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The Federal Bureau of Investigation requested interviews with six Democrats over their video calling on military members to disobey allegedly unlawful orders from the Trump administration, according to four members of Congress.

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said on social media Tuesday that she had been notified by the FBI about the investigation, and a statement from lawmakers supported the claim.

‘To suggest and encourage that active-duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do.’

“Last night, the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division appeared to open an inquiry into me in response to a video President Trump did not like. The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” Slotkin wrote on social media.

President Donald Trump accused the Democrat “traitors” of “seditious behavior” and at one point suggested they should be jailed and perhaps even hanged. The White House later walked that comment back, but the president continued to demand the Democrats face prosecution over the video.

“He believes in weaponizing the federal government against his perceived enemies and does not believe laws apply to him or his Cabinet. He uses legal harassment as an intimidation tactic to scare people out of speaking up,” Slotkin continued.

The statement from Democrats said the FBI contacted the House and Senate sergeants at arms and requested interviews.

“President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress,” they wrote in the joint statement.

In an email to Blaze News, the FBI declined to comment.

“This isn’t just about a video,” Slotkin continued. “This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the president did not want the members to be executed.

“To suggest and encourage that active-duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do,” she added. “And they should be held accountable. And that’s what the president wants to see.”

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has received violent threats — and blames Trump

On Monday, the Department of War released a statement indicating that investigators were reviewing misconduct allegations against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and that he might face “court-martial proceedings or administrative measures” as a result.

Kelly responded on social media.

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” he replied.

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​Sen elissa slotkin, 6 democrats video, Unlawful orders video, Fbi investigates democrats, Politics 

To the amusement of staff and attendees, President Donald Trump once again went wildly off script during the annual turkey pardon ceremony at the White House.

Trump pardoned two turkeys on Tuesday named Gobble and Waddle, one of which was unfortunately “missing in action.” During his address leading up to the pardon, the president shared several unscripted, Trumpian quips, prompting laughter from the audience.

‘I don’t talk about people being fat.’

Trump first set his sights on Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who has butted heads with the administration over calls to deploy the National Guard to the crime-ridden city of Chicago. Trump taunted Pritzker for refusing to accept federal assistance in Chicago, and of course, for his weight.

“I’m not going to tell my Pritzker joke,” Trump said. “They have a very cute little joke, you know. Some speechwriter wrote some joke about his weight, but I would never want to talk about his weight.”

RELATED: Trump cracks jokes with Mamdani in cordial Oval Office meeting: ‘I’ve been called much worse’

“I don’t talk about people being fat,” Trump added. “I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob. I don’t mention it!”

Trump conceded that although Pritzker is “a fat slob,” he himself could “lose a few pounds too.”

But Trump did not stop at Pritzker. The president got back on track to talk about Gobble and Waddle’s imminent presidential pardons but not before taking another jab at his two greatest opponents on Capitol Hill.

“When I first saw their pictures … well, I shouldn’t say this,” Trump said.

RELATED: ‘Canary in a coal mine’: Ousted speaker warns against the rising risk of GOP House resignations

Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy,” Trump said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people.”

On the topic of pardons, Trump also joked about former President Joe Biden’s autopen, questioning the validity of last year’s turkey pardon.

“He used an autopen last year for the turkey’s pardon,” Trump said. “So I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined, that last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid as are the pardons of about every other person that was pardoned other than … where’s Hunter?”

“Hunter’s was good, that was the one pardon … that was good.”

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​Donald trump, Jb pritzker, Joe biden, Hunter biden, Chicago, National guard, Thanksgiving, Turkey pardon, Autopen, Nancy pelosi, Chuck schumer, Gobble and waddle, White house, Politics 

The days of “The Wire,” “The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Breaking Bad,” and “Better Call Saul” are gone. And they’re never coming back.

Instead of quality TV, we get a stream of shallow muck that insults our intelligence and wastes our time. Seth Rogen peddling the same stale stoner humor for the thousandth time. Pedro Pascal starring in a dystopian video-game adaptation so obsessed with gay “representation” that it might as well list Grindr as a co-producer.

Sheridan shows a country held together by early mornings, long shifts, and people who take pride in work most citizens rarely notice.

Then, just as you’re about to suffocate in the hothouse atmosphere of algorithm-driven fake-prestige TV, one show comes stomping in with a pair of steel-toed boots and kicks the door off its hinges. Fresh air floods the place — enough that something real might actually grow again. That show is “Landman.”

Drill, baby, drill

Forget “shame”; it’s time to drill, baby, drill. Taylor Sheridan’s hit is back for season 2, with the TV auteur once again proving that he is one of the few people in Hollywood who actually understands the America he is depicting. Many viewers know him from “Yellowstone,” the rare modern hit that refused to treat ranchers the way Hollywood treats anyone who still works with their hands. Where executive elites see deplorables, he sees Americans with stories worth telling.

Sheridan brings that same respect to “Landman.” He writes ordinary Americans with dignity rather than derision. He shows them as they are: hardworking, flawed, loyal, funny, and strong enough to carry a story on their backs. “Landman” is no cheap cousin of “Yellowstone.” It stands tall: lean, mean, focused, and built with the same skill that made Sheridan’s early work impossible to ignore.

The show moves effortlessly between blue-collar reality and white-collar brutality, revealing the canyon between those who pull the oil from the ground and those who profit from it. There’s a real honesty to that contrast. Sheridan knows this world, and it shows. You feel it in every shot of the Permian Basin. You hear it in the blunt, believable way his characters speak.

Billy Bob at his best

And then there’s Billy Bob Thornton. One of America’s finest actors, doing his best work since he stole “Fargo” as a soft-spoken psychopath who could change the temperature of a room with a single line. As Tommy Norris, a ruthless oilman, he brings back that same menace, just a little more restrained. He’s the perfect Sheridan creation: bruised, stubborn, quick to size people up, and capable of cruelty when pushed.

Season 1 worked best when it put Norris at the center and let everything else orbit around him. The very first scene of the very first episode sets the tone. Norris, blindfolded in a room with a cartel heavy, cracks a dry line about how they both traffic in addictive products. His just happens to make more money. It’s a joke with teeth. Sheridan doesn’t shy away from the darker corners of the oil world, the places where danger, deceit, and obscene wealth share the same bed.

Norris once ran his own outfit. Now he’s a fixer for M-Tex Oil, answering to Monty Miller, a billionaire played by Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” fame. Hamm leans into one of the last great “man’s man” roles on TV. He moves through marble corridors and executive suites with the relaxed confidence of a man who has never had to fight for a parking space or a paycheck.

Norris gets the other Texas. The asylum-adjacent McMansion he shares with co-workers. The long, unforgiving drives that eat up whole days. And the late-night waffle joints where truckers, rig hands, and the down-and-outs swallow bad coffee and brood over worse decisions.

Recognizably real

Sheridan shows a country held together by early mornings, long shifts, and people who take pride in work most citizens rarely notice. He zooms in on communities where faith still shapes daily life, where people curse when they have to, where men bow their heads before a meal and chew tobacco like there’s no tomorrow.

