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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a rhetorical beatdown against Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Newsom is trying to expand his national and global profile for the sake of a possible presidential campaign in 2028 and used the forum to criticize President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Bessent issued a strong rebuke of the Democrat.

‘Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.’

“I think it’s very, very ironic that Governor Newsom — who strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken — may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris,” said Bessent.

“He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros. And Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having thousand-dollar-a-night meals at the French Laundry [restaurant],” he added.

“My message to Governor Newsom,” Bessent said, “is the Trump administration is coming to California, we are going to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.”

He went on to list California’s problems, including homelessness, the mass exodus of residents, a massive budget deficit, and continued fallout from the devastating Palisades fire a year ago.

“Shame on him. He is too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything,” he concluded.

“Let me know if you need any further clarification!” he added.

RELATED: Scott Bessent has joined the effort to uncover funders of Antifa violence, White House says

President Donald Trump also spoke at Davos and defended his campaign to annex Greenland while touting the state of the economy under his leadership.

“Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory. It is sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the U.S., Russia, and China,” said the president.

“It is a core national security interest of the U.S. — and in fact, has been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere,” Trump added.

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The communist regime in Beijing has long worked to undermine the United States.

China — which the first Trump administration recognized as a “revisionist” power keen on shaping “a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests” — and its agents have run intimidation and coercion campaigns out of illegal police stations on American soil; engaged in espionage and political destabilization efforts in the U.S.; and launched numerous cyberattacks on American institutions and critical infrastructure.

Perhaps most importantly, China has bought up vast swathes of strategically significant U.S. land.

‘Arkansas was the first state in the country to kick communist China off our farmland and out of our state.’

Some states have taken meaningful steps to fight back against these and other subversive initiatives.

The efforts by Arkansas, in particular, to defend against Chinese communist influence and infiltration have not only captured Beijing’s attention but that of State Shield, a foreign-influence watchdog group founded by Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb who went to work last year for the Department of Government Efficiency.

State Shield, which works in over 10 states to advance policies to counter Chinese influence and bolster regional and national security, has awarded Arkansas an A+ rating in its inaugural 2025 State Shield Scorecard and named Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) “Best Governor for National Security.”

“Arkansas was the first state in the country to kick Communist China off our farmland and out of our state, and we didn’t stop there,” Sanders said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

“We’ve taken real action to protect our land, our data, and our taxpayers from hostile foreign influence,” continued the governor. “This recognition shows that strong leadership at the state level makes a real difference in keeping our people and our economy secure.”

RELATED: The truth behind Trump’s Venezuela plan: It’s not about Maduro at all

Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Whereas subsequent scorecards will reflect annual reviews of legislative activity, State Shield indicated its inaugural scorecard reflects an evaluation of work completed from 2021 to 2025. During that period, Arkansas passed numerous laws aimed at curbing foreign influence.

Last year, for instance, the Natural State, enacted legislation:

withholding funding for a state-supported institution of higher education that has a Confucius Institute or similar institute related to China, prohibiting state-sponsored investment in China, and banning sister cities with China;barring Chinese Communist Party-controlled businesses from leasing any interest in Arkansas land or holding any interest in agricultural land located within a 10-mile radius of critical infrastructure; andprohibiting colleges and universities from engaging in the creation of agricultural products, conducting classified research, or conducting agricultural research under a contract with a prohibited foreign party.

In addition to ratifying these and other pieces of legislation on-theme, Gov. Sanders moved the needle on countering Chinese influence with numerous actions and executive orders.

‘It is indeed necessary to be vigilant against Arkansas’ anti-China moves.’

Among the gubernatorial actions highlighted by State Shield was Sanders’ January 2023 executive order aimed at protecting Arkansas information and communications technology from the influence of adversarial foreign regimes, and her EO banning CCP-linked TikTok on state networks and state-issued devices.

Arkansas’ efforts to curb Chinese influence have infuriated the communists in Beijing.

When, for instance, Arkansas ordered the subsidiary of a China-owned agricultural firm ChemChina to sell off land in the Natural State pursuant to Arkansas Act 636 — legislation ratified in 2023 by Sanders — the CCP propaganda publication Global Times viciously attacked the governor.

The publication accused Sanders both of advancing “undignified” rhetoric and proving that “American politicians are incapable of driving local development, but are good at orchestrating political farces.”

It further warned that “it is indeed necessary to be vigilant against Arkansas’ anti-China moves, as they could potentially lead to imitation and similar actions by other conservative U.S. states.”

State Shield’s scorecard indicates that while Arkansas leads the pack, other red states — especially Nebraska — aren’t far behind.

Sanders, whose efforts have in some cases dovetailed with the Trump administration’s, said early last year, “President Trump is the first president in my lifetime to take a hard line against communist China, and we are proud to support that work in Arkansas by getting communist China off our land and out of our state.”

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Europeans breathed a sigh of relief after President Donald Trump ruled out using military intervention to acquire Greenland.

Trump took another victory lap Wednesday during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recapping all the successes of the first year of his second term. During these remarks, Trump clarified that he would not send boots on the ground in the “piece of ice” known as Greenland.

‘I don’t have to use force.’

“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said. “We’ve never asked for anything else.”

“They have a choice,” Trump added. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”

RELATED: Trump cites Nobel Peace Prize snub in latest push for Greenland takeover

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump followed his ominous statement with a reassuring one, remarking for the first time publicly that the United States will not forcefully take Greenland.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable, but I won’t do that,” Trump said.

RELATED: ‘Make America Go Away’: Protests erupt in Greenland after Trump threatens tariffs on Europe

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force.”

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Christians are called to be people of truth. But when we fail to ground our thinking in biblical principles, we can end up telling inadvertent lies — and mischaracterizing fellow believers in the process.

Exhibit A: this post from a Christian writer and speaker, sharing with her Christian followers, regarding current events centered in Minneapolis.

Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years.

She writes:

I’m reading through the gospels right now, and I’m struck by what the leaders of Israel enticed the crowds to demand — that an innocent man be put to death and a murderer (Barabbas) be freed from prison and the obvious consequences of his egregious actions. This is the hallmark of an unjust society, where we vilify those who have done nothing wrong (and treat them like criminals), or we applaud and set free those who harm others.

She never mentions Minnesota or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but her followers’ responses make it abundantly clear they got (and “loved”) the intended message.

‘Vilifying’ crime?

Apparently the writer perceives illegal immigrants as “those who have done nothing wrong” who we are “vilifying” and “treating like criminals.” (Pro tip: Breaking a law makes you a criminal.) ICE agents, apparently, are “those who harm others” that we are supposedly “applauding” or “setting free.”

She goes on:

I am heartbroken by the current state of things in my country. Deeply troubled. Praying. Worrying, if I’m honest. I keep watching documentaries about tyranny and cult leaders and history.

Tyranny and cult leaders? Since we hear this from the left constantly, we know exactly what she’s trying to say.

And that’s what “deeply troubles” ME.

That the current administration — which is carrying out the federal government’s long-neglected role in protecting our borders and thus our communities — is somehow tyrannical. That those of us who support this, many of us who voted for this, are akin to a “cult.”

Thinking it through

I’m troubled by Christians who knee-jerk react to the world without thinking issues through biblically, as she demonstrates here:

I do understand the nature of evil — to call evil good and good evil.

My friend, we are not the ones confusing evil and good here. Let’s break it down.

First, sin is evil. Period. So when we are talking about evil, we are talking about sin.Second, breaking the law is sin/evil. Unless the law directly contradicts the word of God.

Can we agree on those two principles?

If I break down your door to get into your home — even if I just walk in your unlocked door — that is a sin.

It’s a sin because it’s against the law (and that law in no way contradicts the word of God).It’s also a sin because I am taking — stealing — something that belongs to you. Your home, your privacy, your sense of safety, your peace. I have no right to invade your space. I have no right to breach your border.

Profoundly hypocritical

Doors and locks exist for a reason, just like borders and guarded crossing points do. Those who advocate for open borders (identified by their yelling, “No one is illegal!”) live in homes with doors and locks. They are profoundly hypocritical.

