Another congressional Republican who seems to have fallen out of favor with President Trump has suffered humiliating defeat in a primary.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) now joins the likes of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in losing a primary battle in resounding fashion after failing to earn an endorsement from Trump. On Tuesday night, Mace finished a distant fifth place in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary.

‘This isn’t the end of the fight. It’s just the end of this chapter.’

Before 9 p.m. ET, she had conceded defeat, posting a lengthy concession message on X. “Serving South Carolina has been the greatest honor of my life. Every vote I cast, every hearing I called, every fight I picked — it was always for you,” she began.

“Apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election. I’m at peace with that. Because when a candidate is OK with corruption and cover-ups — something is broken. That’s not a political opinion. That’s a moral emergency,” she continued.

“This isn’t the end of the fight. It’s just the end of this chapter,” she assured her supporters.

Before 7:30 the next morning, Mace appeared to be in light spirits once again, joking on X: “Enjoying my first cup of coffee since getting my ass kicked last night.”

RELATED: Democrat voters in Georgia want nothing to do with Trump-hating ex-Republican

Trump and Mace shaking hands. WIN MCNAMEE/POOL/AFP/Getty Images.

Always outspoken, Mace likely lost all hope of a Trump endorsement this year after she pushed for ever more Epstein disclosures, even as she thanked Trump for supporting the “survivors.”

Mace’s alliance with Trump has been precarious for years. In the 2022 Republican primary for Mace’s congressional seat, Trump endorsed a challenger and shifted his support to Mace only after she prevailed. Trump then endorsed Mace’s re-election bid in 2024.

Now that she is leaving Congress, Mace says she plans to return “to the private sector … as the Founders intended,” signaling that she may have closed the door on her political aspirations for good.

Trump, meanwhile, can claim victory in her disastrous gubernatorial bid. The candidate he endorsed, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, led the pack, collecting 28.9% of the vote.

Second-place finisher Attorney General Alan Wilson received 26.2%. Evette and Wilson now head for a runoff election scheduled for June 23.

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​Bill cassidy, Endorsement, Nancy mace, Thomas massie, Politics, South carolina 

A former teacher from Georgia is accused of sexually assaulting a student and attempting to convince the teen to run away to Mexico with her after investigators uncovered nearly 20,000 damning text messages between the pair, according to multiple reports.

The Roswell Police Department said in a statement that 55-year-old Amanda Katz was arrested on June 2. Bond was set at $25,000, according to jail records.

‘I can’t stop looking at you and certainly keep my hands to myself.’

WAGA-TV reported that Katz was charged with improper sexual contact by an employee or agent.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the New York Post.

Katz had been a teacher and administrative assistant at Roswell High School.

WXIA-TV obtained the arrest warrant saying Katz was a teacher of the alleged victim before she transitioned into an administrative role at Roswell High School.

Police said Katz sexually assaulted a 16-year-old student during multiple off-campus encounters between December 2025 and February 2026.

Katz resigned during the middle of the police investigation, police said.

Fulton County Schools confirmed the district no longer employs her.

Citing the affidavit, the Post reported that the alleged victim told police he had unprotected sex several times with Katz in her home and the backseat of her Jaguar car.

“During a forensic interview, the teen told investigators Katz encouraged him to transfer from Roswell High School to another high school that would allow him to graduate sooner,” WXIA reported.

The student said Katz told him she was “literally scared s**tless” about the prospect of getting caught with the boy and going to prison, the affidavit said.

WXIA reported that Katz was “considered a trusted family friend” of the alleged victim, and she even tutored the boy’s younger sibling. The affidavit said Katz bought gifts for the alleged victim’s siblings, including jewelry and a Nintendo Switch.

The teen’s mother grew suspicious of the alleged illicit relationship when Katz invited the boy and his family to a cabin in the north Georgia mountains during Valentine’s Day weekend, the arrest warrant stated.

WSB-TV reported that the teen’s mother said she noticed how “comfortable” Katz and her son were.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the arrest warrant saying the teen’s mother discovered text messages on her son’s cell phone and “knew there was something wrong.”

