Category: blaze media

The Trump administration’s reversal of a Biden-era policy regarding hospitals being required to perform emergency abortions has abortion activists up in arms — despite there actually being no threat to pregnant women who need emergency care.

“You have probably seen headlines going around, especially on Instagram, saying that Trump is now letting hospitals allow women to die, women who need these life-saving abortions we hear are now going to bleed out and die because of Trump’s draconian and cruel anti-abortion policies,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says on “Relatable.”

“It is almost always the case when it comes to pro-abortion propaganda that the story that you are reading, that those little pro-abortion influencers and accounts are pushing, that it’s just not true,” she continues.

The policy in question is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act that was passed in 1986 and requires hospitals to provide necessary emergency care, including for pregnant women, to stabilize serious medical conditions.

The law’s initial intent was to ensure patient access to emergency medical care and to prevent the practice of “patient dumping,” which is when patients are transferred from private to public hospitals without considering their medical condition or stability for transfers.

The Biden administration issued a guidance on this law in 2022 that interpreted EMTALA as requiring hospitals to perform abortions in emergency rooms, even in states with pro-life laws.

“So you can see, if you’re familiar at all with how the left interprets these kind of health care laws, you can see the problem right away, because how the left interprets the health or life of the mother or the stability of the mother, is not that the woman’s life actually has to be at risk,” Stuckey explains.

“They refer to a Supreme Court case called Doe vs. Bolton, where health and life of the mother is defined as not only the physical health of the mother, but the mental health of the mother, the financial situation of the mother, the familial circumstances of the mother,” she continues.

“So it was actually the Biden administration that was infringing upon people’s rights here, it’s not the Trump administration,” she adds.

The Trump administration rescinded this 2022 guidance in a statement arguing it wrongly turned emergency rooms into abortion clinics by forcing doctors to perform elective abortions.

“Which is true, because a woman could come in and say, ‘I have to have an abortion, I don’t feel stable, or I’m not feeling good or whatever,’ and instead of a doctor saying, ‘We can help you in different ways,’ or ‘Here’s where you need to go, let me give you other resources,’ they would be required by the Biden administration to perform an abortion,” Stuckey explains.

“So the Trump administration’s policy clarifies that EMTALA does not mandate abortions beyond what is necessary for emergency care, aligning with the law’s intent to protect both the mother and the unborn child,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

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More than two months after he was deported from the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is reportedly being brought back to the U.S. to face criminal charges.

The 29-year-old is accused by the federal government of being a criminal gang member, but Democrats have demanded his return to the U.S. on the basis that he wasn’t given the opportunity to defend himself against the accusations in court.

Some of those transported were also a part of the notorious MS-13 gang, according to sources that spoke to ABC.

ABC News was first to report the development on Friday.

The report says that a federal grand jury has indicted Garcia for transporting illegal aliens within the U.S. The indictment alleges that Garcia transported migrants from Texas in a years-long conspiracy. Thousands of illegal aliens, including children, were allegedly transported in the conspiracy.

Some of those transported were also a part of the notorious MS-13 gang, according to sources who spoke to ABC.

The indictment reportedly included two charges and was sealed in a Tennessee federal court last month.

Garcia has become the poster boy for the left in accusations that the Trump administration’s deportation efforts have bent or broken the laws on migrants and their due process rights.

A government attorney admitted in court that the man was deported because of a “clerical error,” but the administration has since fired that attorney.

RELATED: Supreme Court unanimously upholds order for Trump to ‘facilitate’ release of Salvadoran migrant from notorious prison

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Garcia’s wife and attorney deny that he was a member of the MS-13 gang.

Trump has argued that providing due process to the millions of illegal aliens would be far too laborious when he was pressed about the question in May.

“I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,” he said.

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North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un attended the communist regime’s launch ceremony of the second of its two new Choe Hyon-class destroyers at the Cheongjin shipyard in eastern port city of Chongjin on May 21. The side-launch went really, really poorly.