They are worse than hypocritical actually. Because while they still seek to protect themselves, they are happy for other people to be stripped of that right. And for other people to have to deal with the loss of safety and peace.

Consider these females, all attacked and murdered by men here illegally: Kayla Hamilton, Ruby Garcia, Lizbeth Medina, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Joselyn Toaquiza, Melody Waldecker, and Mollie Tibbetts.

And these women are hardly the only victims. In Texas alone, hundreds of people have died in recent years at the hands of people who entered illegally. I mention Texas because nobody else is tracking this particular statistic — Americans killed by illegal border-crossers.

Meantime thousands of illegal border-crossers who are also convicted murderers still roam free nationwide.

Of course, murder isn’t the only evil aided and abetted by illegal immigration. As we’ve seen in recent days from the same troubled state, fraud and taxpayer abuse is rampant as well, with wholly corrupt public officials turning a blind eye or benefiting from the scams.

RELATED: A protest doesn’t become lawful because Don Lemon livestreams it

Law and sin

But even if an illegal border-crosser never committed another crime nor took a dime of taxpayer money — it would STILL not be wrong to send him/her home. There is a line to get in, there are people waiting in that line, and they cut in front. They broke the law. It’s a sin. It’s evil.

(By the way, speeding is against the law too, in case we’re feeling superior in any way. God’s standards are high!)

The left cannot and will not see border issues for what they are, but Christians should take no part in the ungodly confusion of thinking that wanting to curb this evil is itself evil.

No true Christian

One of the comments to the post came from a Canadian:

I don’t even live in the USA but I am deeply troubled also. I am praying for the so called “Christian” to wake up from their slumber and see what’s really going on. True followers of Christ would not support this evil.

This comment, actually, is a sin. Because it’s wrong to assume that fellow Christians whose viewpoints on deportation proceedings differ from yours are therefore not “true followers.”

Especially in an age when people tend to get their news from the same sources over and over, we should tread very lightly in making assumptions about someone’s salvation. That is in fact the judging we’re not supposed to do, because we don’t know people’s hearts — as opposed to the judging we can do, when people say or do specific sinful things.

Can we talk?

A reasonable discussion we might have here could center around specific ICE tactics. But we can’t have that discussion because one side refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of ICE in the first place (many also seem to be under the wholly ignorant impression it didn’t exist or take action before Trump). They also refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a border, for the most part.

And they certainly refuse to acknowledge the fact that actively impeding lawful efforts to enforce law is in fact breaking the law and is therefore … yes, a sin/evil.

Peacefully holding a protest sign is not wrong in any way. But let’s not pretend that’s what’s happening here, when “playbooks” are being disseminated online for physically engaging with these federal officers and “anti-ICE” groups openly call for violence. These things, as we have already seen, put the protesters — whether they are paid or just easily misled — in danger too.

Empathy for all

A topic for another time, perhaps, is the over-the-top emotion and angst over this American situation, which at this point involves the sad death of exactly one person who arguably put herself squarely in harm’s way. This response to the writer’s post is a good example:

It’s really hard for me to enjoy life like nothing is happening when so many others are hurting.

This Christian American woman is struggling to enjoy life. Because ICE. Not because thousands of Iranians are being slaughtered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, or any other people hurting, but because America is deporting people who shouldn’t have illegally crossed in.

Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years. With that in mind, another quote from the original post:

The way of Jesus is not conquest, nor is it victory over our so-called enemies. … It means listening to the hurting, entering into the worlds of those who differ from us, and loving people we disagree with.

I could not agree more. We Christians, who believe any government’s God-ordained job is to protect its own citizens and therefore support deportation of people who “skipped the line” to get in (especially violent people), would appreciate having a civil conversation about this topic.

That — as opposed to indirectly or directly calling us nonbelievers — would be the loving thing to do.

This article was adapted from an essay originally published on Diane Schrader’s Substack, She Speaks Truth.

​Christianity, Christian, Gospel, Immigration, Culture, Ice, Biblical, Lifestyle, Abide, Faith 

A former football sideline reporter has announced a strong Donald Trump-style platform in her run for office.

Michele Tafoya is a former Sunday Night Football staple, interviewing coaches, players, and the like from 2011 to 2022.

Now Tafoya has launched a bid for a Senate seat in Minnesota that will be vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D).

‘I will clean up the system, fighting corruption, ending the fraud, and protecting your tax dollars.’

On Wednesday, Tafoya launched her campaign with a video, stating that “massive government fraud” has been “ripping off” hardworking Americans while showing clips of journalist Nick Shirley’s viral videos that uncovered alleged fraud at Somali-run day cares.

Tafoya also pointed the finger at Gov. Tim Walz (D) and said the state has been forcing “radical ideologies” in schools and sports, putting young women in danger.

RELATED: Whitlock: Michele Tafoya risked everything to start her own Freedom Convoy

“I will clean up the system, fighting corruption, ending the fraud, and protecting your tax dollars,” Tafoya said. “I will protect what’s fair and safe, standing with our law enforcement officers, deporting dangerous criminals, and keeping female sports for female athletes.”

She added, “And I will make our lives affordable again.”

Furthermore the former broadcaster promised to cut taxes for the middle class, strengthen manufacturing, and lower the cost of groceries, prescription drugs, and mortgages.

Tafoya will have stiff competition, even if she is the most notable name in the Republican primary field. Other candidates include former NBA player Royce White, retired Navy officer Tom Weiler, and retired Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.

RELATED: Facing down cancel culture: 4 courageous women who stand firm in their beliefs

Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Tafoya, 61, is originally from California but relocated to Minnesota to cover the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and then the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves before shifting to national coverage.

In mid-December, Tafoya reportedly met with members of the National Republican Senatorial Committee to discuss the potential run. On Tuesday, paperwork for “Tafoya for Senate” was filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Retiring U.S. Sen. Smith, who is from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party wing of the DNC, won her primary in 2018 after former comedian Al Franken resigned over a picture of him pretending to squeeze a news broadcaster’s breasts while she was asleep.

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A 12-year-old boy accused of striking a woman in the face with a screwdriver and beating her amid a weekend robbery in Seattle went before a juvenile court judge Tuesday, KOMO-TV reported.

Despite the boy’s attorney referring to him as a “good kid” who should be released to his parents — and his father making what a KOMO video report said was an emotional plea to the court — the judge didn’t see it that way.

‘He turned 12 about three months ago.’

The first-appearance judge determined there was probable cause to believe the boy committed first-degree robbery, which under state law involves the display of a deadly weapon or the infliction of bodily injury, the station said.

The judge ordered the boy held in secure juvenile detention, KOMO reported, adding that bail is not considered in juvenile court and a respondent is either released or held.

The defense argued that the boy’s parents would watch him and monitor his behavior, while the state said the boy has chronic issues, the station report. The defense still asked for the boy’s release to his parents and wasn’t opposed to electronic home monitoring, KOMO added.

In the station’s video report, the boy’s attorney is heard arguing that her client is “quite young; he turned 12 about three months ago. He has no criminal adjudication history.” The boy — whose face isn’t shown in the video — is seen apparently wiping his eyes with tissue during the proceedings.

But Judge Tanya Thorp said he’ll remain in detention, noting that his “multiple contacts” with police deemed “chronic is of great concern to me.”

RELATED: 3 males — ages 8, 11, 12 — steal car, crash into house; driver, 11, says he learned how to steal cars from YouTube: Cops

More from KOMO:

The case remains under investigation by Seattle police and has not yet been formally referred to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said that timeline is typical, noting that charging decisions require a higher burden of proof than the probable cause standard used at a first-appearance hearing.

King County prosecutors said they expect to receive the case referral from Seattle police on Thursday and anticipate making a charging decision later this week. Prosecutors said first-degree robbery cases are not eligible for diversion and are instead handled in juvenile court with input from juvenile probation counselors.

Washington state law says a 12-year-old charged with first-degree robbery must remain in juvenile court, the station noted, adding that officials said prosecutors and judges lack the authority to transfer such a case to adult court, regardless of the circumstances.

