A Los Angeles Times columnist is getting ridiculed online for trying to guilt Californians into maintaining their residence despite a new tax proposal by Democrats.

The main proponent of the new tax on high-earners is the SEIU, which says the tax is needed to help fund more social programs. But some wealthy Californians have indicated that they would simply move out of the state and take their tax revenue with them.

‘The nerve of the goon who wrote this slop.’

According to news and culture critic Lorraine Ali, those wealthy Californians owe their success to the state.

“California helped make them among the richest people in the world. Now they’re fleeing because California wants a little something back,” she wrote for the Times.

Ali argues that the new tax is necessary to offset the losses to the state treasury from the tax relief signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Arguments aside, it’s disturbing to think that some of the richest people in the nation would rather pick up and move than put a small fraction of their vast California-made — or in the case of the burger chain, inherited — fortunes toward helping others who need a financial boost.

The article was excoriated by many who found the argument disturbingly statist in nature.

“California didn’t make them rich — their ideas and hard work made them rich. California limited them — they could have done more,” U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell responded. “[Lorraine Ali] is a TV critic and wacky left wing activist. She doesn’t know finance or math.”

“I want to thank the @latimes,” Duke economist Michael Munger replied. “People often ask for examples, believing that the MSM cannot be as asinine as I claim. This is very helpful. Unbelievably dumb, but helpful.”

“The nerve of the goon who wrote this slop,” comedian Kirk Wilcox responded. “California already has a progressive income tax system, meaning that the rich pay higher rates. And the writer talks as if they don’t pay anything!”

“This is one of the most predictable disasters in recent memory,” Billy Binion of Reason replied. “Wealth taxes never work. People just … move their money elsewhere. These people made the state rich — not the other way around. Economically-illiterate nonsense.”

RELATED: Newsom’s former chief of staff arrested on corruption charges — and he blames Trump

“If California can just magically make an arbitrary person rich, why doesn’t it just make some other people rich and fleece them instead?” another critic suggested.

Although the tax proposal is backed by the service industry union, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vehemently opposes the policy on the basis that it would be damaging to the state to have high-earners leave.

“The evidence is in. The impacts are very real — not just substantive economic impacts in terms of the revenue, but start-ups, the indirect impacts,” he said about the tax. “I think it will be defeated, because I think people understand what it does versus what it promotes to do.”

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President Donald Trump appointed 47-year-old career federal prosecutor Joseph Thompson in June to serve as the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota.

Thompson, who expressed an interest at the outset in combating “the shocking and unacceptable levels of fraud in our state government programs,” prosecuted numerous cases of social services fraud even after he was relegated to the status of assistant attorney following the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Daniel Rosen as the Gopher State’s top federal prosecutor.

Evidently Thompson wasn’t long for the role of second fiddle.

‘His prosecutorial record gives him the opportunity to take a political leap if he wants.’

Sources familiar with Thompson’s decision told the New York Times that Thompson was one of several federal prosecutors who quit on Tuesday.

People supposedly familiar with Thompson’s decision told the Times that he objected both to the alleged push by senior Justice Department officials for a criminal probe into anti-ICE activist Renee Good’s actions as well as to the DOJ’s refusal to loop state officials into its investigation into whether Good’s fatal shooting was lawful.

RELATED: Blocking ICE with ‘micro-intifada’: Good’s group taught de-arrest, cop-car chaos before her death

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Thompson allegedly wanted the shooting investigated as a civil rights matter and was poised to investigate it in concert with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. His decision to work with the state agency was, however, reportedly overruled by DOJ officials.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

While Thompson’s office has told multiple outlets that he would not be commenting on his resignation Tuesday, he told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States and this office.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who is now facing the threat of impeachment, said in response to the news that “Joe is a principled public servant who spent more than a decade achieving justice for Minnesotans. This is a huge loss for our state.”

“It’s also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the justice department, replacing them with his sycophants,” added Walz.