The warrant said when Katz returned to work after the trip, she told her co-workers that she was “in a manic state” and complained that her “boyfriend’s mother” said they couldn’t be in a relationship.

The warrant revealed that when a co-worker learned that Katz’s boyfriend was a student at the high school, the co-worker alerted authorities.

Detectives obtained the teen’s cell phone, which revealed Katz and the boy exchanged at least 19,585 text messages and made 591 calls, the warrant said.

“Throughout the lengthy text thread between [teen] and Amanda, they discussed their relationship and potential future lives together, how and why they need to keep their relationship secret, and multiple sexual interactions,” the affidavit said, according to People magazine.

The New York Post reported, “In other messages, she told the boy that sex was ‘fun,’ and that she would ‘walk away from everything’ to be with him.”

The warrant said Katz messaged the student, “I meant everything I said to you. I would give you everything I have. And I’m human. I know it sounds stupid, but you not being mine isn’t an option. I can’t do this.”

RELATED: Ex-teacher who dodged conviction for allegedly asking teen lover to kill husband learns fate for sexually assaulting student

The alleged victim told investigators Katz wanted him to move into her home after he graduated from high school, police said.

“[He] said he had mixed feelings about leaving his family and that Amanda wanted to go further with their relationship, move in together, and to commit to each other. … [He] said Amanda offered to take care of him (financially and provide a place to stay, etc.),” the affidavit read.

Katz also wanted the student to move to Mexico with her, police said.

“[He] also said that Amanda had told him that she wanted to move to Mexico with him, but he did not want to do that, nor did he understand why she would want to go there,” the affidavit revealed.

According to the affidavit, “Amanda also admitted that her actions were inappropriate and that she could be arrested if detected.”

“I have done a lot of stupid things. A lot. But this is top level,” Katz wrote, according to the affidavit.

“I am crazy about you. I can’t be around you,” Katz said to the teen, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said Katz texted the teen, “I can’t stop looking at you and certainly keep my hands to myself. Just telling you this can get me fired. … I need to leave Roswell. … Please delete this entire thread.”

“I was truly happy for the first time in a long time. I want you to know that. But this is killing me. This conversation can’t happen. Everything about us has to be deleted,” read a text message Katz sent to the teen on Dec. 29, 2025, WSB reported.

“We are lying to everyone. For what? How long? I don’t want to go to jail … I won’t do well in jail … I’m too pretty,” Katz wrote to the teen, the warrant stated.

The arrest warrant said Katz told the teen, “I loved you. And this is the most f**ked up and scary thing that has ever happened to me. You f**king broke my heart. … This is probably the worst thing anyone has ever done to me. You abandoned me.”

The Roswell Police Department and Fulton County Schools did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Sexual assault, Amanda katz, Teacher arrested, Teacher student sex scandal, Teacher sex scandal, Bad teacher, Child sex crimes, Georgia, Crime 

The Sudanese asylum-seeker arrested for the horrific attempted beheading that took place in Northern Ireland on Monday night appeared in court on Wednesday, where he declined to enter a plea.

In addition to being identified, the African has been slapped with additional criminal charges after the brutal attack he is accused of committing prompted a fiery night of rioting in Belfast as well as demands for transparency and a withdrawal from the EU Migration Pact from rightist lawmakers.

‘We will be going after them.’

Now that the liberal establishment has pivoted from feigning horror over the attempted beheading to expressing outrage over the backlash, police are threatening to arrest online influencers who raised the alarm about the incident.

Quick background

A black male was caught on camera sitting atop a bloodied white male in the middle of a north Belfast street, shouting something in a foreign tongue, then carving with a knife into the victim’s face and neck.

The attack was interrupted by a Good Samaritan armed with a wooden hurl stick who gave the attacker a good thwacking. Another two men rushed in to help — one attempting to pull the victim to safety and the other giving a few well-placed kicks to the aggressor’s head.

The attacker, who was initially identified by a police as Somali but later confirmed to be a Sudanese national, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

RELATED: Sudanese national suspect attempts to behead UK citizen — but police beg public not to share images

L-R: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images; Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The victim, who has been identified as Stephen Ogilvie and a British citizen, was taken to the hospital in serious condition with grievous injuries to his face, neck, and back.