Authorities told KOMO the next update is expected Thursday evening.

In regard to Saturday evening’s incident, police said a juvenile suspect wearing a “hot pink ski mask” robbed a 43-year-old woman at an Amazon Fresh store. Police said the suspect “attacked the victim, hitting her multiple times in the face with his hands,” after which he struck the woman in the face with a screwdriver.

The suspect rifled through the victim’s handbag in a parking garage — and then returned to the victim and assaulted her again before running off, police said.

While police located the suspect, they said he fled from them on foot. However, police recognized the suspect based on previous interactions — as well as his age and unique clothing description — and went to his family’s house and got a search warrant for his arrest, police said.

Officers took the suspect into custody without incident and recovered the screwdriver, police said.

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Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) faced intense — but warranted — backlash from Fox News’ Sean Hannity after voting against a bill that would have mandated the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes, a position that exposes the Democratic Party’s dangerous priorities.

And BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t thrilled with Thanedar either, whom she likens to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) as another foreigner in our government.

“We’re allowing foreigners to come into our country and lecture us about what America stands for. And in some cases, not just lecture us, but that we then allow them to actually participate in representing constituents,” Gonzales says, before playing the clip of Hannity and Thanedar.

“You voted against a bill mandating the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes. Can you explain that to me?” Hannity asked.

“Well, look, look, anybody who breaks U.S. laws, an immigrant that breaks U.S. laws, should be deported. Anyone that commits —” Thanedar responded, before Hannity cut him off to say, “Sir, sir, you voted against a bill that mandated the deportation of illegals convicted of sex crimes. Do you regret that vote now?”

“No, I don’t regret that vote,” Thanedar responded. “Look, no bill is perfect.”

“What if it was your wife, your sister, your daughter that was raped? That’s a sex crime. You want that person to stay?” Hannity asked.

Thanedar continued to make the excuse that there are multiple reasons to vote on a bill, but Hannity isn’t the only one calling him out.

“You’ve got Shri Thanedar over here thinking that he can just come in here and lecture us about how to run our country while he is voting not to deport illegals convicted of sex crimes. Those are his values that he’s bringing from, I don’t know, I guess wherever he came from,” Gonzales says.

“The Democrats are having a very, very difficult time. They’re having an identity crisis because they’re dealing with all of these radicals who are taking over their party. They’re dealing with, literally, their position is, ‘We should protect illegal criminals from being deported. We want to keep the violent gang members, rapists, child diddlers,’” she continues.

“‘And on top of that, oh wait, hold on,’” she says, still mocking the Democrats. “‘President Trump is actually eliminating fraud and corruption at the federal level? No. No. We won’t stand for it. In fact, if you vote for us in the midterms, we will both make sure that the illegal criminals are protected and also apparently make fraud great again.’”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Democrats and their friends in the liberal media have worked overtime to demonize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have in recent months faced a massive spike in death threats and attacks.

President Donald Trump confronted the legacy media on Tuesday with insights into the real villains — those degenerate criminal noncitizens whose removal from Minnesota streets leftists have fought and in at least one case died obstructing.

‘They have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s a loser, lightweight.’

At the outset of a press conference, during which he highlighted some of what he accomplished in his first year back in office, Trump noted that it was appropriate to shine a spotlight on some of the individuals whom ICE has arrested “because Minnesota is so much in the fray.” He produced a stack of illegal alien mugshots, then began showing them one by one.

“They’re apprehending murderers and drug dealers and a lot of bad people,” said Trump. “And these are just some of the more recent ones that we have, and I could show you some of the people — vicious, many of them murderers. These are all out of Minnesota.”

Aldrin Guerrero-Munoz was one of the illegal aliens whose mugshots Trump showed reporters. Guerrero-Munoz is an illegal alien from Mexico with a final order of removal from 2015.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Guerrero-Munoz is “a criminal illegal alien who has been incarcerated on the taxpayer’s dime since 2004 following a 32-year prison sentence for the intentional murder of his three-month-old son.” During his time in Stillwater Prison, Guerrero-Munoz assaulted a fellow inmate, resulting in another conviction.

RELATED: More UNHINGED anti-ICE extremist footage: ‘I am a liberal, leftist, pagan, lesbian, transgender woman, and witch!’

Photo by Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Do you want to live with these people?” Trump asked as he parsed through pages of mugshots depicting killers and sex offenders.

Trump also held up the mugshots for:

Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, a Somali national convicted of homicide; Chong Vue, a criminal illegal alien from Laos with a final order of removal dated March 11, 2004, who was convicted of strong-arm rape of a 12-year-old girl, kidnapping a child with intent to commit sexual assault, and vehicle theft; Hernan Cortes-Valencia, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico with a final order of removal dated Dec. 1, 2016, who was convicted of sexual assault against a child, sexual assault-carnal abuse, and four DUIs;Sriudorn Phaivan, a criminal illegal alien from Laos with a final order of removal from March 8, 2018, who was convicted of strong-arm sodomy of a boy, strong-arm sodomy of a girl, another aggravated sex offense, nine counts of larceny, unauthorized use of a vehicle, four counts of fraud, vehicle theft, two counts of drug possession, obstructing justice, possession of stolen property, receiving stolen property, burglary, and check forgery; andothers.

Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, Chong Vue, Hernan Cortes-Valencia, and Sriudorn Phaivan. Mugshots courtesy of ICE.

“These are just in Minnesota,” said Trump. “In California, it’s worse. In other states, it’s worse.”

ICE previously noted in reference to several of the criminals identified by Trump that these “are some of the monsters Walz, Frey, and rioters are defending in MN.”

“ICE arrests criminal illegal aliens. Communities get safer,” said ICE. “Governor Walz and Mayor Frey’s radical sanctuary agenda is doing the opposite — putting Minnesotans at risk.”

Trump emphasized on Tuesday that ICE simply wants to get the criminal noncitizens typified by those in the mugshots out of the country.

“That’s all they want to do. They’re patriots, and they have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s a loser, lightweight,” said the president, alluding to the storming of St. Paul’s Cities Church on Sunday by Lemon and other anti-ICE radicals.

— (@)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Monday that ICE has “arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children, and reigning terror in Minneapolis because Tim Walz and Jacob Frey refuse to protect their own people and instead protect criminals.”

Noem indicated further that “vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals” were among the 3,000 criminal illegal aliens captured over the past six weeks during Operation Metro Surge.

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You won’t hear many people object to President Trump’s executive order to ban corporate purchases of residential homes. The idea sounds like common sense. But it targets a minor symptom while leaving the real disease untouched — and in some respects, it risks making that disease worse.

Institutional home-buying already peaked during the COVID-era bubble and has receded since then. In most markets, corporate ownership represents a small share of total inventory. Even at its height, it never explained why housing costs exploded for everyone else. High prices created the opportunity for institutional buyers, not the other way around.

The goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.

Government policy inflated the housing market. Institutional buyers simply responded.

During COVID, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates toward zero. Mortgage rates fell below 3%. At the same time, the Fed bought roughly $2.7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, and HUD expanded “affordable homeownership” programs that widened the pool of subsidized buyers. Those policies produced predictable results.

When the government offers 2.5% interest for 30 years — often paired with minimal down payments backed by the FHA — buyers flood the market. Sellers respond by raising prices. The bubble becomes a feature, not a bug.

Institutional buyers entered that environment because it looked like easy money. Higher home prices also pushed rents up, so developers built more homes for long-term rental. Both trends flowed from the same source: a government-shaped market that made housing unaffordable, then subsidized the unaffordability.

Trump now seems focused on the symptom — corporate buyers — while ignoring the machinery that inflated the market in the first place.

He has spent months fighting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to bring rates back down toward zero. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve still holds about $2.1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. Trump has also announced a plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase another $200 billion in MBS. The stated goal is to lower mortgage rates.

But the goal should not be cheaper debt. It should be cheaper homes.