For conservatives, and especially for Christians who are tired of being reduced to stereotypes, “Landman” feels recognizably real. Season 1 had its flaws, including a few moments that leaned too hard into climate panic, but it never lost sight of what matters: good storytelling built on real characters and real consequences.

RELATED: ‘Yellowstone’ actor Forrie J. Smith on why America needs to rediscover its cowboy culture

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Men at work

And yes, the progressive pearl-clutchers will claim “Landman” has a “woman problem,” the same complaint they threw at “Yellowstone.” They insist that Sheridan sidelines women or turns them into cardboard cutouts.

The truth is far less dramatic. Both ranching and the oil fields are worlds dominated by men, and Sheridan writes them as they actually are, not as activists wish them to be. That’s not misogyny, but an accurate reflection of the reality millions of Americans live every day. Sure, some female characters could use more lines, but that hardly damages the show. It simply acknowledges that in these worlds, the danger, the decisions, and the dirty work fall mostly on men.

“Landman” also has something most modern shows forget: a genuine sense of place. Not the packaged Americana you see on postcards, but the West Texas that actually exists, where the heat melts your mind and vacation time is something you hear about, not something you get.

Season 2 promises to go deeper — underground for the oil and under the skin of the people who pull it out. More tension between the barons and the boys in the mud. More of Thornton’s world-weary wit. And more of what Sheridan does better than anyone around: crafting TV that wouldn’t look out of place beside the giants of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

If “Yellowstone” was Sheridan’s hymn to the American ranch, “Landman” is his sermon on the American worker. In an age of narrative nothingness, something on TV finally feels worth watching.

​Culture, Entertainment, Television, Landman, Yellowstone, Billy bob thornton, Taylor sheridan, Review 

The Biden administration expanded so-called lawful pathways, allowing millions of foreign nationals to flood into the United States. One of those pathways included the controversial use of Temporary Protected Status.

TPS was created to provide a deportation shield to foreign nationals in the U.S. based on temporarily unstable conditions in their home countries.

‘This decision restores TPS to its original status as temporary.’

Since retaking office in January, President Donald Trump has moved to roll back TPS, which was provided to numerous countries under the prior administration.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday the termination of TPS for Burma, effective January 26.

“At least 60 days before a TPS designation expires, the Secretary, after consultation with appropriate U.S. government agencies, is required to review the conditions in a country designated for TPS to determine whether the conditions supporting the designation continue to be met, and, if so, how long to extend the designation,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated.

“If the Secretary determines that the conditions in the foreign state continue to meet the specific statutory criteria for Temporary Protected Status designation, Temporary Protected Status will be extended for an additional period of 6 months or, in the Secretary’s discretion, 12 or 18 months,” USCIS continued. “If the Secretary determines that the foreign state no longer meets the conditions for Temporary Protected Status designation, the Secretary must terminate the designation.”

Burma was designated for TPS in May 2021, citing the Burmese military’s involvement in “a coup” that “depos[ed] the democratically elected government and declar[ed] a temporary one-year state of emergency,” which paused elections.

RELATED: Noem prepares to deport 500,000 immigrants from one long-troubled island

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

“The military is responding with increasing oppression and violence to demonstrations and protests, resulting in large-scale human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions and deadly force against unarmed individuals,” the Biden administration claimed at the time.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that the situation in Burma has improved and that its citizens are safe to return home.

“This decision restores TPS to its original status as temporary,” Noem declared. “Burma has made notable progress in governance and stability, including the end of its state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful ceasefire agreements, and improved local governance contributing to enhanced public service delivery and national reconciliation.”

Noem also concluded that allowing Burmese nationals to remain in the country would be “contrary to the national interest of the United States.”

RELATED: Trump admin revokes protected status extension for Venezuelan nationals

Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) called the move “cruel,” claiming that revoking TPS would endanger lives.

“Ending TPS for Burma, in the middle of the conflict there, endangers the lives of many Burmese, including human rights and democracy activists. It’s cruel and will undermine the fight for democracy in Burma. The admin must reconsider this terrible decision,” Meeks said.

There are nearly 4,000 approved TPS beneficiaries from Burma, according to DHS. Over 200 individuals reportedly have pending applications.

TPS is set to expire for several other nations, including Ethiopia in December, South Sudan in January, and Haiti in February.

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​News, Burma, Temporary protected status, Tps, Biden administration, Biden admin, Trump administration, Trump admin, Donald trump, Trump, Joe biden, Biden, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Kristi noem, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Politics 

The atmosphere in Menlo Park in the summer of 2025 became heavy with a particular kind of ambition. The new Meta Superintelligence Labs was being frenetically assembled. Its stated goal, articulated by Mark Zuckerberg, is to build an intelligence surpassing the human, a “superintelligence.” This artifact is framed not as a remote, centralized oracle, but as a “personal superintelligence,” an egalitarian gift for everyone. The name of the first planned AI supercomputer cluster, a multi-gigawatt facility slated for 2026, is “Prometheus.”

The myth of Prometheus is one of enlightenment and hubris, of stealing fire from the gods and suffering the eternal consequences. To name your machine this is to write your own legend before the fact, to cast your venture in the most heroic, and perhaps tragic, terms available. It is a very Californian story: the pursuit of a world-changing gift, shadowed by the risk of overstepping natural limits.

These projects are meant as a contemporary Apollo program, aimed not at the moon, but at the mind.

To pursue this modern myth, Meta began to “upend itself.” The reports suggest crisis. We learn of four distinct AI division overhauls in six months. We learn of an internal memo that spoke of an “AI arms race” that Meta was, until this consolidation, losing. The reorganization was perceived as an act of existential urgency, one with a specific texture, a specific cost. The 2025 capital expenditures were raised as high as $72 billion. Zuckerberg announced plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more. In October, a $27 billion deal was struck with Blue Owl to fund a single data center. These are the numbers of the new arms race.

The talent war of 2025 feels less like recruitment and more like a kind of high-stakes, frantic prospecting. By mid-August, Meta had poached more than 50 top researchers, pulling them from OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Anthropic. The compensation packages are beyond generous. We hear of nine-figure sums. We hear of a $1.5 billion offer made to a single AI lab co-founder, an offer that was declined. This is not the quiet, collegial work of a corporate lab. It is a frenzy.

This burst of activity was meant to correct a failure. The pivot came not from the excitement of new discovery, but from a place of dissatisfaction. The Llama 4 family of models, released in mid-2025, had landed with a thud. The Behemoth model, a 2-trillion-parameter research project, was scrapped. The reception was lukewarm. In response, Zuckerberg handpicked a new team. The old AGI Foundations group was dissolved, its staff redistributed. A new, small, elite working group was formed, mysteriously named TBD Lab, led directly by the new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang.

This TBD Lab is the core, the protected center. When 600 roles were cut from MSL in October to “reduce bureaucracy,” TBD Lab was spared entirely. The rest of the machinery was re-engineered around it: the long-standing FAIR research arm, once as independent as a university, is now an “innovation engine” to feed TBD. A product team under Nat Friedman is tasked with bridging the lab to the market. And an infrastructure team must build the necessary colossal computational backbone.

