Category: blaze media

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the federal government will temporarily halt certain Medicaid payments to the state of Minnesota, citing what he described as verified fraud within a state-run program.

Vance said the move is aimed at ensuring Minnesotans are “good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”

‘They’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis. That is unacceptable.’

“We’re announcing today that we have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously,” Vance said.

Vance clarified that providers on the ground in Minnesota have already been paid by the state. The federal government is pausing reimbursement payments to the state government, not direct payments to providers.

RELATED: ‘This is disgraceful’: Mamdani raked over the coals for attack on NYPD

Credit: Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Vance pointed to what he described as a confirmed case of fraud involving a program intended to provide after-school services to autistic children.

According to Vance, some individuals set up “sham businesses,” created fake clients, and even listed individuals “who are not even autistic” in order to collect Medicaid funds.

“A program that existed to ensure that autistic children had access to some after-school services has made a number of people rich,” Vance said, adding that the money “ought, by right, go to American citizens and to American families.”

He argued that the alleged fraud not only wastes taxpayer dollars but also diverts services away from children who genuinely need them.

“There are kids in Minnesota who deserve these services, who need these services, and they’re not going to those kids,” Vance said. “They’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis. That is unacceptable.”

RELATED: ‘Despicable attack’: Brazen mob pelts NYPD officers with snowballs, multiple cops reportedly injured — and it’s all on video

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“One of the things I love about our country is that we’re a generous country,” Vance said.

“We take care of our fellow citizens who can’t afford medical care because they’re down on their luck.”

He added that programs like Medicaid and food assistance exist to ensure families have access to “food, medical care, after-school services when their family needs them.”

However, Vance said that in Minnesota and other states, “the generosity and the good hearts of our fellow Americans are being taken advantage of.”

“This is disgraceful. It has happened for too long,” Vance said. “Far too many people have gotten rich by taking what is the best of the American spirit and getting rich off of it instead of providing services to kids who need it.”

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s office and the Department of Human Services of Minnesota did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Politics, Jd vance, Vance, Minnesota, Fraud, Funding, Tax payer, Tax payer money, Tax payer dollars 

New York City police have arrested a 27-year-old male for his alleged role in a viral mob attack on police officers, which injured them, during a massive snowball fight Monday.

Gusmane Coulibaly was arrested Thursday morning, the NYPD said, adding that he also was cuffed less than three weeks ago for an attempted robbery in the transit system.

Police told WABC in an initial story that officers responded to Washington Square Park in Manhattan around 4 p.m. for a report of a number of people atop a roof — but cops were soon hit with snowballs, and multiple officers were taken to a hospital with facial cuts.

‘Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious.’

But police soon added that officers were hit by more than just snowballs.

An earlier NYPD Facebook post indicated that “two uniformed police officers were inside Washington Square Park when two individuals intentionally struck the officers multiple times with snow and ice causing injury to their head, neck, and face. Anyone with information is asked to contact @NYPDTips or 800-577-TIPS.”

RELATED: NYPD releases photos of pair wanted in viral mob attack on cops amid snowball fight

Image source: New York City Police Department

Then the number of wanted individuals increased from two to four.

RELATED: ‘Despicable attack’: Brazen mob pelts NYPD officers with snowballs, multiple cops reportedly injured — and it’s all on video

Outrage was rampant among police officials and politicians.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Monday night wrote on X that she’s aware of the videos of the attack on officers and that “the behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal.”

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York called the incident “unacceptable and outrageous,” WABC added.

“This is the environment that NYC police officers are up against. Our police officers are being treated for their injuries, but the case CANNOT end there,” the PBA said in a statement on social media, according to the station. “The individuals involved must be identified, arrested, and charged with assault on a police officer. And all of our city leaders must speak up to condemn this despicable attack.”

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and ex-New York City Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, blamed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) for setting a tone of disrespect toward law enforcement, given his history of anti-police rhetoric.

“This is disgraceful. But with a mayor who has a history of calling the police ‘racist, evil, wicked and corrupt,’ he set the tone,” Cuomo posted on X. “Words have consequences. We are seeing that in the growing disrespect for law enforcement — just as we’ve seen it in the rise in antisemitism. Real leaders understand that. This mayor does not.”

Adams echoed the sentiment: “Watching officers get pelted with snow while they are out in brutal weather protecting this city should make every New Yorker furious. It is disgusting behavior. And the politicians who constantly bash the police and refuse to have their backs are setting a terrible example. Leadership matters. Tone matters.”

Mamdani on Wednesday replied to questions about the incident and whether he agrees with police top brass that responsible parties should be held criminally accountable.

“I’ve said that what I saw was a snowball fight. It should be treated accordingly,” Mamdani said, according to WABC-TV. “It was one that got out of hand. But that’s what it was.”

RELATED: ‘This is disgraceful’: Mamdani raked over the coals for attack on NYPD

Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told WABC that Mamdani is putting his relationship with the police department at risk: “Not to back up the men and women is really, really bad. It’s as bad as you can get. So this is a seminal moment right here, and we’ll see how it goes from here. Because I think it’s important to understand just how important this is to the police department.”

One witness told WABC the snowball fight got out of hand when several young people began using the roof of one of the park’s restrooms as a launching pad — and that officers were confronted after they arrived to investigate.

“It wasn’t supposed to be violent. It was — it started out as — a very fun thing to do. And then, you know, it just escalated,” Rahul Nag told the station. “Some people were confused, I think, because they thought they weren’t NYPD, they were ICE, or they were working with ICE.”

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​Snowball fight, Nypd, New york city, Manhattan, Washington square park, Police attacked, Police injured, Arrest, Assault on police officer, New york city mayor zohran mamdani, Crime 

According to a recent video that surfaced on Wednesday, a Missouri driver found himself near a truck driver who was driving on the wrong side of the highway — reportedly for several miles.

X user MolonLabeBTC posted a series of short videos on Wednesday detailing his experience. The first video clearly shows a semi-truck driving into oncoming traffic from the opposite direction.

‘We have learned that a truck driver with a Minnesota CDL who couldn’t read basic road signs spent MILES driving the wrong way in an 80 TON truck!’

“Eighteen-wheeler going the wrong way down southbound 61. He is on the northbound lanes of 61, going the wrong way,” a man can be heard saying in the video. The post reported that the video was captured about five miles north of Troy, just outside St. Louis.

The X user claimed in the caption to the first video that the trucker “nearly hit me head on before I pulled over to my left.”