Jong Un looked on as his brand-new, 5,511-ton, 144-meter warship immediately capsized.

After laying on its side for weeks, North Korean state media now claims the ship was been righted. Nevertheless, the damage has been done — both literally and figuratively.

‘Criminal act caused by sheer callousness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism.’

The Korean Central News Agency attributed the failure to “inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch,” claiming that “the launch slide of the stern departed first and stranded as the [hydro-pneumatic catapult] failed to move in parallel, holes made at some sections of the warship’s bottom disrupted its balance, and the bow failed to leave the slipway, leading to a serious accident.”

Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector who helms the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told the Guardian, “It appears the dock was hastily constructed, and multiple issues may have arisen during the shipbuilding process.”

Jong Un rushed to the conclusion that the incident was a “criminal act caused by sheer callousness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism, which should never occur and could not be tolerated.”

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi outraged after Defense Sec. Hegseth orders removal of gay icon’s name from naval ship

Photo by Contributor/Getty Images

While the communist regime lost face over the accident, the individual it scapegoated — Ri Hyong Son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee — will likely lose a great deal more. Son was arrested and deemed “greatly responsible,” according to state media.

38 North, a project of the Stimson Center, a peace-oriented think tank, indicated that in the wake of the accident, there were desperate efforts in recent days to manually right the ship. Satellite imagery revealed that numerous barrage balloons were employed to keep the communist ship afloat while cables were fastened to the destroyer to stabilize its position.

Additional satellite images reportedly indicate damage to the sonar bow section, which will require significant repairs at a dry dock.

State media claimed Friday — and satellite imagery confirms — that the ship had been balanced and launched the previous day and can now stay afloat, moored at the pier.

The South Korean military reportedly indicated that the battered and bruised vessel may have been developed with the help of the Russians in exchange for the regime sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

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One of the most shocking and horrifying scandals of the Biden administration was its botched handling of unaccompanied minor migrants who flooded into the country amid former President Joe Biden’s open border chaos.

Government whistleblowers sounded the alarm that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, under the prior administration’s leadership, failed to thoroughly vet sponsors, ushering children into unsafe homes.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed those findings on Thursday.

‘Children’s safety and security is nonnegotiable.’

The agency issued a press release announcing that it discovered “widespread abuse” and “exploitation” of some of the children whom the ORR placed with “improperly vetted sponsors.”

“As a result, these children were subjected to physical abuse and sexual and labor exploitation,” ICE stated.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security launched a nationwide effort in February to locate unaccompanied minors whom the ORR placed with sponsors. As part of this effort, agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations are conducting welfare checks to ensure that children are safe from trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. They are also visiting the children and their sponsors to verify that they are receiving proper care, attending school, and complying with immigration proceedings.

RELATED: Trump admin pulls children from migrant shelters over sexual abuse claims

Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

While these welfare checks are not focused on immigration enforcement, in situations where ICE agents encounter illegal aliens, they are taking them into custody.

ICE stated that agents have already uncovered “alarming” cases, such as sponsors who had committed serious crimes, including hit-and-run, aggravated assault, larceny, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, prostitution, attempted murder, and possession of child sexual abuse material. Additionally, some sponsors reportedly forced children into labor and subjected them to unacceptable living conditions.

ICE also indicated that sponsors paid smugglers to bring children into the United States and falsely claimed to be related to the children.

“In some of the most disturbing cases, girls were pregnant with children fathered by their alleged sponsors — which highlights the grave failures of previous vetting procedures and the dangerous consequences of placing minors in unsafe environments,” ICE stated.

RELATED: Biden admin placed unaccompanied immigrant children in ‘unregulated and unsafe’ living conditions: Report

Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay said that agents are working tirelessly to locate the children.

“Children’s safety and security is nonnegotiable,” Baksay stated. “The previous administration’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards has allowed vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of criminals.”

“This is the responsibility of any government, Republican or Democrat, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on rigorous sponsor screening and biometric verification. Those guardrails were dismantled, and we’re now seeing the consequences,” Baksay added.