RELATED: A new study hints what happens when superintelligence gets brain rot — just like us

Photo illustration by Li Hongbo/VCG via Getty Images

The physical scale of this infrastructure might seem to justify the mythic language. We are no longer talking about servers in a rack. We are talking about multi-gigawatt data centers with a physical footprint that would cover a “significant part of Manhattan.” These projects are meant as a contemporary Apollo program, aimed not at the moon, but at the mind.

The new story Meta tells is one of focus. A “leaner, more efficient unit.” A “startup within Meta.” The company even instituted a hiring freeze in October, not to save money, but to let the new structure “jell.” As if the chaos of $72 billion, of nine-figure salaries and $1.5 billion declined offers, of warring cultures and dissolved teams, of data centers meant to cover small cities, would simply set with a little time.

Inside this new, streamlined venture, a cultural story unfolds. The new guard, the expensive hires coaxed away from rivals, collides with the old guard, the Meta veterans who believed in the company’s previous ethos of open-source science. That mindset, which set Meta apart, is now very much in doubt. Zuckerberg has signaled that the most powerful models, the ones that might actually approach “superintelligence,” will not be open-source. They will be kept closed, due to safety concerns, or perhaps due to strategic ones. The shift is palpable. The open-source ideal of sharing gives way to the new, closed, competitive, secretive model of the arms race.

The skepticism from the outside world has its own narrative. Analysts warn, as Business Insider reported, of an AI bubble, of “diluted shareholder value without any clear innovation gains.” We are told, as one enterprise AI expert put it, that investors “aren’t wowed by flashy demos anymore; they want to see revenue.” The grand, Promethean vision of superintelligence runs headlong into the quarterly demand for durable, scaled products.

We are watching a company, and perhaps a culture, wager its identity on a future it can only describe in mythic terms. The question is not whether a machine can be made to think. The question is what we reveal about ourselves, our ambitions, and our anxieties in the attempt. Meta has entered its moment of truth, fueled by sums of money that are nearly as abstract as the goal itself, and driven not by the quest for fire but by a most human motivation nonetheless: a founder’s dread of being left behind.

​Tech 

The Trump administration is set to conduct a review of the over 185,000 refugees imported by the Biden administration — especially those imported from terrorism hot spots such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Venezuela.

This initiative, which is aimed at keeping America safe, has liberals at various NGOs throwing fits.

‘I don’t want that person in my country.’

According to a Nov. 21 memo outlining the plan reviewed by Reuters, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will undertake a review and “re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025,” having determined that the previous administration prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and proper vetting.

Foreign nationals found not to meet refugee criteria will lose their status, says the memo.

The memo, which was signed by USCIS Director Joe Edlow, also orders a pause on the processing of permanent residence applications for refugees who entered under former President Joe Biden.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Blaze News, “For four straight years, the Biden administration accelerated refugee admissions from terror- and gang-prone countries, prioritizing sheer numbers over rigorous vetting and strict adherence to legal requirements. This reckless approach undermined the integrity of our immigration system and jeopardized the safety and security of the American people.”

“Corrective action is now being taken to ensure those who are present in the United States deserve to be here,” added McLaughlin.

RELATED: ‘Begin repatriating’: German chancellor admits it’s time to give Syrian migrants the boot

Photo by ARMEND NIMANI/AFP via Getty Images

Upon retaking office, President Donald Trump paused the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, halting the potential admission of hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals, noting in the corresponding executive order that “the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”

This caused consternation among activists and the liberal media, who had evidently grown accustomed to having the floodgates open to the third world.

In fiscal year 2023, the Biden administration admitted 60,014 refugees from 75 countries. Foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Afghanistan, and Burma made up two-thirds of the total admissions.

The Biden State Department brought in over 100,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024 and had projected to admit over 125,000 refugees as well as “531,500 other arrivals in FY 2025, the majority of whom are expected to arrive as Cuban and Haitian Entrants through lawful pathways.”

Trump was one of many critics who raised concerns in recent years about whether the Biden administration had done a proper job vetting many of the refugees, particularly those from Afghanistan.

Clearly, some radicals made it over.

In January, for instance, Gul Nabi Rahmati, an Afghan refugee who settled in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, allegedly stabbed a caseworker helping refugees. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard indicated that the motive might have had something to do with religion. Rahmati’s attempted murder trial will commence in early 2026.

Rahmati was not the only bad egg former President Joe Biden brought into the U.S.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan citizen living in Oklahoma City, was arrested after the Justice Department foiled his “plot to acquire semiautomatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of ISIS on U.S. soil on Election Day,” former Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement in early October.

Tawhedi pleaded guilty to two terrorism offenses in June. His 19-year-old co-conspirator, another Afghan refugee, was sentenced last week to 15 years in federal prison for his role in the foiled terrorist plot.

RELATED: Virginia high-school principal allegedly suggests anti-ICE ‘hunting’ plot; brother brags about ‘assault rifle,’ cop claims

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff

“Zada was welcomed into the United States and provided with all the opportunities available to residents of our nation, yet he chose to embrace terrorism and plot an ISIS-inspired attack on Election Day,” said John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security.

Vice President JD Vance said in a January interview with CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, “Now that we know that we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs, we absolutely cannot unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country.”

When pressed on whether some refugees were actually being radicalized once in the U.S., Vance said, “I don’t really care, Margaret. I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.”

‘It would re-traumatize tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees.’

The news of the Trump administration’s new initiative to ensure that decisions made and persons imported by the previous administration — individuals like Zada or Tawhedi — aren’t endangering Americans today caused apoplexy among NGOs in the space.

Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, claimed that the refugees who entered the U.S. under the USRAP “are already the most highly vetted immigrants in the United States” and characterized the proposed review as “an insult to refugees.”

“This order is one more in a long line of efforts to bully some of the most vulnerable members of our communities, by threatening their lawful status, rendering them vulnerable to the egregious conduct of immigration enforcement agencies, and putting them through an onerous and potentially re-traumatizing process,” said Aly.

Aly, the former CEO of Islamic Relief USA, suggested further that “besides the enormous cruelty of this undertaking, it would also be a tremendous waste of government resources.”

“This plan is shockingly ill-conceived,” Naomi Steinberg, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy, said in a statement.

“It would re-traumatize tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees who already went through years of security vetting prior to stepping on U.S. soil,” continued Steinberg. “This is a new low in the administration’s consistently cold-hearted treatment of people who are already building new lives and enriching the communities where they have made their homes.”

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​Donald trump, Trump administration, Refugee, Refugees, Terrorists, Terrorist, Joe biden, Asylum, Afghanistan, Syria, Uscis, U.s. citizenship and immigration services, Politics 

Mark Levin inherited his love for America and her great founders from his father, Jack E. Levin — a devoted family man, businessman, author, illustrator, and self-taught constitutional historian. Over the course of his life, Jack authored and illustrated several patriotic, historically themed books that became best-sellers on the New York Times list.