RELATED: Foreigners want to drive a big rig? They’ll need more than work authorization papers, Duffy says

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

He added that the driver was “driving southbound in the northbound lane for about 3 miles.” The driver eventually swung over onto the correct side of the highway. The truck appears to have eventually been pulled over by a state trooper.

The user uploaded several more videos of the person he identified as the truck driver. The suspect took out his own phone camera and began filming in return when he realized he was being filmed.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged the incident, saying, “DISTURBING: We have learned that a truck driver with a Minnesota CDL who couldn’t read basic road signs spent MILES driving the wrong way in an 80 TON truck! Thanks to Missouri law enforcement, this dangerous trucker is now out of service.”

Secretary Duffy added that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is investigating the alleged carrier, Cargo Transportation LLC.

Blaze News was able to locate a Cargo Transportation LLC registered in Minnesota on the FMCSA registration portal. The USDOT number also appears to match the number on the side panel of the semi-truck in the MolonLabeBTC videos.

According to information that was current as of Wednesday, the USDOT status was listed as “active.”

The physical address listed for this business also appears to be in an apartment complex, which is legal, but operators must be able to prove that it is the principal place of operations. According to FMCSA, “A motor carrier may designate as its principal place of business only locations that contain offices of the motor carrier’s senior-most management executives, management officials or employees responsible for the administration, management and oversight of safety operations and compliance.”

Blaze News left a message at the phone number listed in the company’s registration page. Blaze News also reached out to the Missouri Highway Patrol.

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​Politics, Transportation secretary, Sean duffy, Usdot, Transportation, Cdl, Cdl drivers, Minnesota, Fmcsa, Cargo transportation llc 

Team USA’s women’s hockey captain is not happy with President Donald Trump or the men’s hockey team.

Hilary Knight, who in 2026 became Team USA’s all-time leading scorer in women’s Olympic hockey, took multiple shots at the president this week after he joked with the men’s team that he would have to invite the women alongside the men to the State of the Union address.

‘I think that’s being overshadowed by sort of a quick lapse.’

“We’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” the president said jokingly on Sunday, adding he “probably would be impeached” if he didn’t.

Although the women declined the invitation, citing “academic and professional commitments,” Knight seemingly took offense to the remarks, revealing in subsequent interviews that she was sour over the president’s joke.

“I thought the joke was distasteful and unfortunate,” she told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. “The way women are represented, it’s a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats.”

“It’s not my responsibility” to explain “someone else’s behavior” she added.

RELATED: Team USA hero Jack Hughes defends women’s team for skipping White House visit: ‘Everything is so political’

Also on Wednesday, Knight again described the president’s remarks as “a distasteful joke” during an interview on “SportsCenter.”

“I thought it was sort of a distasteful joke, and unfortunately that is overshadowing a lot of the success and the success of just women at the Olympics, caring for Team USA, and having amazing gold-medal feats,” the women’s captain told host Jay Harris.

Knight said the team was just trying to focus on celebrating the incredible efforts made by the men and women at the Olympics and “not detract from that with a distasteful joke.”

“It was unfortunate,” Knight added. She then claimed her male counterparts had a “lapse” in judgment by laughing at Trump’s remarks.

“There’s a genuine level of support there and respect [from the men], and I think that’s being overshadowed by sort of a quick lapse, and, you know, I think the guys were in a tough spot.”

RELATED: Trump personally congratulates Olympic men’s hockey team, tells them he would be ‘impeached’ if he doesn’t do THIS

While the American women were not at the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump announced during his speech that the team would in fact be visiting the White House “soon.”

At the same time, the women have accepted an offer to celebrate with rapper Flavor Flav this summer, with forward Alex Carpenter saying she planned on finishing her professional season before heading to Las Vegas to “take advantage of that.”

“Go have some fun and celebrate like we deserve to,” she said, per the New York Post.

Flavor Flav was designated the official hype man for both the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

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​Sports, Fearless, Trump, White house, State of the union, Women’s hockey, Women’s sports, Team usa, Olympics, Gold medal, Politics 

Even after his theatrical State of the Union address, President Trump remains the only person who knows for certain whether the United States will strike Iran. That ambiguity does not signal confusion. It reflects a negotiator’s instinct: The threat of force often carries more value than force itself.

As a massive American armada gathers in the Persian Gulf — the region’s largest naval deployment since 2003, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford — the White House is also signaling that it still prefers a grand bargain to a regional war. For a president who has long said his legacy will rest on ending “endless wars” and who plainly covets a Nobel Peace Prize, a diplomatic breakthrough that dismantles Iran’s nuclear ambitions without a shot fired would be the ideal outcome.

The Geneva talks are more than another diplomatic set piece. They will test whether Trump’s ‘art of the deal’ can work against one of the most entrenched regimes in the Middle East.

The tension in Washington is palpable, and the president’s frustration is starting to show through his inner circle.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, recently offered a revealing glimpse during a briefing on the Gulf buildup. Referring to the sweeping mobilization of ships, personnel, and equipment, Witkoff said Trump is “curious” that despite the gathering of this massive armada, Iran has not yet “capitulated.”

That remark gets to the heart of the standoff. The strategy is pure Trump: maximize leverage, restate the “zero enrichment” red line, and wait for the other side to conclude that its only path to survival runs through a signed deal. But the clerical regime in Tehran has proved more stubborn than even Trump appears to have expected.

As the third round of negotiations began in Geneva on Thursday, there were real reasons for cautious optimism, even as rumors of a “multi-stage interim deal” continued to circulate.

For all its revolutionary bluster and posturing over ballistic missiles, the Iranian regime is facing a deep internal crisis. The mass protests that erupted in late 2025 and continued into early this year — with a fresh wave of student-led strikes reported this week — have badly shaken the system. Even after a brutal crackdown and sweeping internet blackouts, the grievances have not disappeared. The economy is in ruins, the rial has hit record lows, and the public has no appetite for a full-scale war with a superpower.

Inside Tehran, the divisions are growing. Hard-liners within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still posture about delivering a “regret-inducing” response to American pressure. More pragmatic figures, however — reportedly now led by veteran negotiator Ali Larijani — are speaking more openly. They understand that a war with the United States could mean the end of the Islamic Republic itself. Reports suggest that even figures close to the supreme leader are searching for an off-ramp that preserves the regime’s core interests while winning enough sanctions relief to calm a restive population.