This is certainly a different tune than Walz sang last week when the failed vice presidential candidate not only accused Thompson of defamation but suggested he “would have been let go by another administration.”

While Walz rushed to presume Thompson resigned on principle, there have long been rumors he has political ambitions outside the DOJ.

After being moved to the role of assistant attorney, Thompson told the Tribune in November, “I knew it was a temporary position, and at some point they would confirm my replacement, and when that happens, I’m gonna wake up the next day and figure out what to do with the rest of my life whether it’s in the office, outside the office, we’ll see.”

“Whether he chooses to pursue public office is entirely up to him,” David Schultz, professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University, said at the time. “However, his prosecutorial record gives him the opportunity to take a political leap if he wants.”

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The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday terminated Temporary Protected Status for Somalis amid ongoing investigations into pervasive welfare fraud within their community in Minnesota.

Somalis currently in the country on TPS and without other legal status could be subject to deportation efforts after March 17. The DHS encouraged those individuals to use Customs and Border Protection’s CBP Home mobile app to report their departure from the U.S., adding that it includes a free plane ticket and a $1,000 exit bonus.

‘We are putting Americans first.’

Somalia was initially designated for TPS in 1991, and the status was later extended and redesignated numerous times over the decades, for reasons of “extraordinary and temporary conditions,” such as ongoing armed conflict.

An unpublished notice in the Federal Register explained that TPS was initially provided to Somali nationals after an authoritarian regime that controlled the country from the 1960s through the early 1990s collapsed. Years passed without a new central government emerging to take its place.

However, in 2013, the U.S. began formally recognizing Somalia’s new government, and in 2016, the U.S. sent an ambassador to Somalia to re-establish a diplomatic presence.

The DHS stated that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia, told the United Nations General Assembly in September that the country had made significant progress, noting that it was confronting “the last remaining pockets of international terrorism while building a strong and sustainable national security architecture.”

RELATED: Bessent tells Rufo — ‘When the bear trap snaps,’ Minnesota fraudsters and complicit officials will face justice

Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post/Getty Images

The department argued that Mohamud’s characterization underscored “that the country is no longer experiencing an ongoing armed conflict.”

“Thus, while conditions at the time of previous designations reflected an ongoing armed conflict, Somalia today shows improved national governance and security structures and now experiences localized pockets of violence rather than nationwide, generalized conflict,” the notice read.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that the country’s current conditions do not prevent Somalian nationals from safely returning home. She also argued that allowing Somalis on TPS to remain in the U.S. would be contrary to America’s national interests and present significant security risks.

RELATED: Trump’s DHS rolls back more of Biden’s immigration handouts for foreign nationals

Kristi Noem.Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images

“Due to this lengthy gap in U.S. diplomatic engagement, the United States cannot adequately vet Somali nationals, particularly aliens who were approved for TPS during this period of 1991-2013, for identity, criminal history, or potential terrorist affiliations, posing an ongoing threat to public safety and national security of the United States,” the federal register notice read.

There are roughly 1,082 approved Somalian TPS beneficiaries, the DHS reported. The department estimated that, as of early December, there were another 1,383 pending applications.

“Temporary means temporary. Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” Noem said. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

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On Tuesday, Scott Adams, the creator of the beloved comic strip “Dilbert,” died after a prolonged battle with metastatic prostate cancer. However, some of his opponents in media wasted no time before criticizing Adams and his accomplishments.

Hours after it was announced that Adams had died, People magazine published an article titled “Scott Adams, Disgraced Dilbert Creator, Dies at 68.”

‘You are the scum of the earth.’

The author then claimed in the very first paragraph that Adams “degraded Black people in a 2023 rant.”

People updated the article at 12:33 p.m. ET, including changing the author of the piece. The updated version says it was written by “People Staff.”

RELATED: Beloved ‘Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams dies at age 68

Photo by Bob Riha Jr./Getty Images

However, an earlier, archived version of the article timestamped at 10:47 a.m. ET shows that it was written by Victoria Edel, as many X users, including Eric Daugherty, made sure to emphasize.