Suspect identified

Gavin Robinson, a member of the British Parliament for East Belfast, stated on Tuesday that the Sudanese suspect was living in the U.K. under a five-year visa.

Police subsequently confirmed that the suspect, 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, entered Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland in 2023, applied for asylum, and was granted leave to remain in the country until 2028.

The Telegraph reported that the suspect had “used a loophole” in the British asylum system — traveling from Sudan to Paris and then to Dublin, before taking a bus to Belfast and then claiming asylum.

In addition to the original charge of attempted murder, Alodid has been charged with possessing a knife in a public space and threatening to kill a woman who works as a radiographer for the National Health Service.

Alodid appeared at Laganside magistrate’s court on Wednesday, where he communicated via an Arabic interpreter. The stabbing suspect — who allegedly left Ogilvie with no left eye, a damaged right eye, and deep cuts on his face and back — refused legal representation and declined to respond to the charges.

Alodid was denied bail at the urging of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Police told the court that the African’s release posed a threat of further offenses and a flight risk and could lead to “significant public disorder,” reported the BBC.

The suspect’s next court date is July 8.

Failed containment

The PSNI implored the general public on Tuesday not to share footage of the horrific attack, but the British public evidently had other ideas.

To the great chagrin not only of police but of those leftist lawmakers who expressed concerns over the inevitable political fallout, the video — yet another damning reminder of the isles’ disastrous immigration policies and failed dogma of multiculturalism — went viral with the help of remigration activist Tommy Robinson and others.

Belfast was subsequently rocked by protests and, on Tuesday evening, riots in which homes, cars, and a bus were torched.

Some of the hundreds of black-clad young men who roamed the streets of the capital city on Tuesday reportedly shouted, “Foreigners out!” and pelted asylum-seeker housing with rocks.

‘F**k ’em.’

Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson of the PSNI said in a statement, “Sporadic pockets of disorder have broken out in a number of locations across Northern Ireland this evening, including incidents in which a number of vehicles have been set on fire.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and various other lawmakers condemned the riots — in many cases more forcefully than they condemned the attempted beheading.

“The scenes in Belfast last night were shocking and completely unacceptable,” Starmer stated on Wednesday morning. “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.”

Police have arrested several alleged rioters and are threatening to arrest online influencers over their provocative commentary regarding the attempted beheading.

“It’s very easy, these days especially, to look online and be persuaded, by people who know nothing about Northern Ireland, know nothing about the communities in Northern Ireland, know nothing about the history of Northern Ireland, to take actions that they otherwise would not take,” said PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. “Stop looking at this nonsense. Stop listening to these idiots. We will be going after them for the incitement that they’ve been doing.”

“I’m not talking about individuals in this press conference, but people will know who were online last night and inciting this behavior. They will know what they were doing. We will be going after them,” added Boutcher.

Despite this latest threat of a crackdown over online speech, Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson, and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe have not rounded their critiques or softened their rhetoric.

Robinson, for instance, wrote, “Stop importing rapists, murderers, and sex pests from savage third world countries who put young girls [sic] lives at risk. Once you have advocated for that, and the removal of unwanted illegal migrants from communities who never asked for or wanted them, then you can take the high road. Until then, keep your mouth shut.”

Lowe wrote early Wednesday, “Millions must go,” and “the Belfast victim has lost his left eye and has severe damage to his right eye. Hacked at the neck, with his eyes gouged. Men who inflict this brutal evil on others do not deserve to live.”

Musk shared a post rejecting the calls for calm, then tweeted, “F**k ’em.”

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​African, Sudan, Beheading, Northern ireland, Ireland, United kingdom, Uk, Britain, Racism, Anti-white, Leftism, Terrorism, Crime, Replacement, Asylum, Immigration, Politics 

Popular YouTuber Jesse Ridgway, who goes by “McJuggerNuggets,” set the internet on fire last week when he used the abortion of his unborn child with Down syndrome to create content for his audience.

“My wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to Trisomy 21,” Ridgway wrote in a post on X. “The choice was not made lightly.”