RELATED: ‘Can’t let that happen’: Trump stresses red line for Iran but holds out hope for peaceful resolution

Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images

The regional picture also favors Washington. Across the Gulf, Arab capitals are watching with a mix of anxiety and quiet approval. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others do not want their cities caught in the blast radius of a regional war. But they are also weary of Iran’s regional meddling and nuclear progress. They want Tehran checked without turning the Gulf into a battlefield. That gives Trump useful diplomatic cover to keep the pressure campaign in place while leaving the Geneva door open.

The Geneva talks are more than another diplomatic set piece. They will test whether Trump’s “art of the deal” can work against one of the most entrenched regimes in the Middle East.

By combining military pressure, economic punishment, and the lure of a sweeping agreement, Trump has pushed Tehran into a corner. The regime is learning that this White House has little interest in the incremental half measures of the past. Washington wants a broader settlement — one that reaches beyond the nuclear file to the wider balance of power in the region.

If a deal comes this week, it will likely come because Tehran concludes that domestic collapse poses a greater danger than diplomatic humiliation. For Trump, that would amount to a crowning achievement: proof that his transactional style can deliver where decades of conventional diplomacy failed.

In the high-stakes contest between Washington and Tehran, the winner may not be the side with the biggest fleet. It may be the side that best understands the other’s breaking point.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Iran, Nuclear weapons, Iran nuclear deal, Geneva, Diplomacy, Art of the deal, Uss abraham lincoln, Uss gerald r ford, Armada, Nobel peace prize, Red line, Internet, Censorship, Revolution, Islamic revolutionary guard corps, Ali larijani, Ayatollah ali khamenei, Middle east, America first, National security, National interest 

The FBI has reportedly fired a slew of employees at the direction of Dir. Kash Patel following his revelation to Reuters on Wednesday that the bureau obtained phone records for him and for White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023 while they were private citizens.

Four individuals briefed on the terminations — more of which are expected — told CNN that the approximately 10 newly fired FBI employees were involved in the lawfare waged against President Donald Trump over retention of government documents at Mar-a-Lago.

‘I am in shock.’

“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” Patel said in a statement.

According to Patel, operatives of the Biden FBI, led by then-Director Christopher Wray, not only obtained “toll records” for his and Wiles’ private phone calls, as it had with Republican lawmakers in Operation Arctic Frost, but attempted to hide that they had done so in requesting court approval.

An individual with knowledge of the situation told the New York Times that some of the fired FBI employees — reportedly including support personnel, agents, and supervisors — were involved in that effort.

Toll records provide investigators with identifying information of callers along with the date, time, location, and length of a call.

RELATED: District Judge Cannon issues ruling on fate of Trump adversary’s Biden-era special report

Susie Wiles. Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

Reuters, citing two FBI officials, reported that in at least one instance, the bureau sought more than just toll records and taped a call between Wiles and her attorney in 2023. While Wiles’ attorney was reportedly aware that the call was being recorded and provided consent, Wiles was allegedly unaware.

Wiles told associates, “I am in shock,” reported Axios.

A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Wiles’ records were reviewed in connection with the Trump classified documents case and that Patel’s records were not subpoenaed in connection with Arctic Frost, the investigation that morphed into former special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election case against Trump regarding the 2020 election.

Blaze News has reached out to the FBI for comment.

Other Trump allies may have been surveilled by the FBI, and the latest revelations may be just “the tip of the iceberg,” Trump officials familiar with the investigation told Axios.

The FBI Agents Association rushed to condemn the firings of those allegedly involved in the apparent spying operation, claiming the ousters “weaken the bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals.”

Anthony Coley, former director of public affairs for the Biden Justice Department who is now on MSNOW, complained to Axios that Patel “is on a singular mission: to find something, anything for which to prosecute Jack Smith.”

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​Federal bureau of investigation, Fbi, Kash patel, Patel, Susie wiles, Wiles, Donald trump, Christopher wray, Wray, Bureau, Swamp, Lawfare, Joe biden, Biden, Politics 

President Trump’s State of the Union address last night was one for the books, but one moment stood out in particular as it highlighted the intense divide between the left and the right when it comes to their understanding of the American people.

During his speech, Trump gave both Democrat and Republican legislators the chance to stand up and show their support for the American people.

“If you agree with this statement,” Trump said, “then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

When Trump said this, the Republican side of the chamber stood, and Democrats stayed seated.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes Trump’s powerful performance showed a stark difference between the left and the right, while BlazeTV contributor Pastor Corey Brooks agrees.

“I think the right is going to definitely have a lot of commercials to run the Republican Party when they asked that question about, you know, supporting the American people over illegal immigrants. And no one on that side stood. I think that speaks volumes,” Brooks tells Whitlock.

“That’s exactly what we’re experiencing in the city of Chicago. So I know a lot of people can resonate with that,” he adds.

Whitlock points out that Trump was very “aggressive” and “clever about trying to draw the difference between himself and the Democrats.”

“I thought he drew a pretty good distinct line in the sand and gave people a clear choice,” he tells Brooks.

“People who watch that speech and listen to the words and not so much the rhetoric, but listen to what was being said, I think there’s a direct difference between both parties and everybody can see it,” Brooks responds, adding, “And I think overall, most Americans are probably going to wake up today and be aligned closer with those points of views.”

BlazeTV contributor Virgil Walker is aligned with Whitlock and Brooks, telling Whitlock that what Trump demonstrated was “a brilliant dose of stage craft.”

“There’s no other way around it. I mean to make the statement that he did as it relates to the first duty of government is to protect American citizens and those who agree with that, asking them to stand and then allowing, not for a brief, you know, stand and clap and sit down, but for that statement and the visual from that, to stand for as long as he did,” Walker says.

“For him to kind of point to those people who were sitting, was a brilliant set of stage craft. It allowed the American people to see it in real time that Democrats do not care for the needs of the American people first and that they primarily are thinking about their own political future,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sharing, Video phone, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Free, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock harmony, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Trump, President trump, State of the union address, Sotu, Virgil walker, Pastor corey brooks 

President Donald Trump says that he, along with many Americans, is concerned about the energy demand and strain AI data centers are putting on the electrical grid.

In a brief moment during his 2026 State of the Union speech, the president gave remarks that, while only lasting a minute or so, could, in effect, save the American household hundreds of dollars per year.

‘A single large AI data center consumes as much electricity annually as 2 million homes.’

“We have an old grid. It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that’s needed,” Trump said. “So I’m telling them, they can build their own plant.”