Several prominent X users did not try to hide their disgust over the tasteless headline.

“Subhuman ghouls,” BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre said in a reply to People’s post.

“You are the scum of the earth,” Raw Egg Nationalist wrote.

People’s original X post promoting the article also appears to have been deleted.

Other news outlets couldn’t resist the opportunity to drag Adams through the mud either.

An archived article originally published from the Washington Post and apparently shared later by the Boston Globe bore the headline, “Scott Adams, ‘Dilbert’ creator who veered into racist, far-right commentary, dies.”

Just like the People article, this article wasted no time attacking Adams’ right-wing views. The first paragraph reads: “Scott Adams, who became a hero to millions of cubicle-dwelling office workers as the creator of the satirical comic strip ‘Dilbert,’ only to rebrand himself as a digital provocateur — at home in the Trump era’s right-wing mediasphere — with inflammatory comments about race, politics and identity, died Jan. 13.”

For evidence, critics point to a February 22, 2023, stream of Adams’ show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams.” The “rant” that they are referring to involves Adams’ discussion of a Rasmussen poll of black Americans responding to the statement “it’s okay to be white.” Fifty-three percent agreed, 26% disagreed, and 21% were not sure about the statement.

Adams took issue with the fact that nearly half of black Americans did not agree with that statement. He said in part, “If nearly half of all blacks are not okay with white people … that’s a hate group. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people … because there is no fixing this.”

Adams’ critics failed to mention that he went on to encourage his viewers to be “friendly” to everyone and that he was not trying to “start a war” with anyone.

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The Atlanta Falcons have hired franchise legend Matt Ryan, 40, to be the team president of football after the ex-NFL quarterback worked as an NFL analyst for CBS Sports.

While BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is happy for Ryan, he notes that the growing trend of former NFL players who happen to be white ending up working for the franchise later on will likely not be received well by other former NFL players.

“We’ve seen this with Tom Brady having a role with the Raiders, part of the ownership group there, and being Fox Sports’ lead broadcaster. We’ve seen Troy Aikman now. He’s some sort of consultant for the Miami Dolphins and Stephen Ross in their rebuild of their organization while he maintains his job on ESPN’s Monday Night Football — and now Matt Ryan,” Whitlock says.

“Shannon Sharpe, Cam Newton are in the lab right now preparing their racial takes. They may have uncorked them already,” he continues.

“But I know Cam Newton is going to have one of those funky Fridays where he’s sitting there going, ‘Well, hold on. I was the MVP of the league. I played in a Super Bowl and lost. How come I’m not the Carolina Panthers team president and a broadcaster on one of the major networks around the NFL? The only explanation can be racism,’” he speculates.

And one of the major reasons Whitlock believes ex-athletes like Matt Ryan find more success in sports broadcasting than someone like Cam Newton has nothing to do with race.

“Present yourself in a professional manner,” Whitlock says. “All of this wanting to look like some kind of rapper at a gay pride parade, it’s a mistake. If you want the same opportunities, if you want to be seen in a certain light, in a position where someone says, ‘Hey, that could be the leader of our organization.’”

“Don’t let your presentation of yourself overshadow what you’re actually presenting. Because these white guys that get their opportunities, they show up to work dressed in a way they’re like, ‘Hey man, what I’m about to say is really important,’” he continues.

“How are you presenting yourself?” he asks.

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Liberals have gathered online to describe how they are preparing their young children for alleged raids on their homes by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In many cases, those making the statements reveal that because they are white, they are likely not in danger of being approached by law enforcement, but they feel the need to discuss the disaster plans with their kids anyway.

‘I’m currently rehearsing with my 3 1/2 year old what to do, and where to hide.’

The bizarre stories have been posted on Reddit’s “Twin Cities” page, which refers to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

First reported by independent journalist Andy Ngo, one thread in particular drew some rather questionable responses from other readers.