His most famous book — “Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Illustrated” (2010) — featured beautifully hand-painted watercolor-style illustrations of Civil War soldiers, battlefields, period flags, mourning families, and solemn portraits of Lincoln alongside the Great Emancipator’s famous speech.

“He thought that Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was so profound,” says Levin of his father. “And it was.”

Reading Lincoln’s iconic address that consecrated the cemetery for the Union soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg, Levin honors both America’s 16th president and his beloved father.

“That was a horrendous battle in Gettysburg, absolutely horrendous — the number of casualties, the number of dead, how quickly it happened,” Levin reflects.

He retells the story of how the two armies literally bumped into each other by accident outside Gettysburg — General Robert E. Lee’s forces pushing north toward Philadelphia, hoping a decisive strike on Union soil would force the North to sue for peace and let the South go, only to suffer a crushing defeat in the massive, unintended three-day battle that turned the tide of the war.

Lincoln, says Levin, “was furious” that Union commander Major General George G. Meade “did not follow Lee’s army and destroy it.” He wanted the war to end right then and there.

The Civil War, he reminds us, wasn’t just about the abolition of slavery; it was also about the nation’s survival.

Like his father, who was deeply concerned with “the lack of patriotism and support for the country,” Levin worries about the lack of and distortion of American history education in this country.

“That’s why if people don’t know history, they just keep talking about, ‘Oh, it was founded by white [supremacists] and nationalists,”’ he sighs. “No — we were founded by great men.”

To hear more of his commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of “the Great One” — Mark Levin as you’ve never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Mark levin, Levintv, Abraham lincoln, Gettysburg, Gettysburg address, Jack e levin, Jack levin, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Fans and supporters of female athletes are outraged over the results of a world’s strongest woman competition.

Multiple competitors are speaking out after a man allegedly took first place in the women’s category at the event, with organizers saying they had no idea a man had competed against women.

‘This is bulls**t.’

The 2025 Official Strongman Games took place in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend, and saw alleged transgender athlete Jammie Booker, a biological male, defeat nine female competitors. As reported by Fitness Volt, Booker took home the narrow victory after runner-up Andrea Thompson finished seventh in the final event, edging her out by just a point.

The results had Booker winning with 47 points, while Thompson had 46, and Allira-Joy Cowley came in third place with 39 points.

Viewers immediately began circulating footage from the winner’s podium in which Thompson appeared to say, “This is bulls**t,” before walking off the platform.

On her Instagram page, Thompson shared multiple posts that declared her the true winner of the event, with commenters seemingly in unanimous agreement.

In a video posted to Instagram, Booker thanked everyone who donated to his cause and even “checked in” regarding his mental health.

RELATED: Transgender powerlifter easily defeats women as old as 58; USA Weightlifting defends ‘inclusive’ policy

“There were a lot of, like, dark days getting here mentally and emotionally,” the lifter said.

Booker called the other competitors “insanely badass women” and said it was “an honor” to share the stage with them. He added that he did not think he was going to win.

Booker’s page lists “she/her” pronouns and the accolades of “pro strongwoman,” “world’s strongest woman 2025,” and “North America’s strongest woman.” It also provides a link to a GoFundMe page titled “Help Jammie Become ‘World’s Strongest Woman.'”

Booker raised over $1,500 for registration, flight, and hotel costs, which the fundraiser said would total around $900.

On Tuesday, the strongman organization posted a statement to its social media, saying it was unaware that an athlete “who is biologically male and who now identifies as female” competed in the Women’s Open category.

The organization said that had it been aware, the athlete would not have been permitted to compete in that category.

“We are clear — competitors can only compete in the category for the biological sex recorded at birth,” the organization wrote.

Without declaring a new winner, the company said it had “disqualified the athlete in question” and that “athlete points and places will be altered accordingly.”

RELATED: Female powerlifter chases down crook who stole her bag — then gives him a black-eye beatdown

Female powerlifter Morgan Irons released a video criticizing Booker for taking opportunities away from women.

“There has been an individual, Jammie Booker, who has been competing as a biological male within the women’s division of strongman,” Irons said.

“This individual competed in the women’s division as a biological man, plain and simple. As a woman, this is very, very frustrating because their participation in the women’s division has taken away prize money, podium finishes, national bids, and a pro card from biological women,” she continued.

At the same time, women’s sports activist and former national gymnastics champion Jennifer Sey told Fearless that women are still “being erased from their own sex-class, their own sports categories, and their own legal protections.”

She said that Booker winning the title “Strongest Woman in the World” was a clear indication that there is still work to be done.

Critics pointed to a YouTube video seemingly posted by Booker in 2017, which described him as a “21-year-old” transgender person with a “history of abuse, struggling to stay true to herself while under the rule of her religious parents.”

Booker did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Fearless, Powerlifting, Women’s sports, Transgenderism, Sexism, Title ix, Female athletes, Sports 

President Donald Trump has in recent months brokered peaceful resolutions between numerous warring parties, including Israel and Hamas; Azerbaijan and Armenia; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Cambodia and Thailand; and India and Pakistan.

The major peace he campaigned on securing between Ukraine and Russia has, however, proven elusive.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government’s representative to the U.N. appeared to reject the fundamentals of the Trump administration’s 28-point plan for peace.

The plan would have: barred Ukraine from NATO, having an army exceeding 600,000 men, and acquiring nukes but provided Kyiv with a NATO-style security guarantee from the U.S.; recognized much of the occupied territory in eastern Ukraine as Russian; set the stage for an American-backed rebuilding of Ukraine; and granted full amnesty to all parties involved in the conflict.

‘Don’t believe it until you see it.’

While apparently averse to several of the 28 points, Kyiv has, however, since expressed support for an altered version of the peace plan, the details of which Trump and Zelenskyy — who has reportedly not authorized anyone but himself to discuss territorial matters — may soon iron out at the White House.

An official briefed on the negotiations told the Washington Post that Trump’s peace plan had been reduced from 28 points to 19 points by Monday. A European official briefed on the talks suggested that some of the provisions concerning European security didn’t make it to the new draft.

Ukrainian delegate Oleksandr Bevz noted, “Many of the controversial provisions were either softened or at least reshaped” to get Kyiv on board.

RELATED: Zelenskyy’s hold on power uncertain as criminal charges reach his inner circle

Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After Ukraine’s delegation returned from Geneva, where they met over the weekend to discuss the American peace proposal with representatives of the Trump administration, Zelenskyy said in a statement on Monday evening that “now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable. As of now, after Geneva, there are fewer points — no longer 28 — and many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework.”

“Our team has reported on the new draft of steps, and this is indeed the right approach,” continued Zelenskyy. “I will discuss the sensitive issues with President Trump.”

Echoing Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s national security secretary Rustem Umerov announced that the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations “reached a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva.”

Amid U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll’s meetings on Tuesday with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi, which a spokesman said were “going well,” a U.S. official told CNN that “the Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal. There are some minor details to be sorted out, but they have agreed to a peace deal.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday that “tremendous progress towards a peace deal” has been made, adding that “there are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio effectively said the same thing days earlier, adding, “I honestly believe we’ll get there.”