These simple comments actually have a massive ripple effect when put into practice. When companies like Apple or Meta build sprawling campuses to house their AI and user data, the power has to come from somewhere, and it often comes at the price of the American family.

For example, Pew reported that data centers have accounted for over $9 billion in price increases in capacity markets for 2025-2026; this refers to the amount of electricity a provider says it will provide. This is expected to increase the average monthly residential electrical bill by $16 in Ohio and $18 in Western Maryland.

RELATED: Who makes the Waymos flooding American streets? China.

Photographer: Heather Khalifa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Connecticut’s Office of Legislative Research found that residents in Virginia could see an increase between $14 and $37 per month by 2040 due to data centers. At an average increase of $25.50, that’s $306 annually.

Moreover, a Carnegie Mellon University study reported that data center growth could increase electric bills between 8% and 25% nationally.

“A single large AI data center consumes as much electricity annually as 2 million homes,” AI researcher Josh Fonseca Rivera told Return. “In 2024, U.S. data centers collectively drew roughly as much power as all of Pakistan.”

He added, “These costs are already reaching households. In Washington, D.C., residential electricity bills have risen approximately $10 per month due to data center demand. I think we can all agree that trillion-dollar tech companies should pay for their own power instead of pushing costs onto families.”

RELATED: ‘They can build their own’: Trump deals blow to tech companies hoping to tap into the power grid

Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tech expert Josh Centers said that Trump actually undersold the existing problem.

“The grid has to be balanced down to fractions of a hertz every second, or the whole thing cascades into blackouts. Drop multiple data centers pulling as much power as a small city onto that, and you’ve got a serious infrastructure crisis,” he explained.

“The dirty secret is these AI models are wildly inefficient. We’re still running neural network math from the 1940s, just brute-forced with modern silicon and massive energy budgets,” Centers added. Instead of using AI to write books, “hand kids a real book,” he said, referring to his own work teaching children literacy.

One military tech CEO told Return that a co-existence between communities and Big Tech is possible, one that is mutually beneficial.

“The key will be making sure companies truly carry their share of infrastructure costs and that communities benefit from the added capacity,” said Tyler Saltsman, CEO of EdgeRunner AI. “But if structured properly, this approach could protect ratepayers, encourage modernization, and use private investment to reinforce a grid that badly needs upgrading, which is a major attack vector currently.”

During the State of the Union, the president referred to a new pledge, “Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers.”

The new legislation is meant to “guarantee consumers [are] first priority on the grid,” ensure new data centers get their power from separate sources, and establish new transparency measures around data center utility usage.

“They’re going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company’s ability to get electricity, while at the same time, lowering prices of electricity for you,” Trump said.

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​Return, Ai, Data centers, Ai campus, Data campus, Electricity, Electrical grid, Meta, Apple, Tech 

As conservatives, we should celebrate America’s gold-medal hockey win over Canada. We should also reflect on it.

Why? Because we are a morbid bunch of doomsayers. Inside every silver lining, we see a cloud, and we never miss an opportunity to forecast how everything is about to go horribly wrong.

The God of hockey is also the God of nations. He can do a lot with one good man.

We are morbid because we are so analytical. We break things and situations down into their component parts. We measure. We estimate. We look at the numbers, and from the numbers, we draw our conclusions.

Numbers game?

The problem is that, when it comes to the culture, the numbers are rarely on our side. Let’s be honest, they haven’t been on our side for a while, but that’s why we should reflect on the United States’ victory over Canada.

Statistically, Canada outplayed the United States. Anyone who watched the last two periods could tell you: Man for man, America was getting outplayed.

It really just came down to the fact that we had one player they couldn’t beat: our goalie, Connor Hellebuyck. Canada outshot the United States in the last two periods 33 to 18. The numbers weren’t on our side, but the one man who mattered was.

RELATED: Raucous applause erupts for Olympic men’s hockey team at State of the Union: ‘What special champions you are!’

Photo (left): ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images; Photo (right): Leah Millis-Pool/Getty Images

‘God has a name’

More than 50 years ago, the future Pope Benedict XVI noted modern life’s tendency to reduce men to faceless statistics: “The machines that he himself has constructed now impose their own law on him: He must be made readable for the computer, and this can be achieved only when he is translated into numbers.”

“But,” he continued, “God has a name, and God calls us by our name. … For Him, we are not some function in a ‘world machinery.'”

In life, as in sports, victory does not always yield to the data. It just takes one good man to go into the breach; one man, completely outnumbered, who stands up when all others have fallen and says, “You cannot pass.”

Cultures aren’t defined by numbers. They are defined by people. So be courageous, be hopeful, and take a stand in the breach. The God of hockey is also the God of nations. He can do a lot with one good man.

​Lifestyle, Olympics, Hockey, Donald trump, Culture, Sports, Faith, Christianity, Conor hellebuyck, Pope benedict xvi, Usa! usa! usa! 

If Donald Trump put on a black robe tomorrow and issued an opinion in an intellectual property dispute between two tech companies, no one would treat it as binding law. So why are we expected to treat judicial policymaking on immigration and national security as untouchable — especially when lower courts now openly defy higher courts?

One of the most damaging misconceptions in American government holds that the Supreme Court is “supreme” over the political branches in all things. At most, its supremacy runs within the judicial hierarchy: It can overrule lower federal courts. The same goes for the courts of appeals, which are supposed to bind district courts within their circuits.

If lower courts refuse deference to their judicial bosses, why should the president keep extending deference to either level when the law is on his side?

That system, however, increasingly operates as a one-way ratchet for left-wing political outcomes.

On February 6, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals finally reaffirmed a basic legal principle: Illegal aliens seeking admission are not entitled to enter the country, demand release, and then litigate their way into residency while living freely inside the United States. The court upheld long-standing precedent and the plain text of U.S. immigration law, which requires detention of inadmissible aliens pending disposition of their cases.

Congress enacted that provision in 1996 for an obvious reason: to prevent people from entering illegally, receiving a notice to appear, and then disappearing into the interior.

Unlike American criminals who are entitled to bond hearings, illegal aliens are not being prosecuted for a crime. They can always voluntarily depart and live freely in their home countries. Being detained is a consequence of their initial invasion and their desire to litigate their way into our country.

Then came the district courts.

Just three days after the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, Judge Kathleen Cardone, an El Paso-based George W. Bush appointee, ordered the release of aliens in five cases on the theory that they had “established roots” in the United States. What, then, was the point of the Fifth Circuit ruling? Cardone claimed in one case that it “has no bearing on this Court’s determination of whether [the petitioner] is being detained in violation of his constitutional right to procedural due process.”