RELATED: ‘Rents will come down’ — but not in sanctuary cities: Loan agent chronicles homes apparently abandoned by illegal aliens

mphillips007 via iStock/Getty Images

Artificially lowering rates props up prices and slows correction. Prices in many markets have begun to soften. That correction should continue. Policies designed to suppress rates will keep prices elevated and risk inflating the next bubble.

That brings us back to corporate home-buying. Even at the COVID peak, institutional buyers — defined as entities owning at least 100 single-family homes — owned about 3.1% of the housing stock. That number has since fallen to around 1%. Investors see the market turning, and they have started backing away.

So Trump’s corporate-purchase ban arrives late, targets a relatively small share of the market, and risks becoming cosmetic cover for policies that keep the bubble inflated.

If Trump wants to drive prices down and permanently realign housing with median incomes, he has to reverse the policies that inflated the bubble. That means attacking the structure, not the headline.

Get government out of the mortgage market. Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair must commit to unwinding the Fed’s mortgage-backed securities portfolio. That $2.1 trillion cushion keeps mortgage rates lower than the market would otherwise set. Those artificially low rates inflate home prices.

End universal “homeownership for everyone” policy. The federal government keeps subsidizing buyers who are not ready to buy. Those programs inject cash into housing demand that would not exist in a real market. The goal should align prices with income, not chase a utopian dream of universal ownership. After decades of subsidies, deductions, and federal credit support, the home ownership rate still sits around the mid-60% range.

Stop chasing near-zero interest rates. A 30-year loan at 2% sounds appealing until you realize what it does to prices. Cheap money bids up homes across the board. Buyers pay the price forever even as politicians brag about the “deal.” Trump should let the market set rates. Recent rate cuts have not restored normal home buying either. Sales remain weak because prices remain too high.

End the 30-year fixed mortgage. Instead of floating longer loans — 50 years? Madness! — the country should move in the opposite direction. Before the New Deal era, short-term mortgages, often three to seven years, dominated the market. Federal policy transformed that structure.

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act of 1934, establishing the Federal Housing Authority. The FHA insured long-term, fully amortizing mortgages with fixed rates, low down payments, and standardized payment schedules. That system moved the market away from short-term balloon loans and laid the foundation for longer terms.

RELATED: America tried to save the planet and forgot to save itself

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Congress eventually authorized the 30-year mortgage in 1954. VA loans under the GI Bill and the expansion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac later built a secondary market that made long-term fixed-rate loans attractive to lenders.

Government insurance, guarantees, and liquidity support made 30-year fixed mortgages feasible, which is why they represent 80%-90% of U.S. mortgages today. Without those interventions, lenders would not carry that risk.

The larger point remains simple: Sellers can’t charge prices buyers can’t pay. Prices explode only when government subsidies and government-backed long-term debt expand what buyers can “afford” on paper.

Unwind the subsidies. Unwind the guarantees. Unwind the cheap-money machinery. Let incomes, not federal policy, set the ceiling.

Housing should function like other consumer markets, not be engineered by Washington. Prices should reflect what people earn.

That’s the fix. Everything else treats symptoms and pretends to solve the problem.

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Housing, Affordability, Housing bubble, Federal housing authority, Subsidies, Fannie mae and freddie mac, Taxes, Debt, Interest rates, Jerome powell, Federal reserve, Supreme court, 30-year mortgage, Mortgage rates, Homeownership, American dream, Blackstone, Blackrock, Covid-19, Hud, Mortgage-backed securities, Mbs 

On the North Norfolk coast, dawn is more sensory than visual.

Sea lavender and samphire engulf you before the bite of the wind reminds you of nature’s power. As the sun rises above the horizon, my father and I cross the salt marshes, the light revealing tidal creeks winding through the mudflats. This time, though, I know it is our last trip together.

In angling, the tippet is the thinnest section of line, the point most likely to fail.

Every step is taken with the knowledge that these rituals — these early mornings, the scent of salt and wildflowers, the quiet companionship — are being performed for the final time.

Silence as stewardship

This is not just a landscape but a stage on which the story of my family unfolds. Each tradition echoes those who came before and those still to come. This place, and these shared customs repeated year after year, have woven our family history together — each visit another stitch in a tapestry stretched across generations.

There is no better place for solitude than Stiffkey, an idyllic village nestled in the Norfolk countryside. For miles around, the only sounds are wood pigeons cooing in the trees and the distant thunder of the sea. It is still very early — five in the morning — when we break this peace with the rhythmic punch of a shovel digging into saturated sand. My father and I do not speak as we work. Ours is a silence filled with meaning, a language shaped by years of tradition and respect for the world around us.

The rhythm of these mornings — the shared labor, the quiet companionship — blurs the boundaries between past and present, between father and son, creating a continuous thread running through my memory. Growing up, my father and I mainly communicated through the tension of a fishing line. Our family has never been big on talking; we are like frayed strings, bound and spliced together by tradition.

In the modern world, silence between two men is often treated as a void to be filled with noise. But on this stretch of coastline, silence is a form of stewardship. To be quiet is to respect the natural world. To be quiet together is to acknowledge a bond that does not require speech.

Here time folds in on itself — my father’s footsteps merging with his father’s, and mine with both of theirs.

Stiffkey blues

My father brought us to Stiffkey every year for our family holiday. For decades, this was his parish. He moved through the shifting terrain with the confidence of a man who knew the tide’s schedule like the back of his hand.

This time, watching him navigate the narrow ravines in the soft morning light, I see not the man who first guided me to the water 20 years earlier but his shadow. His light has dimmed — but it is still bright enough to guide us.

The lessons of Stiffkey are as much about patience, respect, and inheritance as they are about fishing. Each action — from digging bait to laying lines — forms a thread in the fabric of our shared history.

Laying fishing lines is a skill. The tide’s timing and direction determine how the lines must be slanted to catch fish. Digging your own bait matters too; no competent angler wants to carry unnecessary weight from home.

You take only what you need, while respecting the land and sea. From an early age, this was the lesson my father taught me: We are merely guardians, entrusted with care until it is time to pass things on.

“The ragworms aren’t biting,” I would tell him. He would approach with his antalgic gait, quietly move my shovel a few feet, and say, softly but with conviction, “Dig between the holes — that’s where they live.” Ten minutes later, the plastic bucket would overflow.

These moments bridge generations, passing down not just skill but belonging. This was where my grandfather taught my father to fish. Decades later, my father stood here teaching me.

A disused sewage pipe stretches northward, its end disappearing beneath the waves of the North Sea, marked only by a lone orange buoy. With an upturned wooden rake slung over my shoulder, its worn teeth piercing an old onion sack, I would walk the length of the pipeline. I can still feel the chill of rusted metal beneath my bare feet and my father’s watchful eyes — stern yet generous — urging me on. Together we raked the mudflats for cockles, the famed “Stiffkey blues,” once plentiful, now sought like hidden treasure.

RELATED: How I rediscovered the virtue of citizenship on a remote Canadian island

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The cycle of care

Every sensory detail — the cold pipeline, the mudflats, the weight of the rake — anchors memory to place, making past and present inseparable.

Trust and love, learned in my father’s shadow, now guide me as I support him. The cycle of care turns gently but inexorably.

My father’s name is Peter. As his name suggests, he was always my rock — my moral guide — and I followed him with a child’s absolute confidence. Now the roles have quietly reversed. I lead; he leans on my shoulder.

The symbolism of the tippet — its fragility and strength — mirrors this transfer of responsibility. In angling, the tippet is the thinnest section of line, the point most likely to fail. As I watch my father struggle with the nylon — his hands, calloused by 50 years of labor, unable to tie the hook — it becomes clear that we are in the tippet phase of our relationship.

I take over, tying a grinner knot. He has taught me this a thousand times, but today feels different. As I pull the knot tight, I feel the weight of his legacy. He is handing over the keys to his kingdom.

The weight of a soul

At daybreak the following morning, we set off with the same excitement I once felt as a 5-year-old. His unspoken lesson had always been that disappointment should be met with patience. Then there it is: a solitary bass, glistening in the early sun. His hands tremble as he holds it up, smiling. On the walk back to the car, we laugh as seagulls swoop in, trying to steal our catch.