Baksay urged the media to “focus less on political spin and more on the facts.”

“This is about the lives of children, and it’s time we treat it with the seriousness [it] demands,” Baksay remarked.

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President Trump and former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk have been at odds over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which Musk has criticized as a “disgusting abomination” that increases the federal deficit and undermines the DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts. Trump has declared the bill “arguably the most significant piece of legislation that will ever be signed in the history of our country,” praising its massive tax cuts, border security measures, and economic growth potential.

The public and politicians alike are taking sides. Some are eager to see the bill, which includes massive tax cuts, policies like no tax on tips and overtime, border security, and energy dominance, passed, as it will usher forth President Trump’s economic agenda. Fiscal conservatives, however, are concerned that the bill raises the debt ceiling and includes no permanent funding cuts, arguing that the country is on a one-way track to implosion if federal spending isn’t curbed.

Responses to Musk’s claim about Trump in the Epstein files are varied as well. From outright dismissal and meme-making to urgent calls for investigation and transparency, conservative influencers are rejecting the accusation as baseless while Democrats and some media outlets are amplifying demands for the files’ release.

Here at Blaze Media, our hosts are thoroughly exploring the Trump-Musk feud, dissecting its implications from every perspective. Below, discover a range of insights into the tensions between President Trump and Elon Musk.

Glenn Beck:

Sara Gonzales:

Blaze News | The Mandate:

Alex Stein:

Pat Gray:

​Blazetv specials, Blazetv, Blaze media, Elon trump, Elon musk, Donald trump, Big beautiful bill, Epstein files 

In a move that shocked the political establishment, the former White House press secretary under Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre, left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent in tandem with the launch of her new book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” set for release in October 2025.

Given her high-profile role and her loyalty to the Biden administration — even when it meant blatantly lying to the public — her departure from the Democratic Party and her upcoming exposé have drawn sharp criticism from people on the left, who feel betrayed, and on the right, who see her move as nothing more than opportunism.

Pat Gray of “Pat Gray Unleashed” laughs at what is clearly a copycat move of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s tell-all book, “Original Sin.” Like Tapper specifically, Jean-Pierre is now attempting to profit off the narrative that she played a key role in suppressing.

Pat calls her book “part two of ‘Original Sin.’”

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith certainly saw it that way too.

On a recent episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith lambasted Jean-Pierre for lying about Biden’s deteriorating cognitive state, only to reverse course to make a profit.

Pat plays the clip of his epic tirade.

“You were not the White House press secretary when you were on ‘The View’ spewing the same stuff you had spewed when you were the White House press secretary. … You didn’t have to do that, but you chose to,” Smith said, referencing Jean-Pierre’s March 4 appearance during which she continued to defend the narrative that Biden was mentally sharp.

“So what the book’s going to tell us? … Is the book going to be an extension of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, ‘Original Sin’ — yet another Democrat coming out and telling us about stuff that a whole bunch of stuff on the right was telling us, but y’all swore we shouldn’t listen to?” he asked, inviting Jean-Pierre to come on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” and explain her opportunistic timing and why she continued to lie following her White House exit.

“He’s right,” says Pat.

To see the footage of Smith’s excoriation and to hear more of the “Unleashed” panel’s commentary, watch the video above.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, Blazetv, Blaze media, Karine jean-pierre, Biden white house, White house press secretary, Stephen a smith 

The Stephens Family YMCA in Champaign, Illinois, will host a disturbing program centered around the sexuality of young children.

To make matters worse, the supposed Christian nonprofit has partnered with an activist organization that is willing to provide “gender affirming” clothing to “any age.”

The Stephens Family YMCA proudly boasts a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy on its website and says it is “prioritizing equity” in all that it does.

‘Stephens Family YMCA is a nonprofit association committed to a mission of putting Christian principles into practice …’

With a commitment to implementing DEI programs, the organization seems to be working in line with its mission statement with its 2025 summer camp called “Camp Kaleidoscope.”