“I’m currently rehearsing with my 3 1/2 year old what to do, and where to hide, if someone we don’t know comes to our door,” the thread read, while clarifying, “I am a white, blonde, blue-eyed, U.S. citizen.”

This encouraged others to share similar stories, like one reader who qualified that while he is a “U.S. Air Force veteran and white male,” he still believes that this fact “doesn’t matter” because of the area he lives in.

“[ICE agents are] in every store and on nearly all corners, going door to door and breaking every constitutional right. I’ll stand my ground. But I also realize the freedom/privilege I still have that others around me do not,” he explained.

RELATED: Blocking ICE with ‘micro-intifada’: Good’s group taught de-arrest, cop-car chaos before her death

Photo by Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

A self-described “white woman” who is married to a Hispanic U.S. citizen said she is still taking precautions to “keep us all safe.”

She added that it was “so f**king sad” that she has to have “this conversation” — about potential ICE raids — with her 3-year-old child.

Similarly a reader named Steve described his family as “pale Midwest white.”

Still Steve claimed he had to speak with his 6-year-old son to explain “why people in our neighborhood and city are feeling scared.”

In response, the child allegedly replied, “But there are a lot of friends in my class with different colored skin. Will they be OK? Can I help them?”

Steve’s sentiment that his family is in danger was checked by a fellow “white” however. User “AStrawberryGhost” wrote that if Steve does not live with any noncitizens then, “This isn’t about you.”

“I’m also in very little danger and [I’m] also distressed anyway, so I do get it and I’m not trying to make you feel ashamed,” the user began. “I’m saying that you actually have more power than you imagine right now and you might feel better if you used it!” the Reddit user decried.

RELATED: ICE agent POV video in Renee Good shooting — who does it absolve?

Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

These strange posts exist alongside other astonishing ideas pushed on the same page.

For example, one user cited a post about a man who claimed he was detained by ICE and asked if he would give up any names of protest organizers in exchange for legal protections. This prompted the writer to plainly state that those who are arrested should not reveal any information that could damage their cause, under any circumstances.

“Do not share the names of organizers,” “Do not share the names of ANY family, friends, or neighbors,” and “Do not share any information. You can plead the 5th,” the user wrote.

“ICE are lying to find more people to arrest and deport,” they added.

At least one Reddit user contributed a post about Anne Frank, directly comparing the enforcement of immigration law to the Holocaust during World War II.

“83 years ago today in Germany … and today in the twin cities,” the post read, alongside a photo of Frank.

The post evoked many replies about how conservatives are unlikely to know the history of Nazi Germany.

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Just six months after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law banning sex-rejecting genital mutilations and puberty blockers for minors, the high court’s questions and remarks during oral arguments on Tuesday regarding two cases concerning men competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams in Idaho and West Virginia signal that gender ideologues are set to lose more ground.

Background

Twenty-seven states have passed laws and/or regulations prohibiting males from participating in girls’ or women’s sports.

West Virginia, for example, enacted the Save Women’s Sports Act in 2021, requiring public school and collegiate sports teams to require athletes to participate on teams corresponding with their sex.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old male transvestite in West Virginia who has pretended to be a girl since the third grade and taken puberty blockers, sued the state’s board of education as well as other officials, claiming that his exclusion from girls’ sports violated both Title IX and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

This case, West Virginia v. B.P.J., has been kicked through the courts and is now before the Supreme Court.

The other case taken up by the high court on Tuesday, Little v. Hecox, is highly similar.

RELATED: ‘Incredible victory’: Federal judge prohibits trans-related grooming efforts in California schools

Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lindsay Hecox, a 24-year-old male student at Boise State University who took cross-sex hormones for only one year, wanted to join the women’s cross-country team, where his male physiology would serve as a tremendous advantage over his female competitors. He was unable to join the women’s team on account of Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which banned male transvestites from competing on female athletic teams.

Like the transvestite student in West Virginia, Hecox sued, claiming the Idaho law violated his constitutional rights.