As our roles shifted, so did my understanding. Fishing became a meditation on acceptance, mortality, and shared silence. Fishing with a dying father reminds you that life is finite. It shows that the boundary between this world and the next is as thin as a fishing line — fragile, transparent, yet strong enough to bear the weight of a soul.

Even after loss, the rituals persist. Each return to Stiffkey is both goodbye and renewal. The year after his death, I returned to scatter his ashes. As the wind carried him out to sea, I understood that life’s true tippet strength is not measured by where it breaks but by what it can hold before it does.

​Lifestyle, Fishing, Norfolk, United kingdom, North sea, Fathers, Death, Mortality, Stiffkey, First-person 

A 27-year-old man was found dead with numerous gunshot wounds after he allegedly broke down the door of a family that was armed for self-defense.

Arizona police responded to a shots-fired report at the residence on Sunday evening in the town of Buckeye, according to KSAZ-TV.

Investigators found that the security door had been ripped off its hinges.

The incident unfolded just before 9 p.m. at the home on Yuma Road and 237th Lane.

“When officers arrived, they located a man inside the home suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and three other individuals who were not injured,” police said.

The man was identified as Michael Diaz.

An investigation said there were three people in the home, a mother and her two adult children, when Diaz began to bang on their door.

“A woman answered the door, and the male intruder began to force his way into the home,” police said. “A man in the home retrieved a handgun and went to the door just as the intruder broke through the security door and stepped inside.”

Police said the man fired at Diaz and struck him. He died at the scene.

Investigators found that the security door had been ripped off its hinges as the mother went to answer the door. KSAZ was able to obtain security video from the neighborhood that captured the sound of four gunshots.

RELATED: Texas homeowner arrested for shooting and killing intruder, police say story didn’t add up

One neighbor told KSAZ that he heard the gunshots but believed at the time that they were fireworks.

“I was in the living room with my wife and daughter, and we just hear multiple gunshots,” the neighbor said. “It’s really scary.”

The family declined to speak to the media, and KSAZ reported that evidence markers and bloodstains were visible in the front yard of the home, which was boarded up. An attorney told KTVK-TV that the incident likely fell under the state’s Castle Doctrine and the homeowner who shot Diaz would not face charges.

Police said the family did not know the intruder.

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​Home intruder shot and killed, Second amendment defense, Buckeye home intruder killed, Break down door, Crime 

A recently elected Detroit police commissioner has withdrawn his promise to resign, even after a local news outlet made public his criminal past — as well as his antagonistic interactions with cops.

On December 17, Darious Morris, 38, was sworn in as one of nearly a dozen members of the Board of Police Commissioners, entrusted with overseeing the Detroit Police Department. Morris won the seat representing District 3 on a write-in campaign after no other name appeared on the ballot.

‘If you would have put your hands on him, I would have shot you!’

However, a report from WXYZ-TV just a few weeks later led Morris to consider tendering his resignation.

Morris has a criminal record that extends all the way back to 2009, when he pled no contest to felony fraud and impersonating a public officer charges in connection with what he described as “real estate fraud.”

“It was taking homes from the bank that the bank got foreclosed on people, and we were fraudulently taking the deeds to the homes and deeding them over,” Morris told the outlet.

While he was sentenced to probation in these cases, he was charged with fraud again a year later and wound up behind bars for two years, WXYZ reported. After his release, Morris apparently lived the next 12 years as a law-abiding citizen.

RELATED: Crooks need only 5 minutes to steal $90,000 in merchandise from Detroit clothing store in predawn heist, owner says

Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

That sterling record changed in May 2023, when he involved himself in a relatively routine traffic stop of a mini-bike driver in the neighboring city of Warren.

It turns out the bike was not street-legal, and the driver did not have a license, police said. Morris stood at a distance during the stop, claiming he wanted to make sure the cops were acting appropriately.

Morris also seemingly suggested that he was a member of law enforcement, donning a silver police badge purchased online. According to Warren police, Morris falsely told the officers he was a “Detroit Police Department Chaplain at the 9th Precinct.”

Bodycam footage shows one Warren officer ordering Morris: “Stand by the vehicle, please. If you interfere with this stop, understand you are not allowed to.”

After Morris later repeatedly calls the officer an “idiot,” the cop responds, “I’m done. I’m done talking to you,” according to the video.

The officer then attempts to get in his vehicle when Morris cries out: “If you would have put your hands on him, I would have shot you!”

Morris later pled guilty to assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer and was sentenced to probation. He admitted to WXYZ that he had lashed out in “anger,” knowing the remark “would upset” the officer. He also claimed he had not been armed at the time and that he has since apologized to the officer.

‘No matter what was said previously, right now, he’s not resigning.’

Just since his election in November, Morris, who has dubbed himself “the People’s Commissioner,” has rankled local officers with his officiousness, bluster, and accusations of mistreatment.

On December 28, he interrupted police rendering assistance to a drug-overdose victim. “We’re trying to help someone here,” one officer reportedly pleaded with Morris, who was attempting to speak with them.

Morris later filed a complaint against that officer. DPD told WXYZ an investigation into the officer’s actions has been opened.

Morris also caused a scene at a Detroit precinct, refusing to go through a metal detector like all other visitors. When a cop demanded he comply with the policy, Morris shot back, “Put your information on a piece of paper so I can get you wrote up.”

Morris even called for ousting a white Detroit police commander whose precinct he implied is racist.

“A lot of black citizens have been reporting to em that they are being mistreated by officers out of that precinct. I even experienced disrespect by one of their officers,” Morris wrote in a since-deleted social media post, according to the Midwesterner.

“Get rid of Commander Svec immediately!” the post added.

At least one police group has called for Morris to resign, accusing him of spewing “alarming anti-police rhetoric,” attempting to “dox” police officers, and not living up to his promises.

“Upon being sworn in on December 17, 2025, Commissioner Morris stated that he was eager to improve the relationship between the youth of Detroit and the Police Department. Not even a month later, he is instigating citizens against police officers,” National Association of Police Organizations Executive Director William Johnson wrote in a letter to the Board of Police Commissioners.

RELATED: University of Michigan’s bio-smuggling scandal explodes: More Chinese scholars busted in alleged plot

Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

Shortly after the WXYZ-TV story aired last week, Morris initially agreed to step down from the Board of Police Commissioners. “I already have my city-issued laptop and all my stuff packed up and ready,” he told the outlet, acknowledging that the public may view the BOPC “in an unfavorable light” on his account.

At a press conference Monday, however, Morris’ attorneys walked that resignation pledge back. “No matter what was said previously, right now, he’s not resigning,” insisted Mohammed Nasser.

Of note, Morris could still be in trouble with the law. Back in 2021, weapons charges against Morris were dropped after an officer did not appear at the scheduled hearing, but the office of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy claimed that those charges may now be refiled.

“We have asked that the case be re-issued. When we receive the warrant request from (Detroit police) it will be reviewed,” spokesperson Maria Miller told the Detroit Free Press.

About these pending weapons charges, Nasser said, “We would certainly advise our client not to resign and allow the criminal case — if it comes — to be addressed in due course. Reissuances do happen. In our practice, we see it all the time. The fact that it is coming many years later, I’ll leave that for everyone to decipher as to what they believe the reason may be.”

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

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​Detroit, Board of police commissioners, Darious morris, Kym worthy, Wayne county, Wayne county prosecutor’s office, Politics 

Nick Shirley — the 23-year-old investigative journalist who exposed day-care fraud in Minnesota with a video that has now surpassed 140 million views — is back with part two.

“It’s a whole other aspect to the fraud scheme,” says BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler, who invited Shirley to “The Liz Wheeler Show” to share his latest discoveries.

In the first video, Shirley exposed numerous Somali-run day-care centers in Minnesota as fraudulent operations. Despite receiving millions (or even billions overall) in taxpayer-funded government subsidies through programs like CCAP and Medicaid, these centers provided no actual child-care services. Footage captures Shirley visiting multiple empty facilities with locked doors, blacked-out windows, no visible children, and sketchy “staff members.”