The summer camp is for “LGBTQ+ youth or youth who are part of LGBTQ+ families” and promises to provide children with a “safe space,” where they can “experience character growth and development.”

There are two four-day camps: June 23 to 27 for 2nd to 5th graders and July 14 to 18 for 6th to 9th graders. Both cost $250.

The goal of the camp, the guide states, is to let youth “who are part of the LGBTQ+ community to be authentically themselves.”

RELATED: ‘Honey, I’m a woman’: Mom says she, her 7-year-old girl saw naked male in YMCA female locker room who brushed off her protest

Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

The gay camp will run in collaboration with Uniting Pride of Champaign County, an activist group that provides sex- and gender-based literature aimed at children and cross-dressing clothing to “any age.”

As reported by the Daily Wire, Uniting Pride openly says it will provide free chest binders, waist cinchers, or “tucking underwear” to “anyone of any age.”

Chest binders are meant to flatten women’s breasts to make them appear more masculine, while waist cinchers are to narrow a man’s waist. Tucking underwear is meant to conceal a man’s genitals.

The organization welcomes donations of used undergarments but requests they are in “generally good condition and be free of stains and scents of any kind.”

Additionally, the organization offers “free sizing consultations” for the garments.

RELATED: Ex-NFL player rescues 80-year-old man from near-fatal beating in YMCA locker room

Uniting Pride also loans out gender ideology literature aimed at children. Titles include: “A Kids Book About Being Transgender,” “Drag Teen,” and “You Be You! The Kid’s Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family.”

The pro-transgender organization is certainly a peculiar one for the Stephens Family YMCA to partner with given its mission statement that positions itself as a Christian nonprofit.

“Stephens Family YMCA is a nonprofit association committed to a mission of putting Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all,” the website reads.

The location allegedly has a chapel, too. In late 2024, a local reporter from WCIA News reminisced about how she often spent time in the YMCA’s chapel when she had two young children, bringing her kids there as she completed school work.

The nonprofit’s mission statement is doubly confusing when taking some of the location’s policies into consideration.

In the Stephens Family YMCA membership handbook, locker room policies state that all members will have access to “restroom and locker room facilities that correspond to their self-identified, self-reported gender identity to the extent permitted by applicable law.”

Yet at the same time, parents with children of the opposite gender are to use the family locker room.

“The YMCA’s prioritization of gender ideology over child safety ought to gravely concern any parent considering sending their child to summer camps or activities,” Alleigh Marré, executive director of American Parents Coalition, said in a statement to Blaze News.

She added, “Children deserve activist- and agenda-free summer fun, and parents deserve transparency from the organizations they entrust to care for their children.”

Stephens Family YMCA did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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Anti-Semitic threats and acts of violence in the U.S. are surging amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, fueled by supporters of the terrorist group Hamas.

Such threats pushed organizers of an annual pro-Israel gathering in Texas to abruptly and indefinitely postpone their event.

‘The first [summit] was held in Nashville and, ironically, was nearly canceled due to threats from pro-Hamas thugs.’

The Israel Summit — hosted by HaYovel and its media initiative, the Israel Guys — was scheduled to be held in Dallas, Texas, from June 9 to 11.

HaYovel expected to host over 1,000 attendees but instead announced this week that it would postpone the summit, after the organization received numerous threats from American pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas groups.

Luke Hilton, HaYovel’s chief operating officer, told Blaze News that the heightened threat levels forced the organization to switch venues twice mere days before the event.

RELATED: Firebombing terror suspect recorded himself declaring jihad is greater than Zionists before heinous attack: Report

Israel Summit 2024. Image Source: HaYovel

“Indirect and direct threats were issued both against our organization, the Israel Summit, and against the venue who were hosting us,” Hilton stated.

The organization estimated that the “overwhelming security burden” would have cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” HaYovel highlighted the “sobering reality” that “peaceful, pro-Israel gatherings in America increasingly require extraordinary security measures to remain viable.”