Both cases were brought to the Supreme Court by the two states’ Republican attorneys general with attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom.

‘If we adopted that, that would have to apply across the board.’

“Men cannot become women; their biological differences are scientifically clear. And no ideological arguments attempting to justify allowing males to enter female sports can stand against this truth,” stated ADF president and chief counsel Kristen Waggoner.

The possibility that the SCOTUS will rule again against gender ideology has LGBT radicals panicking.

For instance, Erin Reed, the boyfriend of cross-dressing Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), wrote that “depending on how the Court rules, these cases could reshape the legal framework governing transgender rights for an entire generation.”

The Human Rights Campaign wailed: “As transgender youth continue to face numerous targeted attacks from health care to education, these cases mark another key moment in the fight against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination that could have implications beyond the sports world.”

GLAAD previously stated: “Similar to misleading narratives about bathrooms and other single-sex spaces, propagating inflammatory scenarios about transgender women and girls participating in sports has become a common tactic in broader attacks on trans rights and equality.”

Conservative majority signal victory for sanity

In Hecox, liberal justices raised questions about whether the case might be moot because of the transvestic student’s claim that he won’t attempt to compete in collegiate women’s sports again; whether transvestic men with low testosterone levels might qualify as a sub-class deserving of a legal carve-out; and whether the Supreme Court could decide that while most men have an unfair advantage in women’s sports, the transvestite in this particular case does not.

Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst argued in turn that the case wasn’t moot, as Hecox has time left to change his mind about future participation; that it “will always be possible to carve the class down further”; and that an exception would not be administrable as it’d be invasive, requiring ongoing testosterone monitoring of the athlete.

Hurst — who on multiple occasions attempted to help remedy Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confusion — later emphasized in his rebuttal that male athletes pose a threat to women’s sports, citing a 2024 U.N. special rapporteur report that indicated that “over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports” as the result of male interlopers.

“Idaho’s law classifies on the basis of sex because sex is what matters in sports,” Hurst said. “It correlates strongly with countless athletic advantages like size, muscle mass, bone mass, and heart and lung capacity.”

RELATED: ‘Not medicine — it’s malpractice’: Trump HHS buries child sex-change regime with damning report

Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images

The conservative justices appeared to take Hurst’s point to heart and signaled skepticism about the arguments alternatively advanced by Hecox’s lawyer Kathleen Harnett against the Idaho law.

In addition to noting that the Idaho legislation is not discriminatory against all trans-identifying people as it does not bar women from men’s sports but only men — who enjoy physical advantages over women — from women’s sports, Justice Amy Coney Barrett alluded to scientific evidence indicating that testosterone is not the only advantage enjoyed by male athletes.

On theme, Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked, “Why would we, at this point, jump in and try to constitutionalize a rule for the whole country” while there remains scientific uncertainty and “strong assertions of equality on both sides?”

Kavanaugh, who has coached his daughters’ sports teams, also raised concerns about whether allowing “transgender girls to participate will reverse” the “inspiring” success of girls’ separate sports over the past five decades.

While Justice Neil Gorsuch asked whether trans-identifying individuals should be considered a “quasi-suspect” class entitled to a higher standard of scrutiny on account of their alleged history of discrimination, he appeared unconvinced by the argument that excluding boys from girls’ sports is a form of unconstitutional sex discrimination.

Chief Justice John Roberts pressed Harnett on whether she was challenging the distinction between boys and girls or seeking an exception to the biological definition of girls, and expressed skepticism about the possibility of such an exception.

Roberts appeared concerned about the broader ramifications of permitting exceptions to the definition of girl for a sliver minority of challengers, noting that “if we adopted that, that would have to apply across the board and not simply to the area of athletics.”

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A former member of the Donald Trump administration is set to take over Meta as president and vice chairman.

The appointment means an official from the president’s first administration will now be in charge of the massive social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

‘She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!’

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta announced on Monday that it has called on 52-year-old Dina Powell McCormick to take the lead at the company. Powell McCormick served as Trump’s deputy national security adviser for strategy from March 2017 to January 2018.