In part two, which dropped last week, Shirley shines a light on non-emergency medical transportation companies in Minnesota, which he alleges are fraudulently billing the state and Medicaid for millions of dollars in rides and services that never actually occurred.

Liz plays a clip from part two in which Shirley and his partner, Minnesota native David Hoch, enter a Somali-run business called “Safari Transportation,” which is registered as a non-emergency medical transportation company. Except when they get inside, they find that it’s a money-wiring business.

These non-emergency medical transportation centers, Shirley explains, are the hub of the wheel of Minnesota fraud. The day-care centers, autism services, assisted living, and food assistance programs are the spokes of the wheel because “in order for these people to receive these services, they need to get moved to locations,” he says.

Shirley gives the example of an adult living at an assisted living center. If he or she needs to go to the doctor, a transportation service is needed. However, many of the transportation businesses in Minnesota are simply shell companies. They submit fake paperwork for services that were never provided while billing the state.

“Like how much money are we talking?” asks Liz.

“We estimated just doing like the national average. Like each NEMT averages around 20 vehicles per company. And then each ride, each trip is around $50, and each vehicle, if they’re out doing the work, they’re doing about 10 trips a day. So we estimated around like $8 million [per day],” says Nick.

This fraud, he explains, doesn’t just rip off the Minnesota taxpayer. All Americans are affected because both “state money and federal money” is being used to reimburse these “transportation companies.”

“Their hands are in our pockets,” says Liz.

To watch the full interview, check out the episode above.

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​The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Minnesota fraud, Minnesota somali fraud, Minnesota somalis, Fraud ring, Nick shirley, Nick shirley video, Blazetv, Blaze media 

My buddy Ryan Rhodes, who’s running for Congress in Iowa’s 4th District, drove north to Minnesota to see the chaos in Minneapolis up close. What he found looked worse than the headlines.

“You have a really Islamo-communist set of people who we have imported” to this country, Rhodes told me. “I think you’ve got a lot of Muslim Brotherhood agents in there, people whose message is, ‘We have taken over this city.’ Forget just elections. We lose our country if we keep allowing these people to come in.”

Americans can handle hard truths. They can handle sacrifice. They can handle a fight. What they won’t handle is watching the bad guys win again.

Rhodes wasn’t talking like a guy chasing clicks. He sounded like a guy staring at the map and realizing tyranny doesn’t need a passport. It can sit three hours from your front door.

So forgive me if I don’t have much patience for the foreign-policy sermonizing right now. How am I supposed to sell voters on “freedom in Iran” while Minneapolis slides toward lawlessness and Washington keeps acting powerless to stop it?

That pitch collapses fast with working-class Americans, especially while the economy limps along and trust remains thin on the ground. Republican voters want competence, results, and consequences for people who harm the country. They want accountability at home first.

We’ve lived what happens without it.

COVID cracked Trump’s first term because bureaucrats and “experts” ran wild, issued edicts, trashed livelihoods, and faced zero consequences. Then the George Floyd riots poured gasoline on the fire. Cities burned while federal authorities watched the destruction unfold.

Trump’s comeback last year required more than winning an election. It required overcoming a full-scale assault on the country’s spirit — and on the right to live as free citizens. The machine didn’t just beat Republicans at the ballot box. It hunted them. Roughly 1,400 Americans were rounded up by the Biden regime over the January 6 “insurrection.” They went after Trump too. They went after anyone in their way.

Those four years didn’t just wreck careers in Washington. They reached down to the local level — school boards acting like petty dictators, public health officials issuing mask and jab mandates, and doctors’ offices turning into political compliance centers. Families paid the price.

Now the country watches the same disease spread again.

People see domestic radicals attack federal officers in the streets. They watch Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) posture like a man protecting the mob, not the public. They hear Minneapolis leaders talk like ICE has no right to exist inside city limits. The footage looks like a warning, not an isolated event.

Remember CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle in 2020? That’s the template: Declare a zone off-limits to law, romanticize the lawlessness, and dare the state to reassert control. Every time the government blinks, the radicals learn the lesson: Push harder.

Demoralization has started to set in. I see it on Facebook and on the ground. In Iowa, I’m seeing campaign photos that would’ve been unthinkable in past cycles: small crowds, low energy, people staying home. Iowa has its first open Republican gubernatorial primary in 15 years, and the mood should feel electric. Instead, it feels like exhaustion.

As things stand, fewer Republicans will vote in the June primary than voted in the 2016 Iowa caucuses. That’s unheard of. Iowa has more than 700,000 registered Republicans. I wouldn’t bet on even 200,000 showing up.

That should terrify the White House.

RELATED: America now looks like a marriage headed for divorce — with no exit

Photo by Madison Thorn/Anadolu via Getty Images

Trump isn’t on the ballot in Iowa anymore. He doesn’t need to win another primary. But the movement still needs to win elections. It needs to win them in places like Iowa — and it needs to win them while the country watches cities like Minneapolis drift toward foreign-flag politics and open contempt for American sovereignty.

Rhodes put it bluntly: If we don’t stop this, we’re watching an Islamic conquest play out in real time, one “sanctuary” city at a time. Great Britain didn’t fall in a day. It surrendered by degrees.

So what do voters need to see now?

Not another speech. Not another promise. Not another commission. Not another “investigation” that ends in a shrug.

They need to see what they were promised when Trump ran for a second term: accountability.

If the country watches Minnesota slide into open defiance of federal law and nobody pays a price for it, voters will conclude the system can’t defend them. And if the system can’t defend them at home, it has no credibility abroad.

Start with Minnesota. Make it plain that “no-go zones” don’t exist in the United States. Enforce the law. Protect federal agents. Prosecute the people who assault them. Strip federal money from jurisdictions that obstruct enforcement. Treat organized lawlessness like organized lawlessness, not a political disagreement.

Americans can handle hard truths. They can handle sacrifice. They can handle a fight.

What they won’t handle is watching the bad guys win again — without consequences.

​Opinion & analysis, Iowa, Primaries, Elections, 2026 midterms, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Riots, Protests, Voter turnout, Iran, Foreign policy, Law and order, Donald trump, Accountability 

Second lady Usha Vance announced that she was pregnant with the fourth child of Vice President JD Vance.

The second lady posted a statement from the vice president on social media Tuesday.

‘We are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family.’

“We’re very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy. Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July,” the statement reads.

“During this exciting and hectic time, we are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family and for the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children,” he added.

The two have been married since 2014 after meeting at Yale University and have two boys, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter named Mirabel.

Many congratulations and blessings were sent to her from prominent politicians, some of whom pointed out that the child would be the first to be born to a sitting vice president.

“Congratulations!” replied Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “This is great news. Children are a gift from God.”

“Children are such a blessing, and this baby boy is blessed to have both of you as his parents,” responded Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

“Congratulations to our friends … on this wonderful news! Abraham and I are thrilled for you and your family,” replied Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

RELATED: TPUSA straw poll shows dominant front-runner for 2028 nomination

“Congratulations! Children are a blessing,” said Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas.

Prior to marrying JD Vance, his wife clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court.

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​Jd vance baby, Usha vance pregnant, Babies born in office, Jd and usha vance, Politics 

If you thought Don Lemon’s fall from grace was over — that he had hit the bottom and the only direction he could possibly go was up — then you would be wrong.

Lemon dug his hole a little deeper when he broke into a Minneapolis church service alongside a group of ICE protesters, one of whom claimed that the church “cannot pretend to be a house of God while harboring someone who is directing ICE agents to wreak havoc upon our community and who killed Renee Good.”

“A weird accusation, right, that a pastor at the church is running a part of ICE? A local chapter of ICE? … What was fascinating about that is, first of all, you might know that even if he happens to be working for the federal government in some capacity, that does not make it OK to go and ransack his church or interrupt a service,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere comments.

“Also, the guy wasn’t even there,” he adds.