The second venue, which initially agreed to cover the needed security, pulled the plug days ahead of the event, citing “escalating safety concerns and mounting external pressures,” according to HaYovel.

Despite “full cooperation and assistance” from the sheriff’s department, the Texas Rangers, and the FBI, the organization felt it had no choice but to postpone the summit.

Hilton revealed further details about the threats to Blaze News, noting that they began with pro-Palestinian activist groups on social media.

“Then, according to law enforcement and intelligence, they moved to the dark web to avoid further detection,” he explained. “The threats used language such as ‘we need to target’ the Israel Summit and the host venue.”

“Statements to target any Jew or Christian who is standing with Israel cannot be understood any other way than a direct call for violence,” Hilton stated, citing the recent deadly shooting in Washington, D.C., of two Israeli embassy staffers and the terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, that caused multiple injuries.

The organization still hopes to host the event on a new date and at a different venue within the coming months.

Yet, this is not the first time the Israel Summit has faced threats.

“Next week’s summit was set to be our second annual event. The first one was held in Nashville and, ironically, was nearly canceled due to threats from pro-Hamas thugs. Dave Ramsey stepped in at the last minute, hosting the summit at his headquarters in Franklin, [Tennessee],” Hilton told Blaze News.

‘The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters.’

David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and the founder of One Jewish State, was one of the speakers slated to present at the 2025 Israel Summit. He reacted to its postponement in a post on X.

“This is America in 2025. A pro-Israel conference scheduled for Dallas this week (where I was scheduled to speak), which sold over 1000 tickets, was forced to cancel because of threats from violent Jihadists,” Friedman stated. “When [President Donald Trump] says we need to take our country back, this is a good example of what he means!”

RELATED: Father of leftist accused of gunning down Israeli embassy staffers was Democrat’s guest

Israel Summit 2024. Image Source: HaYovel

Trump had previously pledged to vigorously combat the nation’s escalating anti-Semitism by “aggressively” prosecuting terrorist threats against the Jewish community and deporting Hamas sympathizers.

On Thursday, Trump’s FBI released a public service announcement regarding elevated threats toward Israeli and Jewish communities, noting the murder of the embassy staffers and the attack in Boulder.

“The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters,” the agency warned. “Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States. The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement.”

When reached for comment about the threats posed against the Israel Summit organizers and host venues, the FBI Dallas Field Office told Blaze News, “The FBI works with our law enforcement partners every day to detect and stop acts of targeted violence. Our goal is always to get ahead of threats. We remind members of the public that if you observe any suspicious activity to quickly report it to law enforcement. The FBI remains committed to working with our partners to protect our communities against acts of violence and other threats.”

Hilton called the escalating anti-Semitic threats a “wake-up call for Americans.”

“We believe that this is a wake-up call for Americans to take action and come together to publicly stand with Israel and the Jewish people in the U.S. today,” he told Blaze News.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, the Dallas Police Department, and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Joseph MacKinnon contributed to this story.

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​News, Dallas texas, Dallas, Texas, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Fbi, Federal bureau of investigation, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Israel hamas, Israel palestine, The israel summit, Hayovel, The israel guys, Luke hilton, David friedman, Politics 

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk traded jibes on Thursday, which escalated over the course of the afternoon and culminated in threats of creating a new political party as well as of SpaceX contract cancellations.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck spoke on Friday to Russell Vought, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, about the spat as well as about the president’s “big, beautiful bill.”

‘But look, Glenn, we’re moving forward, and Elon has been an important ally and patriot throughout all of this, and we’ve got a job to do.’

Beck refrained from beating around the bush and asked at the outset whether a reconciliation was imminent — not legislatively but between the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful leader. Vought responded with a strong hint.

Prior to Vought jumping onto the call, Beck noted, “Boy, yesterday was just a wild, wild ride. And I hate to see it. You know, kids don’t like to see Mommy and Daddy fight — and they’re both so important. We need both of these guys, but we also need the truth on the big, beautiful bill.”