Powell McCormick was married to Richard Powell, a public relations and communications executive, but is now married to Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Penn.). Powell McCormick’s maiden name is Habib; she was born in Egypt and speaks Arabic.

RELATED: Microsoft CEO: AI ‘slop’ is good for you — or at least for your ‘human potential’

Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

Powell McCormick was once referred to as Trump’s “Ms. Fix It,” and according to The Hill, informally advised Ivanka Trump during the transition period for Trump’s first term. She had previously worked as a senior White House adviser in the George W. Bush administration, was director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office from 2003 to 2005, and served as assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs in mid-2007.

Powell McCormick worked for Goldman Sachs for 16 years as a partner in senior leadership roles, according to Variety, after which she became vice chair, president, and head of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank.

In addition, Powell McCormick is a fellow at Harvard, where she served as a teacher at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

RELATED: Meta accused of deleting scam ads to dodge government regulation

Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

President Trump praised the executive’s appointment in a post to Truth Social, calling Powell McCormick a “great choice” by Zuckerberg.

“She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!” Trump wrote.

At the same time, Zuckerberg said the new president brings experience in finance, economic development, and government.

“She’ll be involved in all of Meta’s work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta’s AI and infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

The Facebook founder also said that he and Powell McCormick will “deliver personal superintelligence” that will benefit billions of people.

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Secretary Pete Hegseth made a few stops in Texas on Monday as part of the War Department’s “Arsenal of Freedom Tour,” a month-long multistate campaign to promote the department’s priority of rebuilding and strengthening the U.S. military.

‘We are done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.’

Hegseth delivered the oath of enlistment to Navy recruits in Irving and spoke to defense industry leaders at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth. He told the defense contractor’s employees that the U.S. military would no longer promote far-left ideology like diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“No more DEI. No more dudes in dresses,” Hegseth stated, receiving applause from the crowd.

“No more climate change worship and social justice and political correctness — we’re done with that,” he continued. “We’re unleashing the warfighter to be ready, trained, disciplined, accountable, and lethal.”

Hegseth also delivered remarks at SpaceX, alongside the company’s founder, Elon Musk.

RELATED: Sen. Mark Kelly responds to censure from Pete Hegseth with a lawsuit

Amanda McCoy/Forth Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Before inviting Hegseth to the stage, Musk kicked off the event by outlining SpaceX’s purpose.

“We want to make ‘Star Trek’ real … so that it’s not always science fiction, but one day, the ‘science fiction’ turns to ‘science fact,'” Musk said.

During his speech at Starbase, Hegseth shared how the Trump administration’s Department of War is dismantling bureaucracy and prioritizing military innovation.

“What you have built and what you will build here is a testament to the strength of American ingenuity and American invention,” Hegseth told SpaceX staff.

RELATED: US military attacks dozens of ISIS targets in Syria in retaliation for killing of 2 US troops, Hegseth says

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

He blamed the consolidation of the Defense Industrial Base following the end of the Cold War for making it nearly impossible for new creators to secure business with the War Department.

“The result is a risk-averse culture that prevents us from providing our warfighters with the best resources that America has to offer. That ends today,” Hegseth declared. “We are done running a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.”

The secretary also announced that xAI’s Grok would join the department’s GenAI.mil, a platform that integrates frontier artificial intelligence capabilities. The War Department announced the integration of Google Cloud’s Gemini in early December.

“For too long, Pentagon bureaucracy has hindered the speed and might of our manufacturing base, obstructing innovation and warfare solutions from companies like SpaceX and Lockheed Martin. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are unleashing the full power of our Defense Industrial Base to advance our Peace Through Strength agenda,” read a War Department press release announcing Hegseth’s Texas trip.

“These engagements underscore the urgent priority of this administration: ensuring our warfighters have the cutting-edge, American-made equipment they need to dominate any battlefield. American manufacturing is back,” it added.

— (@)

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