“She underwent the procedure earlier this week and is on the mend. Thankfully, everything went smoothly, but emotionally we are drained. Trisomy 21, also known as Down Syndrome, is caused by an extra chromosome. It is caused by an error in cell division, like a glitch. The odds of a baby having it is 1 in 1000,” he added.

The couple has been documenting their pregnancy journey on their YouTube channel, where they’ve been recording their reactions to test results.

“You not only monetized your baby’s little life, but then you monetized his death. And not just his death, but also his murder. And then you want people to feel sympathetic toward you,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey comments.

“This is morally chilling that you are admitting and trying to euphemize euthanizing a baby,” she continues, pointing out that Ridgway is apparently not actually “without compassion for vulnerable entities.”

Earlier in May, Ridgway celebrated the sixth birthday of his dog, who was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney disease the year prior, explaining that she is in the “0.001% of superhero dogs that continue living with no kidneys.”

“So that life was worth sacrificing for. His dog was worth paying lots and lots of money for, doing everything you could to keep this dog alive. Even though your dog has special needs, will not live a very long time,” Stuckey says.

“That dog apparently was more worthy of life than their living child,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Allie beth stuckey, Jesse ridgway, Down syndrome, Abortion, Trisomy 21, The blaze, Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey 

From Spencer Pratt to Mayor Michael Rapaport?

All eyes have been on Spencer Pratt, the reality show alum vying to wrest the City of Angels from Mayor Karen Bass.

While Pratt promoted his family-man brand, Rapaport lives for the social media scrum.

Pratt’s insurgent campaign was felt from coast to coast. Now, as L.A.’s curious voting system seems to have sent him to a third-place finish, another actor turned candidate could take his place.

Did Pratt walk so Michael Rapaport could run?

‘Soft launch’

Rapaport is a familiar face from dozens of movies and TV shows since his 1992 film debut in “Zebrahead.” He recently joined Peacock’s “The Traitors,” a reality-show affair hosted by Alan Cumming. His brash persona proved a snug fit for the series, alienating some while bringing fresh friction to the game.

And, as he told the Hollywood Reporter in January, the show was part of his “soft launch” to unseat New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

I think that if you can have a mayor of New York who is a failed rapper, a failed actor, a failed music supervisor and who’s rapped and said so many regrettable things that he did … if nothing else, I have shown once again, especially on “Traitors,” that I am what you see and you’ll get an honest mayor.

Pratt didn’t lean on MAGA messaging or GOP-friendly talking points in his campaign. He played the outsider, a man motivated by losing his home in the Palisades fires and demanding that the person who let it happen be held accountable.

For Rapaport, Mamdani’s socialist policies and perceived animosity toward Jewish New Yorkers sparked his campaign, not any Republican fervor.

Accidental politicians

Call them accidental politicians. The facts on the ground made them do it. Rapaport explained his change of heart to Fox News.

“I never thought that I would even consider running for mayor of New York City, and I will do it with the best intentions.”

Rapaport leans to the left, but he has defied some of his party’s groupthink, particularly when it comes to his strong support of Israel.

Pratt and Rapaport share a grasp not just of social media but of media training in general. They have been around cameras for years, aware of the power video brings and how to weaponize it for a cause.

We’ve seen Pratt leverage those viral campaign videos, playing the frazzled Everyman eager to save his hometown. Rapaport, a trained comic in addition to his acting experience, could do the same.

Rapaport has some advantages over Pratt. He announced his campaign years before any voting happens, as opposed to Pratt’s abrupt decision. That gives Rapaport time to build his base, criticize Mamdani in real time, and let New Yorkers see what a democratic socialist can do to the Big Apple.

Rapaport is betting they won’t like the results.

RELATED: Trump DOJ opens multiple investigations into possible election fraud in California

L-R: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images; ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

Sharp elbows

Plus, Rapaport isn’t merely a reality show villain like Pratt, with all the baggage that entails. He has delivered memorable performances on FX’s “Justified” and Netflix’s “Atypical,” plus classic films like “Beautiful Girls,” “True Romance,” and “Cop Land.”