Beck had also posted on X on Thursday that the disagreement between Trump and Musk was “sad to see” and that he hoped the two “patriots” who “have done heroic things” can make amends and help America “see our way forward to find a win win.”

RELATED: I was against Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ — Stephen Miller changed my mind

Photo by ALEX WROBLEWSKI,ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images

With Vought on the phone on Friday, Beck asked, “Yesterday was a tough day. Do you know — has the president had his phone call yet? Are they coming back together?”

“Well,” responded Vought, “I think the president made some comments to the press this morning that, you know, he’s not looking to have a phone call any time soon.”

“I think he expressed disappointment yesterday with regard to … some of the comments made by Elon,” continued Vought. “But look, Glenn, we’re moving forward, and Elon has been an important ally and patriot throughout all of this, and we’ve got a job to do.”

— (@)

The OMB director stressed that the priority now is getting the bill across the finish line, making improvements where possible.

Whereas Vought was diplomatic in his response, when asked whether he had a call scheduled with Musk for later in the day, Trump told ABC News on Friday morning, “You mean the man who has lost his mind?”

The president suggested he was “not particularly” interested in having that conversation at the moment.

Musk now appears willing to mend fences.

When hedge fund manager Bill Ackman suggested that Trump and Musk “should make peace for the benefit of our great country” and that “we are much stronger together than apart,” Musk responded, “You’re not wrong.”

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Democratic Rep. Greg Casar of Texas apparently threatened congressional witnesses during a heated hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Daniel Turner, founder of Power the Future, was testifying before the Department of Government Efficiency subcommittee about the corrupt relationships between the government and left-wing nonprofits. Turner, who himself has uncovered much of the corruption, found himself in the hot seat when Casar apparently threatened the congressional witness.

‘Political violence directed towards me is kind of not new, but it was odd to see it from a member of Congress so flippant.’

RELATED: DOGE subcommittee reveals how Biden autopen may have funneled money to leftist NGOs

— (@)

Casar began the confrontation by referencing the 2019 mass murder where a shooter killed 23 individuals in a Walmart. Casar then told the witnesses: “What goes around comes around.” Turner attempted to ask for clarification, but Casar left the hearing before anyone had the opportunity to follow up with him.

“I wasn’t able to ask Mr. Casar before he ran out the room, but he was looking at the witnesses, talking about a murderer and said, ‘What goes around comes around,'” Turner said during the hearing. “I don’t know what that comment meant. I don’t have the luxury of Capitol Hill police to protect me. In the climate space we get a lot of death threats. We get a lot of hate. … I just don’t know what ‘goes around comes around’ meant.”

Turner later appeared on “Blaze News | The Mandate,” where he recapped the interaction with Christopher Bedford, senior Washington correspondent for Blaze News.

“The eco-left has a long, long history in political violence,” Turner told Bedford. “Political violence directed towards me is kind of not new, but it was odd to see it from a member of Congress so flippant.”

RELATED: Chip Roy reveals to Glenn Beck possible motive behind Elon Musk’s scathing review of the ‘big, beautiful bill’

“He was talking about this horrible mass murder in his city of San Antonio and then saying, ‘What goes around comes around,'” Turner added. “And he’s doing it in the context of ‘you need to stop punishing nonprofits, because otherwise you’re going to be mass murdered next.'”

​Chris bedford, Blaze news the mandate, Blaze news, Congress, House democrats, Greg casar, Political violence, Power the future, Doge, Doge subcommittee, Leftist ngos, Ngos, Politics 

The Trump administration has repeatedly taken actions to ensure that Harvard University doesn’t remain a haven for foreign radicals, and a meddlesome Obama judge has repeatedly thrown up roadblocks.

The Department of Homeland Security, dissatisfied with Harvard’s response to violent and illegal activities by foreign students, announced last month that it would revoke the university’s certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program that allowed the school to enroll international students.

As this would greatly impact the student body — roughly 7,000 or 27% of which are student foreigners — but, more importantly, the school’s bottom line, Harvard sued the administration, claiming that the decision violated the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, granted a temporary restraining order on May 23.

