hates ideas to cut spending. Whether we are talking about Republicans or Democrats, they seem to be incapable of taking any concrete action to lead on the idea of balancing the budget and paying down America’s approximate $36 trillion in debt. Our national debt is emerging as the greatest threat to national security, yet Congress refuses to follow the lead of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run by Elon Musk, to make reforms to government spending programs. The fact that the Senate has rejected ideas to use the budget process to cut spending is a bad sign going forward.
The Trump Administration has been aggressive in finding places to cut spending through executive action. This continues the idea of “Promises Made, Promises Kept” that has been a mantra of the Trump Administration since his first term in office. One promise was to find ways to shrink government where it made sense. The executive branch of government has taken the lead on weeding out waste, fraud and abuse, yet Congress seems to want to increase spending on programs they want to empower, yet they steadfastly refuse to pay for new spending with the spending cuts proposed by President Trump and Members of Congress who have proposed reforms to government programs.
The evidence of a lack of will on the part of the Senate to cut any spending was clear recently when my former boss, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), offered an amendment to the Senate budget resolution on February 20, 2025 to cut federal spending by at least $1.5 trillion mirroring his “Six Penny Plan.” The Paull amendment sets up a process to balance the federal budget in five years by cutting spending 6% per year by creating a new budget function that freezes in programs spending, in addition to calling on Congress to find a 6% cut every year for five years. The Paul idea preserves Congressional discretion on how to achieve the reductions.
Economic partnership will protect the Ukrainian people and the US taxpayer
While much has been reported about the economic partnership that President Donald Trump has proposed to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there is a great deal about it that has been misrepresented or is just plain wrong. So, I welcome this opportunity to make clear how this partnership benefits both our nations.
Without the support of the United States and the American people, Ukraine’s position today would be perilous at best. The support of the US has enabled a historic and valiant defence by the Ukrainian people, and as a result, we are now on the verge of a peace deal for Ukraine and a renewal of stability in Europe.
As has been previously reported, Zelenskyy proposed giving the US a stake in Ukraine’s rare earths elements and critical minerals on a visit to Trump Tower in September. In other words, it was the Ukrainian president himself who first proposed to President Trump a future, economic partnership with shared benefits to both nations.
We know Ukraine’s economic future in a time of peace can be more prosperous than at any other point in the nation’s history, and a partnership with Americans will ensure its prosperity. President Zelenskyy recognizes this and so does President Trump. With these facts in mind, I travelled to Kyiv on my first international visit as the secretary of the Treasury with a proposal that demonstrates our long-term commitment to a free and secure Ukraine — an agreement focused on turbocharging the country’s economic growth.
This partnership will support the US’s continued commitment to the people of Ukraine as well as lay the foundation for a robust reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy. While asset prices can be fickle, Ukrainian debt has been trading up on the news, signalling that Ukraine’s creditors and financial markets appreciate the benefits of the economic partnership.
The Ukrainian people have demonstrated incredible bravery and resilience. They deserve to enjoy the benefits of the freedom for which they have fought so heroically. Ukraine is endowed with natural resources and other national assets that can drive its postwar economic growth, but only if its government and people are armed with sufficient capital, expertise and the right incentives.
CNN: Deep State Bureaucrats Threaten To Sell State Secrets If Trump Isn’t Nice To Them
CNN warns that intelligence employees who get the axe are valuable — and that those same employees will sell national secrets if fired. Which is it?
Brace yourself as the propaganda press tries to stop President Donald Trump from culling corruption from the deep state. Expect “news” stories screaming about ordinary budget and staff cuts that would happen in any bloated private business but under Trump will be described as unfair or even dangerous.
Take, for example, the Feb. 24 number from CNN, “How Trump’s government-cutting moves risk exposing the CIA’s secrets.” The short report required four CNN writers, Katie Bo Lillis (who was involved in a story that led to a defamation trial in which a jury found that CNN was literally fake news), Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand, and Zachary Cohen.
Exposing CIA secrets? That sounds pretty dangerous. Just how much danger are we in?
In the piece, CNN warned, “As the CIA weighs staff cuts, current and former intelligence officials say that mass firings could offer a rich recruitment opportunity for foreign intelligence services — like China or Russia — who may seek to exploit financially vulnerable or resentful former employees.”
The piece goes on.
“… on the CIA’s 7th floor — home to top leadership — some officers are also quietly discussing how mass firings and the buyouts already offered to staff risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.” (So “quietly,” apparently, that CNN could hear them, as Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway pointed out.)
Runestad is the leader Republicans need
After last weekend’s convention, Michigan Republicans seem to be in their best position in years.
That’s because the winner of the highly competitive three-way race for chairman of the state party is someone with virtually no baggage.
Sure, newly elected Chairman Jim Runestad of Oakland County is part of the political establishment by virtue of being a senator. In reality, he’s an outsider from the GOP movement’s conservative wing.
Runestad has also been disengaged from the internal fights that have deeply divided state Republicans since the 2010s, when the party held the governorship and other great offices of state, both chambers of the Legislature and the high court. Moreso than anything else, this dynamic best explains his upset victory.