During a press conference with the Belarusian foreign minister on Tuesday, Russian foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov noted that Moscow “welcomed” the 28-point plan but will consider the “interim” plan produced by Washington, Kyiv, and the Europeans in the coming days.

Lavrov noted, however, that Russia expects the peace plan to adhere to the terms President Vladimir Putin discussed with Trump during their August summit in Anchorage.

“We are not hurrying. We’re not pushing our American counterparts. We have waited a long time since Anchorage,” said Lavrov. “We are only reminding them that we stick to those agreements.”

Lavrov added, “If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation.”

Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Monday, “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

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Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned that political breakups might become more commonplace in the Republican Party.

McCarthy’s prediction comes after Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced that she will retire from the House in January before finishing her congressional term. This announcement followed a public falling-out with longtime ally President Donald Trump.

‘I’ve found Marjorie to be very effective.’

Despite being one of Trump’s most loyal supporters on Capitol Hill, Greene said their falling-out was over her commitment to releasing the Epstein files, which the White House later supported. Other reports suggested that the split came after the White House squashed Greene’s political aspirations beyond the House of Representatives.

“She’s leaving Congress, but I don’t think that’s the end that you’ll see about her,” McCarthy said.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene calls it quits after ‘traitor’ branding by Trump

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“I’ve always believed that any time you have an elected official that’s known by three initials, they’re effective on what they do,” McCarthy added. “And I’ve found Marjorie to be very effective.”

McCarthy, who is all too familiar with having one’s political career cut short by MAGA world, said Greene’s resignation may be the first of many unless Congress changes course.

“She’s almost like a canary in a coal mine,” McCarthy said. “And this is something inside Congress. They better wake up, because they’re going to get a lot of people retiring, and they gotta focus.”

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has received violent threats — and blames Trump

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

McCarthy also noted that the infighting ultimately takes away from a very small window of time in which Republicans hold the ultimate political advantage: a trifecta majority.

“I think keeping members out of Congress, you only get two years to be in the majority,” McCarthy said. “And if the Democrats get you not to work every day for two months, that’s losing two months of the majority.”

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New York State Police said a trooper was conducting a traffic stop Thursday night for switched plates — and then “noticed something unusual.”

Turns out the vehicle’s inspection and registration documents on the windshield “were not official at all,” police said.

‘Okay, but how did the trooper manage to not laugh at this when seeing it up close????’

“In fact they appeared to be hand drawn using a mix of pen, marker, and crayon with an impressive amount of confidence,” police added.

Gregory Cawley, 50, of Lafayette was ticketed for operating a motor vehicle without inspection, operating an unregistered vehicle, improper plates, and other citations, the New York Post reported, citing a police spokeswoman.

Police also said the vehicle was taken off the road.

“As a friendly reminder,” police added, “arts and crafts supplies do not count as valid documentation.”

RELATED: YouTube prankster challenges cops to a duel — immediately regrets it

Image source: New York State Police

The New York State Police’s Facebook post about the motorist’s faux pas has hit a bit of a viral nerve, receiving 34,000 likes and laughs and well over 3,000 comments to date. The following are a few of the written reactions:

“What’s hilarious is this car has certainly passed MANY officers hiding, and none of them were smart enough to see this,” one commenter observed. “They’re trained to see these things.””And he would have gotten home if it wasn’t for that meddling cop,” another user said before adding, “(Scooby Doo joke, be nice).””On an old car, my ’10 day’ inspection paper was in my window so long all the ink faded, and it was a blank piece of paper,” another commenter shared. “I rocked that for over 3 years, never got a ticket for it unless I was stopped for something else.””I remember seeing an inspection sticker hand-drawn on a co-worker’s car years ago, and when I asked about it, it had been over 10 years since that person had an actual inspection,” another user recalled. “Crazy! He had never been caught, either!””Okay, but how did the trooper manage to not laugh at this when seeing it up close????” another commenter wondered.”I know a person [who] colored a piece of cardboard blue, did the lines down, the months, and everything — and punched out a hole,” another user wrote. “Pretty sure she got away with it for a while.”

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The first transgender cheerleader in the NFL has been ousted from the organization over his gender identity, the dancer claimed.

While male cheerleaders recently sprung into existence in the NFL, Justine Lindsay became the first alleged transgender cheerleader in the league for the Carolina Panthers in 2022.

‘Why the hell would I not wanna come back.’

At the time, the Panthers organization defended the move, saying the TopCats cheer squad members are “hired based on their qualifications and abilities.”

The team told NPR, “We wish all the TopCats, including Justine Lindsay, an incredible season.”

Now more than halfway through the 2025 season, Lindsay claims the reason he was let go by the organization was because he is transgender.

“I was cut because I’m trans,” the cheerleader said during an Instagram live broadcast, according to Them.

“I don’t wanna hear nobody saying ‘She didn’t wanna come back.’ Why the hell would I not wanna come back to an organization that I’ve been a part of for three years?” Lindsay added.

Despite reportedly being “devastated” and “hurt,” the cheerleader pinpointed one person within the organization who was to blame.

RELATED: First trans NFL cheerleader hopes to influence youth: ‘I’m setting things up for the younger generation’

(L-R) Justine Lindsay and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell attend a Night of Pride with GLAAD and NFL on February 8, 2023, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for GLAAD)

Lindsay fingered a new Panthers cheerleading coach as the reason for the departure, citing prior interactions with the woman.

“When she came over to our organization, I was like, ‘Oh hell, here we go. Imma have to deal with the same mess that I dealt with two years prior,'” Lindsay claimed.

The 33-year-old accused the team of not “looking at the bigger picture” as far as who the cheerleader was “changing lives for.”

“It was like a big slap in the face to not only me but for the youth,” Lindsay added, before allegedly saying he was cut off after President Trump’s re-election.

The North Carolina native confirmed in August that he had been released by the team but did not provide details surrounding the move. Instead, he provided the following statement to OutSports and insulted the president.

“For now, I’m focusing on my pageantry work and community involvement, striving to be recognized not just as an NFL cheerleader, but as someone making a positive impact, especially during these uncertain times,” he said.

Lindsay called being in the NFL a “stepping stone” before adding, “Don’t let a president who is delusional stop them from reaching their goals whether they are trans, African-American, not American, etc.”

RELATED: Here are all the NFL teams that haven’t virtue-signaled for Pride Month

Carolina Panthers cheerleaders prior to the NFL 2025 game against the Atlanta Falcons at Bank of America Stadium on September 21, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images

In 2023, Lindsay said he wanted to influence youth through his position and compared his fight to become an NFL cheerleader with becoming a doctor.

“Everything that I’m going through now, it’s bigger than me,” he told Elle. “I’m setting things up for the younger generation. No one is going to stop this show.”

“I want to change the narrative for my trans sisters and brothers, just to [let them] know that if you have a goal, go for it,” he said. “Turn that dream into a reality. Be an NFL cheerleader or a doctor or a nurse or whatever you set your mind to.”

Lindsay says his exodus from the Panthers “doesn’t mean I’m not still with the NFL” and claimed he still has “a lot of great connections” in the league.