The veteran actor recently segued back to comedy, appearing in clubs across the country with a genuinely funny set built around his garrulous persona.

The downsides for the New York native, beyond the fear that he’s another actor playing the part of political savior? Rapaport throws plenty of sharp elbows on social media and podcasts. He famously teed off on President Donald Trump a few years ago, a potential boost to his New York candidacy.

But he softened that stance considerably post-October 7, re-evaluating the president’s policies and the lies spread in the media. That speaks to his maturation, but it might not play well in a cobalt blue city.

Relishing a fight

While Pratt promoted his family-man brand, Rapaport lives for the social media scrum. He’s naturally combative, willing to muck it up about sports, culture, and politics on any platform possible.

His “I Am Rapaport: Stereo Podcast” lets him weigh in on the New York Knicks, free speech, and much more. Here’s betting Team Mamdani will be combing through past episodes for potentially damaging material.

And they just might find some.

Pratt proved competitive in his upstart campaign, and even if the vote totals keep him in third place, he still gave the Democratic establishment a major scare.

Could Rapaport learn from Pratt’s bold run and write his own Hollywood ending?

​Palisades fires, Spencer pratt, Zohran mamdani, New york city mayor, Michael rapaport, Lifestyle 

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell, “1984”

The photographs spread quickly across the internet: Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) outside Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in Newark, washing pepper spray from his eyes.

Kim had publicly demanded the facility’s closure since December 2025. He has repeatedly painted ICE as an instrument of “lawless” violence weaponized by Stephen Miller and Donald Trump against U.S. citizens.

The violence that occurred outside Delaney Hall was not provoked by ICE agents enforcing the law. It was instigated and organized by leftist protesters, activists, aligned organizations.

On May 24, Sen. Kim released a statement with Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) in which he described the food as disgusting and argued that detainees were experiencing inhumane treatment.

Kim proudly proclaimed, “Cruelty is what this administration, what [U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement] is trying to do.”

The next day Kim visited the facility. Upon exiting, he encountered ICE officers there for protection and a crowd of protesters blocking entrances and exits. Kim intervened in front of the cameras, positioning himself as someone who was trying to de-escalate the situation.

Shockingly, the riotous crowd did not listen to Sen. Kim, and during ICE’s attempts to disperse the crowd, he was hit with pepper spray.

The imagery was perfect for the narrative he wanted. Andy Kim spent months fanning the flames of outrage at Delaney Hall, then had the audacity to pose as the firefighter trying to extinguish the fire he helped start.

Andy Kim and others, include Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D), painted Delaney Hall as a starvation camp. Yet the DHS published the menu detainees received, including oatmeal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, grilled potatoes, milk, coffee, chicken legs, turkey stir-fry, beef burritos, vegetarian beans, fajitas, vegetables, and commissary access.

Sen. Kim has also claimed there is a lack of medical care for detainees at Delaney Hall. The DHS directly disputes this claim and points out the fact that the moment an alien enters ICE custody, he has access to medical, dental, and mental health services as available and access to 24-hour emergency care.

It is easy to acknowledge that freedom is preferable to detention; the claims of forced starvation are meritless and ignore the fact that the detainees are alleged to have violated our immigration laws and are subject to deportation.

It is notable that no elected representative is able to make the argument that illegal alien detainees are subject to worse conditions than American citizens who are detained over the January 6 protests.

In fact, no representative who has protested against Delaney Hall has been able to point to any U.S. citizen being mistakenly detained there, despite vocal claims by leading Democrats that citizens are being wrongfully detained.

RELATED: The anti-weaponization fund is not just for J6. It is for the rest of us too.

JDawnInk/Getty Images

The detainees are individuals who have violated our immigration laws. These are not random migrants caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are detainees awaiting removal proceedings, many with pending charges or prior convictions.

Kim’s selective empathy paints law enforcement as the villain and lawbreakers as martyrs.

The facility itself operated as an ICE detention center under the Obama administration from 2011 to 2017. The groundwork for its current contract was laid during the Biden years, with solicitations issued in 2024. Democrats who now decry it as an affront to humanity were silent, or complicit, when similar facilities operated under their own president.