While Lemon and the protesters appeared very confident that storming a church full of worshippers was their right, Stu points out that “you are not actually able to do what they did.”

“I mean, you can physically do it, as they, I guess, accomplished, but you can’t legally do what they did. We have a very strong tradition, of course, in this country of the right to protest. That is something that is fundamentally ingrained in our society and something that’s very important for us to protect,” he explains.

“That being said, we also have one that, you know, gives you freedom to exercise your religion and to worship. And the problem with all of this, of course, is you went in there with your loud chanting and stopped people from their ability to execute their First Amendment right,” he continues.

“Those things bump into each other, and the law is very clear on which side wins when those two do bump into each other,” he adds, pointing out that the DOJ is already vowing to press charges after the activists’ and Lemon’s actions.

However, Lemon doesn’t appear to understand this.

“Don Lemon’s a moron. OK? We’ve known this for a very long time. Don Lemon’s an idiot. But Don Lemon also thinks he knows something about not only civil rights, but also apparently the First Amendment, which he knows nothing about,” Stu says.

And the disgraced former news anchor made this clear when he interviewed the pastor of the church.

“This is unacceptable. It’s shameful. It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” the pastor told Lemon.

“But listen, we live in, there’s a Constitution and the First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest,” Lemon tried to argue.

“We’re here to worship Jesus. Because that’s the hope of these cities. That’s the hope of the world is Jesus Christ,” the pastor responded.

“I will say, Don, again, I mentioned this before, is an idiot,” Stu says, adding, “and that’s a problem for his analysis on the First Amendment. The First Amendment does not, very much not, allow you to go into a church service and disrupt it and prevent people who are in the middle of executing their First Amendment rights to be able to worship.”

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A Texas fugitive was dressed in a hoodie with a menacing message on it amid his arrest in connection with what authorities called a woman’s “suspicious death.”

The Azle Police Department said in a statement that it had worked with United States Marshals, Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Division, and the Parker County Special Crimes Unit to locate and arrest Kruz Dean Wanser on Jan. 15.

‘She will be remembered for her creativity, humor, and the unwavering love that radiated from within her.’

Police said Wanser was a “wanted fugitive, who was sought in connection to the suspicious death of 37-year-old Margaret Pennington.”

Police said Pennington was found dead inside an Azle residence on Jan. 11.

“At this time, the cause of death is still pending,” law enforcement stated; the Tarrant County Medical Examiner is conducting the autopsy.

Police on Jan. 12 announced that Wanser was a “person of interest” in the suspicious death investigation and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Police said Wanser was arrested three days later and charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, and parole violation.

In his mugshot, Wanser wore a blue hoodie with the following message on it: “I will put you in a trunk and help people look for you. Stop playing with me.”

RELATED: Brazilian au pair turns on former lover during murder trial, says he plotted wife’s death by luring stranger from fetish site

Police did not reveal any relationship between Wanser and Pennington and did not name a motive for her death.

According to Tarrant County court records the New York Post reviewed, Wanser was charged with evading police with a vehicle in 2021 and drug possession in 2022 and in July 2025.

Pennington’s obituary states she was “deeply loved by her family and friends.”

“Margaret had a creative and sentimental spirit. She found comfort in baking, crocheting, enjoyed music, had a keen interest in genealogy, and loved collecting vintage treasures that carried history and meaning,” her obituary reads.

Pennington is survived by her mother, father, former husband, and his three children, and she “cherished her role in helping raise” the kids.

“Margaret’s life was a tapestry of complexity, yet she embodied the essence of humanity and the profound love she shared,” the obituary reads. “She will be remembered for her creativity, humor, and the unwavering love that radiated from within her.”

The obituary cites 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7: “Love is patient, love is kind. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Police are urging anyone with information about the case to contact them at 817-444-3221.

While police don’t mention Wanser’s hoodie message in their Facebook post, plenty of commenters sure noticed it. The following are but a few of the more than 1,000 reactions:

“You know that saying, ‘Dress for the job you want, not the job you have’ really applies here,” one commenter wrote.”I don’t know if what the hoodie says can be used as evidence, but please find DNA on it and photograph it as evidence so it at least makes it into the court documents,” another user said.”I mean, have we checked the trunk?” another commenter asked.”Sometimes jokes write themselves…” another user observed.”The hoodie is not a good look bud,” another commenter stated.

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​Crime, Homicide, Kruz dean wanser, Margaret pennington, Murder, Odd news, Strange news, Texas, True crime, True crime news, Weird news 

Captain America and Iron Man would be feigning progressivism in public while secretly voting Republicans down the ballot, according to stand-up comedian Chris D’Elia.

D’Elia was discussing political influence in television shows with fellow comedians Erik Griffin and Brendan Schaub when he presented his theory.

‘Wolverine! Cyclops! Professor X, hello?!’

The trio said that while some TV shows simply have entertaining characters that happen to be gay, the “gay agenda” becomes evident when certain storylines are forced.

Team Trump

“What I do think they do do, though, is with their big shows, they try to figure out how to put gay characters in it, or trans characters,” D’Elia said on “The Golden Hour” podcast.

This led D’Elia to theorize that even though superheroes are “all woke in the movies,” they are definitely voting Republican at the ballot box.

“What superhero would be left-wing?! They wouldn’t. They have so much power,” D’Elia said, launching into a signature screaming tirade.

“Jarvis, what’s up with this f**kin’ trans s**t?!” he joked, mimicking actor Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man.”

“You know the real Captain America would be f**king Republican, secretly voting for Trump. And you know Iron Man would be talking to Jarvis about f**king woke bitches, dude!” he continued.

RELATED: New ‘Star Trek’ DEI disaster flops despite airing for free: A ‘huge, gay, glee club middle finger’

Stable genius

Griffin prompted D’Elia to explain which members of the X-Men he feels are Republicans, which had the New Jersey native yelling into the microphone.

“Who’s Republican, dude? Wolverine! Cyclops! Professor X, hello?! You think he’s out there — in his mind, he’s like, ‘But secretly, f**k these woke, white liberal women.’ Killing them left and right, dude, with his brain.”

Griffin — known for his work on shows like “Workaholics” — calmly delivered his thoughts about when shows go too far with their political agenda. The 53-year-old explained that shows have jumped the shark when they become “an after-school special” that has a political lesson to teach.

“To me, that’s the agenda thing, is when you’re trying to control how people think about stuff,” he said.

RELATED: Trump fatigue: Golden Globes host on why she kept jokes politics-free

Tranovision

This inspired Griffin and Schaub to develop an idea for a new filter on platforms like Netflix, where users can opt out of seeing transgender or overly gay content.

“They just need a filter,” Griffin explained. “Like, more than just age filter, right? What if they had a ‘gay agenda’ filter?”

Schaub put a stamp on the topic and said that while he certainly enjoys a lot of new shows, “with the gay narrative, just leave it all out of the kids’ stuff. But for the grown-ups, dude, you’re a grown-ass person.”

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The alleged pipe bombs placed at two sites on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, were not capable of exploding and thus were not bombs at all, an explosives expert said in a new federal criminal case filing.

The devices, found along the rear of the Capitol Hill Club and under a bench at the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, lacked the needed chemicals and proper fusing system that would have made them explosives, according to Brennan Phillips, a 20-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

‘The two suspected pipe bombs in question do not contain an explosive filler capable of causing an explosion.’

In a report created for pipe-bomb suspect Brian J. Cole Jr.’s defense team, Phillips rejected the FBI’s five-year-long insistence that the devices were “viable” and could have exploded.

“Based on my review of the materials provided, the two suspected pipe bombs in question do not contain an explosive filler capable of causing an explosion,” Phillips wrote.

The report, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., late on Friday, is just the latest complication for the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI in the prosecution of Cole, 30, a suburban Virginia man arrested Dec. 4 and charged a day later with two felony explosives counts.

The defense filed the explosives expert’s report along with a motion to revoke the detention order keeping Cole locked up in the Rappahannock Regional Jail pending trial.