“It’s just a slap in the face,” he complained.

Panthers ownership group Tepper Sports Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment.

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Jeffrey Epstein’s name is yet again dominating headlines as the American people await a third major handover of Epstein-related documents. President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, mandating the Department of Justice’s public release of all unclassified files related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Once again, everyone’s holding their breath for the flight logs, communications, and investigative records slated for release on December 19, 2025.

But Glenn Beck says “the real story” about Epstein isn’t the clients; it’s “the money.”

Per newly unsealed JPMorgan court documents from a 2023 U.S. Virgin Islands lawsuit, between 2002 and 2019 — despite ending Epstein’s accounts in 2013 amid red flags — JP Morgan Chase filed just seven Suspicious Activity Reports on Epstein. It flagged only $4.3 million, while overlooking roughly 5,000 more suspicious transactions totaling over $1.3 billion, which were linked to potential sex trafficking, massive cash withdrawals, wires to Russian banks, and payments to or from high-profile Epstein associates.

“Let me just say this clearly so nobody really misses the gravity of this,” says Glenn. “You do not accidentally forget to report 5,000 suspicious wires. … You don’t misplace a billion dollars in wires to foreign banks and shell companies connected to a convicted sex offender under federal investigation. It doesn’t happen.”

“It doesn’t happen because a junior banker made a mistake. It doesn’t happen because the compliance officer was sleepy. It doesn’t happen because somebody’s inbox was full. … At a minimum: multiple officers, multiple departments, multiple sign-offs [chose] not to look.”

Why? Because “the bank decided, ‘Well, we want to continue to work with Epstein. He’s valuable; he’s connected; he’s a referral engine to some of the richest people in the world,”’ says Glenn, arguing that somebody turned off the alarm bells on Epstein’s account.

“I’d like to know who turned those off. I’d like to know why they were turned off. I would like to know if it was just the leadership of the bank. I’d like to know that every single one of those bank officers all the way to the top go to prison,” he says.

“If you or I did this — if we had sent just a handful of suspicious wires — the bank would freeze your account, notify the Treasury before you could blink. But Jeffrey Epstein? A billion dollars’ worth of exceptions.”

The most “terrifying question” we should all be asking ourselves right now, Glenn says, is this: “If a bank can look the other way on $1.3 billion for a sex trafficker, what else have the banks learned to ignore?”

“This story isn’t just about Epstein. This is about the machinery that allowed him to operate — all of the middlemen, all of the financial networks, all of the institutions that treated him like an asset instead of a criminal,” he says.

To hear more of Glenn’s analysis and his Epstein theories, watch the clip above.

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Those keen to wrest control of the GOP from MAGA conservatives and to resume the course charted by the party prior to President Donald Trump’s 2016 election have their work cut out for them.

A new poll conducted by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics revealed that Vice President JD Vance presently towers over his potential 2028 GOP primary opponents — including Calgary-born Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is poised to run as the kind of George W. Bush-era Republican that Trump crushed in the 2016 and 2024 primaries.

‘Voters will sniff out anybody who has seemed to be sort of focused on themselves.’

When asked whom they would vote for if the election were held this month, 57% of respondents said that they would support Vance; 9% said Secretary of State Marco Rubio; 7% said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; 4% said Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy; 4% said former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nimarata “Nikki” Haley; 4% said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; 1% said Ted Cruz; and 1% said Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Two percent of respondents signaled they would vote for someone else, and 10% said they were unsure.

Sources close to the Trump administration recently told Politico that Rubio has telegraphed that he would support Vance if he chooses to run.

One source close to the White House noted that the “expectation is JD as [nominee] and Rubio as VP.”

RELATED: The early social media reviews of Cruz’s 2028 POTUS trial balloon are in

DeSantis, who secured less than 2% of the votes cast in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out, recently told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “I’m not thinking about anything because I think we have a president now who’s not even been in for a year. We’ve got a lot that we’ve got to accomplish.”

The Florida governor may have taken the advice that James Blair, a former DeSantis staffer who now serves as Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff, recently shared via Politico: “If you’re a Republican that wants to run in 2028 right now, you need to focus on keeping Republicans in power for 2026. I think the number one thing everybody can do is focus on the team and helping their team and not focus on themselves.”

“Voters will sniff out anybody who has seemed to be sort of focused on themselves,” added Blair.

Last month, the University of New Hampshire’s Granite State Poll found that while DeSantis didn’t place in the top five Republican presidential primary candidates for 2028, he managed the fourth-highest favorability rating.

Vance placed first with a favorability rating among likely Republican primary voters of 77%; Rubio placed second with a 58% rating; Gabbard placed third with a 57% rating; DeSantis came fourth with a 56% rating; and Ramaswamy came fifth with 46%.

Cruz and Haley, meanwhile, were much further down the list with favorability ratings of 38% and 25%, respectively.

Gabbard, polling ahead of Cruz in the Saint Anselm College poll, has not made explicit any intention to run but indicated earlier this year on “The Megyn Kelly Show” that she “will never rule out any opportunity” to serve her country.

On the prediction website Polymarket, Vance is given a 55% chance of winning the primary.

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Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy ruffled feathers among the professionally offended last week by noting that “traveling has become more uncivilized.”

Duffy cited Federal Aviation Administration data indicating a 400% increase of in-flight outbursts, including physical violence since 2019; 13,800 reported unruly passenger incidents since 2021; and a doubling last year of unruly passenger events compared with 2019.

‘Did people start kind of acting more like animals because they were treated more like animals?’

As part of the Department of Transportation’s broader effort to usher in a “Golden Age of Travel for the American people” — which dovetails with an initiative to beautify and restore key transportation infrastructure — Duffy kicked off a campaign on Wednesday aimed at jump-starting “a nationwide conversation around how we can restore courtesy and class to air travel.”

In an interview with Blaze News editor Christopher Bedford on Monday, Duffy said he’s not necessarily calling for a return to three-piece suits and top hats — just a return to basic decency.

“I think it’s a confluence of things that have come together that have caused people, as they get on airplanes, to be less civil to each other,” Duffy said.

Duffy identified long lines at airports and airlines’ efforts to cram passengers into increasingly smaller spaces as two contributing factors.

According to the advocacy group FlyersRights.org, airline seats have shrunk in recent decades while passengers have largely grown in size, such that as of 2022, “less than 50% of the public can reasonably fit in current seats.”

“The airline is trying to put, you know, a lot of people on an airplane, sell as many tickets as possible, and by doing that, they’re able to reduce the cost of travel and make it affordable for more people,” Duffy said. “But then you feel like you’re cargo.”

RELATED: ‘Disruptive’ woman causes flight with 4 congressmen to divert: ‘We live in a fascist state’

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

“Did people start kind of acting more like animals because they were treated more like animals? Or did airline crews have to crack down and treat people like that because of the actions they were seeing?” Bedford asked. “There was an obvious breakdown during COVID.”