Most importantly, the violence that occurred outside Delaney Hall was not provoked by ICE agents enforcing the law. It was instigated and organized by leftist protesters, activists, aligned organizations, and politicians who turned a lawful detention facility into a battleground and a political photo op.

By amplifying falsehoods and refusing to acknowledge the source of the latest example of political violence, they encourage precisely the chaos that logically followed: more riots, more assaults, more threats, and more division.

What purpose do these lies and the theater serve?

They distract from the Biden-era border policies that flooded the system and the Trump administration’s necessary corrective action. They continue to paint immigration enforcement as racist theater rather than the enforcement of duly passed laws. They virtue-signal to progressive donors and voters while eroding trust in federal institutions.

Performative visits coupled with distorted rhetoric do not solve problems; they inflame them.

The evidence is there for anyone willing to see it. The question is whether the Party will allow it.

​Donald trump, Immigration enforcement, Ice, Delaney hall, Andy kim, Rob menendez, Dhs, Mikie sherrill, Opinion & analysis 

Democrats have worked desperately to defund or at least hinder President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and mass deportation campaign. Their efforts have proven again to be in vain.

Last summer, congressional Republicans circumvented the various obstacles presented by their leftist colleagues, using budget reconciliation to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included $75 billion in new funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and tens of billions more for other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

‘All that Democrats have achieved by their shutdown is a useful reminder to the American people of their support for open borders.’

The war over immigration policy and funding heated up in subsequent months, featuring a pitched battle in which Democrats partially shut down the DHS for 75 days, only to then unconditionally surrender, passing funding for the DHS in the wake of the longest government shutdown in its history.

On Tuesday, Democrats were dealt another significant defeat.

Days after it was passed by the U.S. Senate in a 52-47 vote, the Secure America Act went to a vote in the House.

Ahead of the vote, the White House said in a statement, “The Secure America Act puts an end to Democrats’ political games by fully funding ICE and Border Patrol through President Trump’s term and providing the resources needed to keep our border secure, combat human trafficking, stop the flow of deadly drugs, dismantle criminal cartels, and enforce America’s immigration laws.”

RELATED: Republicans took ICE hostage — then bragged about saving it

Kent NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images

“It is imperative that Congress immediately passes the Secure America Act to fully fund these critical components,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

“It has been more than 100 days since congressional Democrats defunded ICE and Border Patrol in a radical attempt to protect violent criminal illegal aliens and undermine President Trump’s highly successful border security agenda.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), among the Democrats who futilely signaled their opposition to the bill, stated, “As if ripping health care and nutritional assistance in the One Big Ugly Bill wasn’t enough, Republicans have now come back for more to give ICE and Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine another $70 billion blank check with no oversight, no accountability, and no guardrails.”

“As Democrats, we rise in strong opposition to this Republican scheme. Waste of taxpayer dollars,” added Jeffries.

To Jeffries’ chagrin, the Secure America Act passed in a 214-212 party-line vote.

This funding bill will allocate $38 billion to ICE, $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection, and $5 billion in additional funding to the DHS through September 2029.

Following the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) emphasized that “Washington Democrats gained **NOTHING** from their RECKLESS CRUSADE to return our country to OPEN BORDERS and UNFETTERED MASS MIGRATION. Republicans will ALWAYS stand with America’s law enforcement.”

“All that Democrats have achieved by their shutdown is a useful reminder to the American people of their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in American communities — policies that have been soundly rejected by the American people over and over again,” wrote Johnson. “We hope this episode serves as a future reminder to Democrats that when they shut the government down, they will receive less than nothing in return.”

President Trump is set to ratify the Secure America Act in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

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​Immigration, Illegal alien, Ice, Us immigration and customs enforcement, Border, Donald trump, Funding, Democrats, Hakeem jeffries, Mike johnson, Politics 

Digital age verification is a hot topic right now, with lawmakers pushing for legislation that would ban users from accessing their favorite apps, webpages, and even their devices without showing an ID. As I previously covered, these bills are largely a government power grab disguised as child protection. What if there was a better solution — a way to give lawmakers the verification they crave without sacrificing the privacy and security of American citizens? Here’s what it would take to get the best of both worlds.