Likewise, on February 9, Judge David Briones, an El Paso-based Clinton appointee, reached a similar conclusion. “The Court reiterates its original holding that noncitizens who have ‘established connections’ in the United States by virtue of living in the country for a substantial period acquire a liberty interest in being free from government detention without due process of law,” Briones wrote — about an illegal alien who entered the country in 2024.

Pause there.

The Fifth Circuit had just ruled that detention is mandated by statute even in cases involving aliens who entered long ago (including plaintiffs from 2001 and 2009). Yet a district judge somehow concluded that ruling does not apply to someone who crossed illegally in 2024. Worse, how can a district judge claim the Fifth Circuit did not account for the “constitutional” question when the appeals court’s ruling necessarily presumes ICE’s conduct is constitutional?

RELATED: The Fifth Circuit cracks down on the asylum excuse factory

ozgurdonmaz via iStock/Getty Images

These judges are cherry-picking language from select Supreme Court opinions about aliens with “established ties” while ignoring the far stronger body of law recognizing that illegal entrants have no right to remain in the country against the national will. The idea that someone can break into the country, evade enforcement long enough to create “ties,” and then use that evasion as a legal shield makes a mockery of popular sovereignty and of the Declaration’s first principles.

This also demonstrates, again, why the Trump administration cannot comply its way out of judicial supremacism. Even when it wins in higher courts, lower-court judges can repackage the same result in a new case and keep obstructing enforcement. Why should Trump defer reflexively to congressionally created judges who refuse to defer even to their own superiors within the judiciary?

That point came into focus in Ninth Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke’s dissent from his court’s decision to halt the deportation of a Peruvian family while the appeal proceeds. Referring to the Ninth Circuit as a “wackadoo” court, VanDyke described what he said has become an automatic practice: granting stays of removal even when Supreme Court immigration precedent clearly points the other way.

In effect, he argued, the court uses procedural orders and an ever-expanding shadow docket to nullify precedent without formally issuing rulings that openly defy it.

Because of the circuit’s heavy caseload, VanDyke wrote, judges adopted a “convenient, but unwritten, practice” of granting preliminary relief in the form of administrative stays pending review. Those stays often remain in place until the merits are decided. The result, he said, is a system that “disregard[s] Supreme Court precedent and award[s] automatic, extended stays of removal in utterly meritless immigration appeals.”

Defenders of the Ninth Circuit might say the court is overloaded and must rely on lengthy interim stays. VanDyke’s point, however, is that this indulgence appears uniquely generous in deportation cases. As he put it, the Ninth Circuit’s internal dialogue sounds like “a judicial Oprah Winfrey, confused by her own popularity.”

His satirical version of the court’s approach was devastating:

We are… (“You get a stay!”)… sincerely shocked… (“You get a stay!”)… by the… (“You get a stay!”)… number of… (“You get a stay!”)… utterly… (“You get a stay!”)… meritless… (“You get a stay!”)… immigration petitions… (“You get a stay! And you get a stay! And you get a stay!”)… that are filed… (“You get a stay!”)… in our court. (“Everyone gets a stay!”).

That is the point. When it comes to many liberal judges — who still dominate too many panels — law is often just a vehicle for politics. They will reach the result they want by whatever procedural route is available. You cannot simply “out-appeal” a judiciary willing to ignore controlling law while pretending not to.

RELATED: We escaped King George. Why do we bow to King Judge?

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A Politico review of thousands of ICE detention cases found that at least 360 judges rejected ICE’s broader detention policies in more than 3,000 cases, while just 27 judges backed those policies in about 130 cases. The overwhelming pattern is plain: Judges are sidelining the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Supreme Court’s plenary power doctrine, which affirms broad executive authority over the detention and removal of illegal aliens.

No Supreme Court ruling, by itself, will stop judges committed to creative procedural sabotage.

Lawlessness begets lawlessness. It is grimly fitting that in an era when invaders are encouraged to dictate terms to citizens, inferior courts now side with them while dictating terms to superior courts.

If lower courts refuse deference to their judicial bosses, why should the president keep extending deference to either level when the law is on his side?

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Members of a Florida community are demanding that police do more to investigate a woman after her boyfriend was arrested for allegedly beating to death her 3-year-old daughter.

Jeroen Jarrel Coombs, 32, was babysitting Paisley Brown along with four other children ages 1 to 9 years old at the couple’s trailer home in Citra on Thursday, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s office.

‘He advised that he had bound her hands with a robe tie and her legs with painter’s tape to prevent her from reaching into her diaper the night before.’

Police said they responded to the residence on 44th Avenue at about noon when they were called on a report that the girl was found unresponsive. Paisley was transported to a hospital, where she was declared dead.

An investigation found that Coombs had called the girl’s mother at about 10:58 a.m to tell her the child was unresponsive, but he did not call emergency services. Forty minutes passed until the 911 call was made.

The girl’s mother allegedly yelled, “My baby is gone!” after returning home and seeing Paisley limp in her high chair.

Police said one of the children at the home told them Coombs struck Paisley and “disclosed prior physical abuse” by the man.

Coombs allegedly admitted to injuring the child after he was confronted by police about ligature marks and bruises on the child.

“He advised that he had bound her hands with a robe tie and her legs with painter’s tape to prevent her from reaching into her diaper the night before,” police said. “Coombs claimed that he picked Paisley up while she was still bound and dropped her on the floor, causing her to begin gasping for air.”

Lt. Paul Bloom told reporters the man did admit, “I went too far. I took it too far.”

The other four children were placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Coombs was charged with aggravated child abuse, but deputies said further charges are forthcoming. He is being held at the Marion County Jail without bail.

RELATED: Woman admits beating to death boyfriend’s 3-year-old son after horrific abuse, court records show

Dozens gathered on Saturday to protest and demand accountability for the mother of the child.

“I respect our law enforcement, but I’ve seen countless situations in Marion County where arrests are prolonged for months or even years,” protest organizer Carley Santana said. “I don’t think somebody should be walking free without at least being taken in, questioned, and determined [responsible] by a police officer.”

Paisley’s father, Robert Brown, addressed the crowd and said his daughter’s death was preventable.

“Paisley, she’s amazing. She’s a loving person, who’s always happy and goofy,” he said.

Police said they’re investigating why it took 40 minutes for Paisley’s mother to call 911 after learning that she was unresponsive.