Duffy suggested that the transformation of flight attendants into mask-enforcers during the pandemic helped cultivate a more confrontational environment, which — when coupled with disrespect from the airlines and from passengers alike, signaled by the latter with an apparent increase in slovenly dress — helped grease the slide into relative barbarism.

Among the alleged incidents referred by the FAA to the FBI last year were sexual assaults, attacks on fellow passengers and/or flight staff, instances of inappropriate touching of minor fliers, and incidents where passengers attempted to breach the cockpit.

‘I think we can be better.’

While physical violence and inappropriate touching are obvious examples of the behavior the Trump administration seeks to curb in air travel, Duffy noted that incivility finds various forms — such as passengers taking their shoes off and placing them on the seats in front of them, playing movies on high volume without headphones, and touching other fliers’ TV screens with their bare toes.

“I want to have a conversation with America that says, ‘Listen, let’s call our better angels. Let’s all be better when we travel together,'” Duffy told Blaze News.

The DOT secretary emphasized that it’s necessary not only to curb nasty behavior but to embrace good behavior: “Let’s dress more respectfully. Let’s be nicer to one another. Let’s say please and thank you.”

Duffy suggested, for instance, that if capable men see a woman struggling to put her bag into the overhead bin, they should man up and step in to help.

“I think we can be better — better humans, better Americans, better travelers,” the secretary said.

A change in general behavior could make traveling a whole lot less vexatious, not only daily where the TSA’s current volume is roughly 2.48 million souls, but this week — a week where the Transportation Security Administration expects to screen more than 17.8 million people from Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, with over 3 million souls on Sunday alone.

“We are projecting that the Sunday after Thanksgiving will be one of the busiest travel days in TSA history,” Adam Stahl, a senior official at the TSA, said in statement.

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A fight broke out between a Catholic priest and a woman who was trying to take a photograph with a political poster at a donation drive at a Miami-Dade church, according to police.

Father Jesus Saldaña, 72, was arrested and charged with two felonies for the Nov. 5 incident at the St. Kevin Catholic Parish involving a woman described as a senior. The church was collecting donations to help hurricane victims in Cuba.

The woman took photos of the father, and he lunged at her, which led to witnesses separating the two.

The woman was dropping off a donation when Saldaña confronted her and said she could not take a photograph there with a political poster related to anti-Cuba political ads, according to police. She then asked for her donation to be returned.

A verbal altercation ensued that allegedly turned physical.

The woman took photos of the father, and he lunged at her, which led to witnesses separating the two. Then Saldaña followed her to her car, where he damaged her vehicle and got bitten on the wrist by the victim in return.

Saldaña allegedly damaged the car’s gear selector, broke off the rearview mirror, and then grabbed the woman’s purse and dumped out its contents in order to look for her phone, according to police.

He was charged with burglary of an occupied conveyance, battery on a person 65 years or older, and criminal mischief involving property damage of $200 or less.

RELATED: ‘Pure evil’: Feds charge alleged leader of ‘unthinkably depraved,’ violent group involved in child sextortion

The woman was admitted to a hospital over cardiac issues after the incident but had no visible injuries, according to police.

Saldaña was released after paying a bond.

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While the mainstream media consistently denies or downplays the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, Judd Saul, founder and director of Equipping the Persecuted, who consistently does mission work in the country, assures us that Christians and churches are being wiped out by militant Islamic groups while the Nigerian government turns a blind eye.

On a recent episode of “Relatable” with Allie Beth Stuckey, Saul unveiled the gut-wrenching reality of what is really happening to our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria.

“What’s happening right now is a real-life systematic jihad against Christians perpetrated by radical Islamists from the north,” he says.

One of the Muslim groups with the most radicalized factions is the Fulani tribe, which has exploded in population in the last 30 years. This growth in tandem with the tribe’s goal to take over Nigeria has culminated in the tribe gaining political power and implementing Sharia law in many regions. However, as it expands into the nation’s southern zones, where Christianity is the dominant religion, conflict has ignited.

The Fulani, Saul says, practice the same kind of radical Islam as Isis and al-Qaeda that demands death to any who refuse to submit. This even applies to fellow Muslims who refuse to adopt their specific brand of Islam.

Some news outlets and media figures have used this fact to disprove the notion that Nigerian Christians are facing genocide. But Saul says the ratio is “five to one.”

“For every Muslim killed, it’s five Christians that are killed. And what you don’t see in Nigeria are mosques being burned and destroyed and Muslim villages completely ransacked and taken over versus the Christian villages, where you have over 10,000 churches that have been destroyed and nearly 800 Christian communities completely wiped off the map,” he tells Allie.

Even worse, “the Nigerian government is complicit in these attacks, and they’re spending lots of money and resources to try to keep the status quo because the Fulani have infiltrated the Nigerian government; they’ve infiltrated the military, the entire security apparatus in Nigeria,” Saul adds.

This plays out in horrifying ways. “The people trying to defend their villages end up getting arrested by the military and put in prison, while the perpetrators, the guys actually doing the killing, get away scot-free.” And if a terrorist does happen to get arrested, he’s “let out the next day.”

The ultimate result is that Christianity is slowly but surely being replaced by Islam. The nation, once 70% Christian, is now split down the middle between Christianity and Islam, as many believers either have been killed or have converted to avoid being slaughtered.

Perhaps most disturbing, however, is who is funding this militant Muslim takeover.

“When the Arab Spring happened under Obama, and the whole destabilization of the Middle East … you saw this rise of ISIS,” says Saul. “Well, funding, weapons, everything started pouring in from the Middle East down to Northern Africa, and that is where some of the funding is coming in.”

But it’s also coming from other foreign powers, he says. China is “illegally mining all over the middle belt in Northern Nigeria.” To avoid trouble and gain mining access to “areas where Christian villages once were,” they pay these militant tribes, who then use the money to fund their violent campaign.

But the funding trail doesn’t end there. “This is how they’re also financing their war is through kidnapping,” says Saul, “and currently, we estimate there’s over 10,000 Christians being held in terror camps, held for ransom as we speak.”

The families of the hostages, he says, “sell everything they own” in futile hopes of seeing their relatives returned safely. “This has been a continuous funding source for the local terrorists.”

This deep-pocketed Muslim crusade against Christians and others, however, “can be stopped,” says Saul.

To hear how, watch the episode above.

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Let’s face it: Republicans are staring at a wipeout in the midterm elections. The economy is battered, GOP leadership looks unfocused, and swing voters show signs of fatigue with the endless drama surrounding Trump. The trend lines point in one direction.

But another truth sits alongside it: Republican voters still want a reason to show up. The base will not match the left’s turnout intensity unless the party gives them a fight worth having. And no issue energizes the conservative electorate more than immigration. If Republicans intend to use their remaining political capital, this is where to use it.

At a minimum, Trump should return to his original 2015 promise: Pause immigration and restore sanity to a system voters believe is broken beyond recognition.

Last week, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced exactly that fight.

What the PAUSE Act does

Roy’s PAUSE Act freezes all legal immigration — except temporary tourist admissions — until the federal government establishes permanent enforcement against illegal entry and against categories of immigration voters have opposed for years. The bill sets clear conditions for lifting the moratorium.