Efforts to sign age verification into law

The age verification bills permeating the House and Senate right now are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they protect underage users from online adult content that they shouldn’t see on various platforms and apps. On the other hand, these bills give Big Tech and the government a pathway to capture, digitize, and store users’ real government-issued IDs — the makings of a digital ID database that links online activity to user identities.

The war on age verification has even become a bipartisan effort, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pushing for federal legislation. Most notably, you have Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) proposing the Parents Decide Act, which would require operating system developers, like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, to verify the ages of their users any time someone sets up a new device. On the right, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) champions the GUARD Act, which would require users to show an ID to access AI chatbots, possibly leading to broader restrictions on the internet at large as AI expands into every corner of the web.

Both bills aim for age verification to protect children, and both would restrict Americans’ rights to freely access their devices, the internet, and online information without an ID.

Apple and Google actually built a way to handle the most personal and private information.

Make no mistake. If these bills pass, the government will limit or even revoke your access to your favorite apps, services, and devices unless someone finds a better solution — one that still enables age verification without actually giving your ID to tech companies and federal agencies.

Luckily, there is a possible solution, if Big Tech chooses to build it.

Security in the enclave

Whether you trust Big Tech with your data or you lock your phone in a Faraday cage at night, Apple and Google actually built a way to handle the most personal and private information about its users years ago. The key is found in a tiny locked vault stored in the processing chip in your phone. It’s disconnected from the internet, it’s never backed up in iCloud or Google Drive (you have to set it back up every time you wipe and restore your phone), and it’s encrypted.

Apple calls it the Secure Enclave. Google named it the Trusted Execution Environment. Together, they’re both “dedicated secure subsystems” that do the same thing: store your biometric data.

If you’ve ever unlocked your phone with your face or your fingerprint, you’ve used this subsystem (which we’ll refer to as “vaults” for the sake of simplicity). The best part about it is that it’s fast, efficient, and completely private. Through these vaults, Apple and Google can save your biometric data, but they can’t see it or access it themselves, and neither can third-party apps. The only thing the system can reveal is whether the face or fingerprint of the person holding the device matches the version saved privately in the system. That’s it.

We need a similar solution for age verification.

RELATED: Hackers easily fool Instagram’s new AI identity verification, humiliating Meta once again

Fotkam/Getty Images

The age verification solution we need

Instead of giving Big Tech a plain copy of your ID, what if there was a way to save it in the vault? Just like setting up FaceID on iPhone or your fingerprint on Android, your phone could prompt you to take a photo of your ID and store it inside the vault as part of your biometric data. To make sure the ID is real and that it belongs to an adult, the vault could include on-device authentication software that checks for the user’s birth date, the official Real ID star, barcode on the back, and any other unique state identifiers.

Once saved, ID-backed age verification would work in the same manner that facial and fingerprint authentication works today. When you log into an app, service, or device that requires ID, the system would prompt the vault to verify the information stored inside. If the system agrees that you’re an adult, it will let you through. If the ID belongs to a minor or is missing entirely, the system could then place restrictions on the user as mandated by law. In this way, the vault serves as a bridge between the user’s ID and websites, services, and apps, providing only authentication while keeping the user’s actual identification private.

The future of age verification

To make this work, of course, both Apple and Google need to adopt this technology and integrate it directly into their operating systems. Then the government would have to accept this technology as a valid form of verification that satisfies the new laws. Lastly, major tech companies would have to accept this form of verification, which they ultimately would, as long as they know Apple’s and Google’s solutions are legitimate, just like they do with face and fingerprint password protection today.

If we must turn over our photo IDs, locking them inside the secure subsystem is the only solution that makes sense. It would give politicians the government control over device access that they so desperately desire while enabling citizens to maintain their anonymity and privacy.

Or — and I might be asking a lot here — the politicians could just stop trying to hamper our rights and leave our devices alone. I like that one better.

​Tech, Return, Age verification, Surveillance, Online privacy, Big tech