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While the State of the Union address is meant to showcase the presidential agenda, sometimes the moments that live on have little to do with policy. And according to BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, some of the most memorable come from other politicians stealing the spotlight themselves.

“This one I place in the gold medal position here is Nancy Pelosi ripping up President Trump’s speech,” says Wheeler.

In a clip from Trump’s past State of the Union address, Pelosi stands behind Trump as he takes in the applause from the crowd, ripping up a copy of his address.

“This was not an impromptu action that Nancy Pelosi took. This was not something that she did in the heat of the moment. This was not an unscripted emotional outburst. This was something Nancy Pelosi deliberately planned to do, knowing that it would be broadcast in the background internationally,” Wheeler explains.

“This was her response to President Trump. Nothing of substance, no alternative vision, just ripping him up,” she says, pointing out that the Democrats aren’t the only party to have had a politician throw a tantrum at a State of the Union address.

“When Barack Obama was president and he was attempting to debunk a Republican talking about Obamacare … Representative Joe Wilson, in, I think … the first public heckling of a president during the State of the Union address, shouted from the floor of Congress ‘You lie!’ at Barack Obama in 2009,” Wheeler explains.

Wheeler points out that in the video of Obama being heckled by Wilson, Pelosi’s “jaw actually drops.”

“‘You lie’ wins our silver medal for top moments from past State of the Union addresses. And coming in third, the bronze medal, we have to give to Marco Rubio,” she says.

This bronze medal is in honor of Rubio’s “very first meme.”

“This was back in 2013, so over a decade ago, he gave the Republican rebuttal to President Obama,” Wheeler says.

In his rebuttal, Rubio is clearly thirsty and awkwardly bends down to take a swig from a tiny water bottle.

“And that, of course, that moment eclipsed anything else that the president said or didn’t say,” Wheeler adds.

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Four people were stabbed and killed at a home where an elderly woman had tried to obtain a domestic violence protective order against her son.

Washington state police responded to a report that a 32-year-old man was violating a protective order on Tuesday when they realized the order had never been served, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman said her son was suffering from ‘grandiosity, auditory hallucinations, and command hallucinations.’

They rushed to serve the order against him, but as they were on the way, other calls came in about a man stabbing people at the same address near Tacoma. When they arrived, they found that he had allegedly stabbed four people, who later died.

Police then shot and killed the man. He was declared dead at the scene.

KING-TV reported that people had been stabbed in the back yard of the home as well as in the front street.

Records show that the woman at the address had sought a protective order against her son on the basis that he had mental health and substance abuse issues, and had pushed her. He also made a threat to her after saying her “grave has been already dug up.”

The woman wrote that he had been doing “witchcraft/occult behavior and doing rituals” at her home, as well as “damaging personal belongings” and hurting her cat.

“I am an elderly disabled woman, and he is taking advantage of me and my health,” she added.

The son did not appear before court, and she was granted the protective order, which restricted him from being within 1,000 feet of her and ordered him to comply with a mental health plan. However, he wasn’t served the order, and WDIV-TV reported that it was unclear why he wasn’t served.

The woman said her son was suffering from “grandiosity, auditory hallucinations, and command hallucinations,” which were worsening.

RELATED: ‘Sadistic’ PA man sexually assaulted and cut 13-year-old girl at California motel after grooming her on Discord, feds say

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people killed or of the man killed by deputies.

A neighbor in the area described what he witnessed.

“All of a sudden, I just heard, like, a series of gunshots. You could really hear it echoing through the trees,” Chris Cardenas said.

He said he saw ambulances and dozens of police cars at the scene of the crime, which he described as tragic.

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A major philosophical shift is under way inside the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division — and much of it is thanks to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

Dhillon tells BlazeTV hosts Christopher Rufo and Jonathan “Lomez” Keeperman on “Rufo & Lomez” how she’s moving the agency away from diversity, equity, and inclusion-driven enforcement and toward a return to colorblind equality under the law.

“You’re bringing a totally different theory of civil rights law to the Department of Justice,” Rufo tells Dhillon. “This can’t be easy.”

“It is a very daunting task and, frankly, when I raised my hand in response to the president’s request to do this job, I knew it was going to be one of the more difficult jobs here in the DOJ because historically the Civil Rights Division has been a place that doesn’t really change very much from administration to administration,” Dhillon says.

The reason, Dhillon explains, is that “the lawyers who choose to make their careers doing civil rights work typically, historically, have been from a leftist perspective.”

“And that isn’t necessarily bad. I mean, there was a point in time in our country when we passed a lot of these civil rights laws in the 1960s, where we had rampant discrimination against African-Americans and other people and even against women to a degree,” she tells Rufo and Lomez.

“But way past the time that many of these historical ills have been corrected by our society, with or without the intervention of the Civil Rights Division, people have viewed it as their mission to continue to push the boundaries further and further out to the left,” she says.

This has posed one of the biggest issues for Dhillon in her war against DEI.

“The truism from the Reagan era is that personnel is policy. And so one of the biggest challenges we had here was, how are we going to implement the president’s agenda with personnel who don’t want to do that,” she explains.

“I actually had … a relatively smooth transition into our mission because early on … I issued memos to all the different sections here in the Civil Rights Division … letting them know that we are going to be changing our focus here to implementing the president’s agenda, consistent with the civil rights statutes in the Constitution,” she continues.

“And that simple step, sometimes just one or two paragraphs of a memo to a few dozen lawyers, caused more than half of them to quit right away,” she adds.

Then, when an early retirement program at the DOJ was implemented, another several dozen took advantage of the program and quit.

“We were down about two-thirds of the manpower here in the Civil Rights Division. And so, then the challenge became how to do the big job of rightsizing our civil rights agenda and making it consistent with the president’s agenda,” she explains.

While she admits that it was difficult at the outset, she’s “happy to say that we’ve gotten past all of that.”

“We’ve hired a bunch of great people, young and old, here in the Civil Rights Division, who are very willing to work with us in doing the work that you’ve seen in the headlines,” she adds.

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President Donald Trump had a successful State of the Union address on Wednesday, despite the handful of protesters who showed up to register their disfavor with his policies.

The crowd was so small that the Republican National Committee posted video to social media to deride the lack of effort by anti-Trump forces.

‘Someone forgot to send out some money and buses in order to have a turnout.’

The RNC reposted a news video from Brecca Stoll of the Daily Wire, who was reporting from Washington, D.C., outside of Congress where Trump was speaking.