Reversing Plyler v. Doe, allowing states and localities to deny illegal aliens access to public schools.Reforming birthright citizenship so that minors receive citizenship only when at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or green card holder.Ending chain migration and the diversity visa program; limiting entries to spouses and unmarried minor children; ending extended-family preference categories.Prohibiting the entry of Sharia-law adherents, Chinese Communist Party members, known or suspected terrorists, and members of foreign terrorist organizations.Barring noncitizens from accessing means-tested federal benefits such as SNAP, SSI, TANF, Medicaid, Medicare, WIC, federal student loans, and public housing.Ending adjustment of status for H-1B visa holders and abolishing the unconstitutional optional practical training program that displaces American tech workers.

The bill accomplishes all of this in fewer than 10 pages. Original co-sponsors include Reps. Keith Self (R-Texas), Brandon Gill (R-Texas), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.).

A long-delayed agenda

Conservatives have pushed these reforms for nearly two decades. Some ideas surfaced in the Trump years through executive actions, but courts blocked several and entrenched others — especially anchor-baby citizenship and taxpayer-funded K-12 education for illegal aliens.

Other essential reforms, such as ending optional practical training, halting visas from China, or barring Sharia-law adherents, were never attempted.

RELATED: Trump can’t call it ‘mission accomplished’ yet

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The genius of Roy’s bill is simple: It creates a standing incentive for courts, presidents, and future Congresses. If judges want legal immigration to continue, they must revisit the policies that created the crisis in the first place.

Staring at political reality

If Trump focused his attention on this bill — and forced congressional Republicans to choose — he could unite conservatives heading into primary season. A transformational immigration fight would energize GOP voters at a moment when the party shows weakness across the map.

Democrats have over-performed by an average of 15 points in recent special elections. That surge alarmed Republicans enough that they pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) from consideration for U.N. ambassador for fear of losing her district, which Trump carried by 15 points. Democrats are now pouring money into Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, which Trump carried by 20. A party that cannot defend safe seats is a party in trouble.

If Republicans can’t win in red America during a bad economy, it’s not because voters demand new talking points. It’s because the party has failed to deliver on the core issues that animate its base.

RELATED: The right must choose: Fight the real war, or cosplay revolution online

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The choice ahead

Trump could offer a fresh economic vision or finally follow through on repealing Obamacare. But at a minimum, he should return to his original 2015 promise: Pause immigration and restore sanity to a system voters believe is broken beyond recognition.

The window is closing. If Republicans refuse to use the power they still possess, they will lose it — not gradually, but suddenly.

The PAUSE Act gives them a chance to reverse that trajectory. The question is whether they will take it.

​Opinion & analysis, Chip roy, Republicans, Immigration, Pause act, Plyler v. doe, Birthright citizenship, Constitution, Visas, Illegal immigration, Illegal aliens, Border security, Border wall, 2026 midterms, Anchor babies, China 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said that a man who made heinous threats against federal immigration officers and their families was arraigned in court on Monday.

John Paul Cupp, 45, is accused of making the threats to officers outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland on Oct. 14. He also allegedly repeated the threats online.

‘Cupp is a prolific producer of online content and regularly posts aggressive rhetoric, calls for war against the United States, antisemitic threats, and threats of violence.’

“Cupp threatened to kill law enforcement officers, sexually assault their wives, and harm their children,” reads the FBI statement from a post on social media.

He posted those threats in a video on Nov. 3 and then did so again in a video on Nov. 13.

“If you threaten to kill law enforcement officers or harm their families, you will face the full weight of the federal government,” FBI Director Kash Patel said to Fox News Digital. “This FBI will use every investigative tool we have to identify violent extremists and remove them from our communities.”

“Cupp is a prolific producer of online content and regularly posts aggressive rhetoric, calls for war against the United States, antisemitic threats, and threats of violence,” the FBI said.

RELATED: Democrat fires staffer accused of posing as immigration attorney at ICE facility

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The FBI published screenshots from Cupp’s posts where he wrote, “Allaahu akbar, power to the people,” and appeared to advocate for political violence.

“An effective revolutionary must yearn in tears for martyrdom,” Cupp wrote in another screenshot from his social media. “In this way you are unbreakable and live life in an elevated liberated way even in poverty and repression.”

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​John paul cupp, Threats to ice officers, Anti-ice violence, Anti-ice arrest, Politics 

On November 18, six Democrat lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds — Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — released a short online video titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship.”

It urged U.S. service members and intelligence personnel to reject “illegal orders” and reminded them that their oath is to the Constitution, not individual leaders. While refusing unlawful commands is aligned with existing military law, the video claimed that “threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home” and accused the Trump administration of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens” but provided no evidence or examples of any illegal order.

In interviews following the video release, Crow and Slotkin even admitted that there’s been no illegal order from President Trump or his administration. On November 20, Crow told CNN’s Kasie Hunt, “To be clear, we are not calling on folks right now to disobey any type of unlawful order.” Slotkin followed suit, admitting to ABC’s Martha Raddatz that the insinuation that the Trump administration was issuing illegal orders was completely baseless.

“To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal,” she said.

In other words, they created a video encouraging insurrection by insinuating that illegal orders have been issued, when no such thing has happened.

It’s no surprise, then, that a firestorm of criticism ignited, most notably from President Trump himself, who called it “seditious behavior from traitors” that is “punishable by death.”

Even though sedition is indeed punishable by death under current U.S. federal law and President Trump has explicitly clarified that his Truth Social post was not an execution threat, Democrats are using the scandal they created to play the victim.

“Democrats want to be the victims. That’s their entire reason for existence, is how can I be oppressed today? How can I be a victim today?” says Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused President Trump of “calling for the execution of elected officials” and claimed that he “makes political violence more likely.”

“It’s outrageous. No president has ever stooped as low as Donald Trump. None,” he spat.

“What’s outrageous is members of Congress making videos insinuating that there are illegal orders going on, but not willing to put their name to whatever it is that they’re accusing Donald Trump of doing that is illegal,” Sara retorts, calling the video an attempt to “start a coup in the military.”

“And by the way, you know, it’s so cute that now all of a sudden they have a problem with cheering on death. I seem to recall someone who was wearing the exact same shirt that I am wearing who was assassinated, and they didn’t seem to have a problem with the political violence,” she adds, referencing her white Freedom T-shirt – the same T-shirt Charlie Kirk was wearing when he was murdered.

“So excuse me while I don’t take your outrage seriously, Chuck,” she continues.

But Schumer isn’t the only Democrat playing the victim. Following Trump’s Truth Social posts, several Democrats, especially the ones featured in the “Don’t Give Up the Ship” video, contacted Capitol Police and received increased or 24/7 security protection.

But Sara, calling them “failed theater kids,” isn’t having it. “Shut up, you whiny bitches. You are such cowards. You started this.”

To hear more of Sara’s scathing commentary, watch the episode above.

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​Blazetv, Blaze media, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Elissa slotkin, Mark kelly, Jason crow, Mutiny, Sedition, Donald trump, Chuck schumer, Don’t give up the ship