A U.S. Capitol Police bomb robot heads for the alley behind the Capitol Hill Club to render safe a pipe bomb discovered about 12:40 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

At virtually the same time on Jan. 16, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued an order rejecting Cole’s emergency petition to reconsider the detention decision made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh.

Phillips said the chemicals used in the devices were not properly constituted and thus incapable of sparking an explosion.

“These chemicals need to be apportioned into a workable fuel-to-oxidizer ratio: 75% potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter) 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur is the most widely cited Black Powder ratio,” he wrote.

Above: the Capitol Hill pipe bombs before they were processed by a bomb robot. Below: One of the devices reconstructed by the FBI.FBI images

“The photos of the lab samples taken from the powders recovered from the two pipes show mostly large white particles with some flecks of dark material,” Phillips wrote, “which is not visually consistent with Back Powder but is consistent with inadequate mixing in a bowl.”

The FBI cited purchases of various items the bureau claims Cole made between 2018 and 2022, including sulfur dust and potassium nitrate. No public FBI records cite the purchase of any charcoal. These sourced ingredients can pose a purity problem for use in black powder. Inert ingredients used in the products Cole allegedly purchased tend to blunt their effectiveness as components to make black powder, according to an independent investigator known online as Armitas, who has worked with Blaze News on the pipe bomb investigation.

Like tiny lumps of coal

“Quality black powder, whether commercial or made by a knowledgeable hobbyist in a home setting, is granular and resembles tiny lumps of coal (Thurman, 2010),” Phillips wrote. “This granular black powder, made from 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur, is the result of a multi-step process that involves grinding, milling, pressing, and corning to achieve a high-quality product.”

The process described by Phillips would be something that requires, at minimum, some level of hobbyist experience.

“In the home environment, this is typically achieved by first purchasing or creating finely ground precursor chemicals. For example, a hobbyist might use a coffee grinder to grind lump charcoal into a fine powder,” Phillips said. “Once the finely ground powders of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur are acquired, they need to be combined into a homogeneous mixture. A common starting point is to mix the materials using progressively finer mesh screens.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ motorcade drives directly past a pipe bomb as it moves to evacuate Harris from the front of the DNC building on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

The “early-stage” powders that result from an “incorporation” process “are typically low-strength and require pressing to achieve the performance required for Black Powder firearms, or bomb making,” Phillips wrote.

In addition to the problems with the fuel, Phillips said the Capitol Hill devices lacked an appropriate fusing system.

“Beyond the lack of a viable explosive filler for the two pipes, neither device has a functional fuzing and firing system capable of igniting a flame-sensitive explosive filler,” he wrote. “Based on my experience and testing, a single 9-volt battery attached to a 1.5-inch square of steel wool will not generate enough heat to ignite Black Powder.”

Constant controversy

There has been controversy surrounding the devices since their discovery between 12:40 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. A prime example was the deviation from standard protocol by police and U.S. Secret Service agents when the device was found under a bush at the base of a park bench at the DNC building.

The standard response to discovery of a suspected pipe bomb would be the immediate establishment of a blast perimeter and the evacuation of everyone in nearby buildings. Roads would be closed at the blast perimeter, and no one would be allowed to drive or walk inside.

A Capitol Police counter-surveillance special agent who found the DNC device at 1:05 p.m. walked to a nearby Secret Service sport utility vehicle to notify agents of his discovery. Instead of an urgent reaction, the agents sat in their vehicles for more than two minutes, finishing their lunch.

According to federal law-enforcement standards, the preferred evacuation distance from a pipe bomb is more than 1,200 feet.FBI

Even after emerging from the vehicles parked in the DNC driveway, the agents acted nonchalantly, standing just feet from the device. A uniformed Capitol Police officer walked up to the park bench and took a photograph of the device.

Pedestrians were allowed to traverse the sidewalk along South Capitol Street, walking mere feet from the suspected bomb. Vehicle traffic continued unabated on Capitol, Canal, and Ivy streets, as well as Washington Avenue.

Commuter trains continued to rumble over the railroad trestle behind the DNC building for 20 minutes after the device was discovered.

Inside the DNC, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris wasn’t evacuated for 10 minutes. Her motorcade pulled out of the underground garage and drove right past the bomb before circling the south end of the building and picking her up at the Ivy Street entrance.

Despite the ostensible threat to Harris’ life, Democrats never claimed the pipe bomb was an attempted assassination. For more than five years since, Harris has neither commented on her close call with disaster, nor explained why she was at the DNC building instead of the Capitol, where as a U.S. senator, her vote was needed to certify the 2020 presidential election.

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​January 6 

Blaze News captured more exclusive footage of hysterical anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after the lethal shooting of Renee Good.

One particularly passionate protester says he was a U.S. Air Force veteran and reads from a prepared statement. He wears a jacket with transgender flags as well as a Hello Kitty decoration.

‘You ain’t s**t! Put your badge down! I’ll fight you!’

“I’m protesting what was done to Renee Good. I am protesting what was done to George Floyd, to Leonard Peltier, to Trayvon Martin, and to all those who have suffered violence and injustice from the hands of fascism!” he says.

“I am Charlotte Sanders, and I use she/her/her pronouns. I am a liberal, leftist, pagan, lesbian, transgender woman, and witch! My deadname is Matthew Tyler Sanders, but I am Charlotte,” he continues.

“I stand here today to go up against the violent injustices done to everyone like Renee Nicole Good, George Floyd Jr., Leonard Peltier, and Trayvon Martin,” the man says. “I am here to stand up and fight against fascism, tyranny, systematic oppression, xenophobia, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and hate! I am here to stand up against the bullies and cowards!”

He goes on to say that he had suffered from psoriatic arthritis as well as cancer that were caused by “psychological and emotional” trauma.

“We must take a stand against fascism and hate!” he concludes. “We must annihilate fascism and hate.”

He says he was protesting in order to protect his “LGBTQIA2S+ chosen family and community.”

RELATED: Unhinged anti-ICE extremists hurl profanities at agents in Minneapolis: ‘Get the f**k out!’

In later parts of the video, protesters follow federal troops and chant at them to leave the city.

“Look at your ugly ass smiles, ohhh!” says one female protester.

“You guys hate America, right,” says a male protester to the troops. “You think you love it, but you f**king hate it. This is the First Amendment. What are you guys doing?! You should be joining us! A f**king woman was shot in the face!”

Another male protester has a message for President Donald Trump.

“Do you have any heart? Do you have any heart? Do you have any soul? Especially if you are Christian,” the man says. “How can you say any of this is Christian? It’s not in any way!”

One protester’s sign equated Trump to Hitler and adds, “The blood is on your hands!!”

The video ended with crazed epithet-filled screaming against ICE officers at the facility in Minneapolis.

“I say f**k ICE! If they want a piece, come and f**king get it!” adds Matthew Sanders in a last snippet.

RELATED: Shocking cellphone video of Minneapolis lethal shooting from ICE agent’s perspective released — and JD Vance reacts

In a second video captured by Blaze News, a protester threatens to fight officers on the streets of Minneapolis.

“You ain’t s**t! Put your badge down! I’ll fight you!” the man says. “And if you want to see me, we can go get into my trunk, and we can do something different! You wanna take it like that? None of you got vests on! I clocked that s**t, homie!”

“How old were you when your mommy dropped you on your head?!” screams a female protester.

Another protester makes an extended analogy comparing Trump to the emperor character in the “Star Wars” franchise. He says he isn’t a fan of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), but he opposes the ICE surge.

“If they can put away the fraudsters, great!” the man adds. “But is [an] ICE agent tackling some kid bringing shopping carts into Target, is that helping tackle fraud? I don’t think so.”

In another scene from the city, a woman screams at officers as they appear to back away from protesters.

“Get the f**k out of here, piggy! You don’t belong here! You don’t belong here!” she yells. “Are you guys scared? Are you guys scared of our little cardboard sign?!”

The video ends with a protester running with a Somali flag in front of assembled troops as another protester screams incoherently.

A previous Blaze News video with exclusive protester footage was published Jan. 9 and can still be viewed online.

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