“What is the crowd like? Give us a breakdown. What’s the average attendee? I just wanna know who goes to one of these things. What’s it looking like?” Cabot Phillips asked.

“So, when you say, ‘Who goes to these types of things,’ not many. There’s probably 75 people in this crowd, and I would say 35 of them are reporters,” Stoll responded.

“Oh!” he said, surprised.

“We’ve seen it in Minneapolis, we’ve seen it with protests — right when it starts at 9 p.m., they’re able to get these droves of people,” she added. “But as of right now, it’s a pretty slim turnout.”

The video was reposted by the official RNC account.

“Democrats’ State of the Union boycotts are going well,” the RNC wrote, with a laughing emoji.

Others pounced to pile onto the protesters.

“Wow, 75 protesters? Truly an overwhelming sea of resistance. Half of them probably brought their own lighting,” one response read.

“Gee, someone forgot to send out some money and buses in order to have a turnout,” another user replied.

“Well this should show Democrats they have no support. Sadly they won’t pay attention. They are to [sic] caught up in their own vanity,” another said.

RELATED: Praise rolls in for high school suspending hundreds of students over anti-ICE walkout: ‘Adults are taking charge’

Stoll also interviewed several students at George Washington University to ask them if the president had done well or poorly in his State of the Union address. All of those included in the video said he did very poorly.

None of them realized she was asking their advice a day before the president made this address to Congress.

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Larry Summers, an economist and former treasury secretary, announced that he is stepping away from his role as a tenured professor at Harvard University following criticism for his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In November, a document dump of 20,000 pages revealed that Summers communicated with Epstein in 2018 and 2019, including within weeks of Epstein’s arrest, the Wall Street Journal reported.

‘I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year.’

Epstein described himself as Summers’ “wing man” in one email. Summers and his wife reportedly briefly visited Epstein’s island during their 2005 honeymoon.

Summers served as the treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001. He was also the director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama. Summers held a position as the president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.

Shortly after his messages with Epstein came to light, Summers lost his partnerships and positions with several organizations, including the New York Times, the Center for American Progress, BloombergTV, and the Yale Budget Lab. He also resigned from his seat on the OpenAI board.

RELATED: Epstein emails SHAME Obama/Clinton ally: Larry Summers quits public life amid calls for Harvard to cut ties

Larry Summers. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers said in November. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”

Summers held onto his teaching and leadership positions at Harvard University amid the fallout. However, he has been on leave since November.

Summers announced Wednesday that he would retire at the end of the academic year.

RELATED: ‘The mistake I made’: Bill Gates reportedly admits to affairs with Russians, apologizes for Epstein fallout

Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images

“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers said. “I will always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”

“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” he added.

A spokesperson for Harvard told the WSJ that the school had accepted Summers’ resignation “in connection with the ongoing review by the university of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government.”

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President Donald Trump made waves when he invited the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team to his State of the Union address after the men struck gold at the Milan Cortina Olympics this Sunday.

But it’s not just Trump’s invitation that has the left up in arms.

FBI Director Kash Patel was also celebrating the win in the locker room with the team and held a phone up to the players on speakerphone so that Trump could deliver a message.

“We’re giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night,” Trump said. “I can send a military plane or something, but if you would like to, it’s the coolest night, it’s the biggest speech.”

As Trump spoke, one player interjected, “We’re in.”

“I must tell you: We’re going to have to bring the women’s team. You do know that. I do believe I probably would be impeached, okay?”

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock was thrilled with the men’s Olympic win and calls the outrage over Trump’s invitation “fool’s gold” and “phony outrage.”

“All of these feminists, all of these Marxists that are running around pretending that Donald Trump and the men’s hockey team have done something wrong. All of them running around pretending like, ‘Well, the women, they won gold too,’” he says.

“This whole controversy is a joke. Of course the women won gold in women’s hockey. What are there, like, three countries in the world that take hockey seriously for women?” he jokes.

Unlike women’s hockey, men’s hockey has been a staple of the Olympics since 1920.

“We’ve won three gold medals in men’s hockey over the course of 106 years. It’s a big deal when the men win. We’re not the most talented men’s team. Canada is. Don’t fall for the fool’s gold,” Whitlock says.

“And Donald Trump doesn’t have to apologize, and Kash Patel doesn’t have to apologize, and the men’s U.S. hockey team doesn’t have to apologize,” he continues, “because Trump lives in reality and was talking to a group of men who just accomplished something incredible.”

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The deranged response to a “girl dad” photo of a hockey player led the National Hockey League to delete a post completely unrelated to President Donald Trump.

The photo showed Washington Capitals center Dylan Strome with his 2-year-old daughter dressed up like a princess at a makeover boutique in Disneyland.

‘The comments and messages about my TWO YEAR OLD DAUGHTER are some of the most vile and disgusting things I have ever read in my life.’

While most people found the post adorable, some commenters tied it to the Olympic men’s hockey team accepting a call from President Donald Trump after its incredible gold-medal victory. Some of the players laughed when the president joked that he would be called misogynistic if he didn’t invite the women’s team to the White House as well.

But there was a problem with that criticism — Strome had nothing to do with that call and didn’t play in the Olympics. Also, he’s Canadian.

A screenshot of some of the responses included:

“Laughing at a misogynistic joke a rapist and pedophile told — more like worst girl dad ever.” “Not using the daughter as a human shield my god today.” “A girl dad would put out a statement that he meant no harm by laughing along with a convicted rapist/pedophile mocking the women’s team who has meddled [sic] way more than the men.” “Oh yea suuuuucha lover of women, think he’ll laugh at her accomplishments too??” “I feel sorry for the kid … imagine having THAT as your dad.”

“Crazy being a ‘girl dad’ and worshipping a pedophile,” another response reads.

“No. Absolutely not. An ultimate girl dad would NOT disparage & laugh at a women’s team who is 10x better than his own. He is obviously a woman-hater, just like Trump. F**k those biggest losers,” another user responded.

“Don’t hide misogyny behind ‘girl dad.’ Being a girl dad means fighting for equal pay, equal respect, and equal opportunity — EVERYWHERE. I coach my daughter’s team. I elevate women’s sports. I fight for their bodily autonomy. That’s what it actually looks like. Shame on you, @NHL,” another crazed message reads.

“So he watches a video on his phone while wearing a ‘girl dad’ hat. That’s all a girl can ask for, right? Certainly not standing up against misogyny from a pedophile rapist who pooped his pants longer than she did,” another critic replied.

The NHL deleted the post from social media but has not indicated a reason for the deletion.

Strome’s wife, on the other hand, had much to say to those who irrationally attacked her husband and her daughter.

“We were placed into a narrative that we have absolutely nothing to do with, and we certainly did not choose to have our family used in it. You can debate adults all you want, but dragging my husband and especially my toddler into something that has nothing to do with us is beyond unacceptable,” she wrote.

RELATED: Raucous applause erupts for Olympic men’s hockey team at State of the Union: ‘What special champions you are!’

“The comments and messages about my TWO YEAR OLD DAUGHTER are some of the most vile and disgusting things I have ever read in my life,” she added. “This isn’t about politics. She is a child. Full stop. Do better. [And] to everyone who has reached out or addressed this situation with more than a single brain cell, thank you.”

The president invited the U.S. men’s team and the women’s team to his State of the Union speech Tuesday, and while the men attended, the women’s team declined.

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Republican and Democrat leaders alike entered Tuesday night anxiously. Each side feared its loudest members would turn the State of the Union into an ugly scene and poison the evening.

Democrats worried about the Squad and about 78-year-old Texas Rep. Al Green, who after 10 terms in Congress seems more comfortable waving signs than writing laws. Republicans worried about the president — specifically, whether he would get dragged into a nasty back-and-forth with congressional activists.

Trump does not pretend the country is more unified than it is. He ran as a builder and a wrecking ball: a candidate with a program and a man eager to force Democrats to defend their most radical positions.

President Donald Trump had another idea.

He had no reason to brawl from the podium, flanked by the vice president and the speaker of the House and standing at the most powerful pulpit in American politics. He set a trap instead. In front of more than 30 million ordinary Americans, Democrats walked into it.

Political junkies live inside the daily partisan trench war. They know the script. The fighting started not long after America’s founding and never really stopped.

Most Americans do not live that way.

They have jobs, kids, bills, errands, sports, church, aging parents, and whatever time remains at the end of the day. With the old monoculture mostly dead, they gather around only a handful of events: a few major sports broadcasts, presidential elections, and the State of the Union.

Viewership has fallen over the decades, but the speech still pulls a massive audience — usually somewhere between 30 million and 40 million people. In modern America, that is a huge number.

For perspective, the finale of “Game of Thrones” drew just under 20 million viewers. The USA-Canada hockey game pulled 18.6 million live viewers. The Super Bowl remains the true annual monocultural event, with around 60 million viewers, but even that scale only underscores the point: the State of the Union still reaches a country-sized audience.

More important than the raw number is who those viewers are.

Many of them do not follow politics closely. They caught the big campaign ads, such as “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” and responded. They saw headlines about riots, crime, and immigration. Maybe they saw footage of crackdowns. Then they went back to their lives.

On Tuesday night, they tuned in again — and watched Trump stage a live study in contrasts.

After spending the first hour of the speech reciting accomplishments and laying out goals, Trump turned toward the increasingly agitated Democrat side of the chamber and began forcing choices.

He challenged them to stand if they put American citizens ahead of illegal immigrants and foreign nationals. They sat.

He put a grieving mother before them — the mother of a young Ukrainian woman murdered on a train in North Carolina — and dared them to remain frozen. They did. Iryna Zarutska may be the only Ukrainian in the world Democrats won’t cheer for.

He highlighted a young woman torn from her family as a child by transgender ideology and the institutions that privilege bureaucrats over parents. Democrats reacted exactly as he wanted.

Even when he managed to draw applause from them — despite every congressional instinct telling members to show nothing — he flipped the moment and used it to needle the institution itself, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the chamber’s most famous suspected symbol of insider trading.

State of the Union speeches are usually built for broad appeal. Presidents of both parties use them to sound larger than their coalition. Barack Obama did this well. However radical his policies, he often sounded like Ronald Reagan in these addresses. He studied the Great Communicator, and it showed. Republicans could call him a liar and an ideologue — and did — but many Americans liked the version of Obama they saw on that stage each year.

Trump operates in a different register and in a different era.

He does not pretend the country is more unified than it is. In both 2016 and 2024, he ran as a builder and a wrecking ball: a candidate with a program and a man eager to force Democrats to defend their most radical positions.

That formula worked in both victories. He laid out a positive vision while tying Democrats to policies many voters reject — open borders, soft-on-crime governance, and transgender ideology aimed at children.

Tuesday night, he did not need a campaign ad buy to run the same play.

He had the pomp, the circumstance, and, most importantly, the audience.

And with the instincts of a once-in-a-generation political talent, he let Democrats supply the contrast for him.

​Opinion & analysis 

In his nearly two-hour State of the Union address last night, President Trump celebrated what he described as an extraordinary “turnaround for the ages” in his leadership, declaring America now “bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever” amid a booming economy marked by declining inflation, reduced gas and mortgage rates, rising wages, and a tightly secured border with no illegal entries reported in recent months.

He spotlighted aggressive immigration enforcement measures, stood firm on his tariff strategy, cautioned Iran against pursuing nuclear weapons while favoring diplomatic paths, floated new proposals like universal retirement savings access and curbs on institutional home buying, paid tribute to military veterans and the Olympic hockey squad, delivered pointed critiques of Democrats and previous administrations, and painted an optimistic picture of renewed national strength heading into the midterm elections.

But there was one singular moment that BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre says was genuinely unforgettable.

“The moment that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life is watching Iryna Zarutska’s mother with Erica Kirk and just the pain on her face in that moment and the fact that Democrats could not even in that moment summon a shred of humanity,” he says.

“I still don’t think that we have dealt with the psychic trauma again of that one-two punch of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, and so I think that [Trump] highlighting that and, you know, showing the grief that is still there for that mother and knowing that we need justice, we need to end political violence, we need to end the soft-on-crime policy — I think those were all incredibly strong moments for him,” he adds.

Fellow BlazeTV host and SOTU panel member Steve Deace agrees that this was one of the most powerful, albeit enraging, moments of the entire event.

He points to a viral tweet from Turning Point USA Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer that shined a spotlight on the depths of Democrats’ hypocrisy.

Deace calls the close-up snapshot a “devastating” blow to Democrats.

“It’s a post of one of the Democrat members of Congress who did not want to stand during [the honoring of Anna Zarutska], and he’s got a Ukraine flag on his lapel. If that is not a portrait of where we are,” he scoffs.

“This is what the Democrats actually think of the Ukrainian people,” says guest and senior editor at Human Events Jack Posobiec.

To hear more, watch the video below.

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