‘Harvard University is no longer a trustworthy steward of international student and exchange visitor programs.’

Aware that there is more than one way to skin a cat, President Donald Trump — whose administration revoked roughly 4,000 student visas in his first 100 days — issued an executive order on Wednesday temporarily suspending the entry into the U.S. of foreign Harvard University students on nonimmigrant F, M, or J visas. The apparent aim of the order was to circumvent the Obama judge’s temporary restraining order.

RELATED: Higher ed’s shield shatters under Trump’s new directive

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The president framed the action as an effort to enhance national security, suggesting that Harvard has demonstrated:

noncompliance with federal law;
an inability to police its foreign students;
an apparent unwillingness to disclose information about foreign students’ known illegal activity; and
“extensive entanglements” with foreign powers, communist China in particular.

‘Admission to the United States to study at an “elite” American university is a privilege, not a right.’

The White House noted further that Harvard “has failed to adequately address violent anti-Semitic incidents on campus, with many of these agitators found to be foreign students.”

Trump concluded that “Harvard University is no longer a trustworthy steward of international student and exchange visitor programs.” He suggested further that the consequences of Harvard’s many failings “jeopardize the integrity of the entire United States student and exchange visitor visa system, compromise national security, and embolden other institutions to similarly disregard the rule of law.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi weighed in, writing, “Admission to the United States to study at an ‘elite’ American university is a privilege, not a right. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the President’s proclamation suspending the entry of new foreign students at Harvard University based on national security concerns.

The school nevertheless amended its lawsuit — now accusing Trump of pursuing “a government vendetta against Harvard” — and asked for swift action from the Obama judge.

Harvard University President Alan Garber then reassured foreigners that Harvard, which has gobbled up billions of American taxpayer dollars, is a “truly global university community.”

RELATED: Harvard dishonesty expert stripped of tenure and fired over alleged data falsification, rampant plagiarism

Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Judge Burroughs once again intervened, blocking the president’s order and adding to the historic number of nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders federal judges have issued since Trump retook office.

Burroughs said in her two-page ruling that a continuation of her May 23 restraining order and a new restraining order against Trump’s executive order were “warranted,” as the Massachusetts-based school would otherwise face “immediate and irreparable injury.”

Following the ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, wrote, “Harvard is refusing to provide the federal government with information about crimes and misconduct committed by its foreign students.”

“This is a threat to national security and we will vigorously defend @POTUS’s proclamation,” added Mizelle.

Blaze News reached out to the White House and to the DHS for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

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A new Texas Parental Rights in Education Bill is heading to the governor’s desk, with its purpose being to protect children in the state of Texas from being sexualized by their schools.

Senate Bill 12 from state Senator Brandon Creighton (R) aims to ban instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from pre-K through 12th grade, as well as prohibit school employees from promoting or requiring DEI efforts.

“Thank you Texas House and Texas Senate for passing this, for getting this through this session, but seriously, we need a bill to prevent teachers from instructing children on sexual identity,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Come and Take It.”

“Where I’m from, they just call that kind of practice ‘pedophilia,’” she adds.

The most controversial part of the final bill is the ban on “school-sponsored sex clubs based on sexual identity,” which includes a club active across the country called the Gay Straight Alliance Club.

“Democrats obviously are very salty, very bitter, about the idea of not being able to sexually indoctrinate young children through sex clubs, which again, is like wow, why in the world would you be bitter that you can’t indoctrinate children into a sex club?” Gonzales says.

“I mean, the mental illness that you must have to think that as an outsider from these children who are coming into learn, that you should just have the right to indoctrinate them into a sex club, is like, hello, some hard drives need to be checked here,” she continues.

An amendment to the bill by Representative Steve Toth (R) also prohibits schools from socially transitioning other parents’ children without parental consent.

“This is really wild, 15 years ago, I never thought that I would be talking about a bill that had to be created by the Texas legislature to protect children from being socially transitioned by their school without telling their parents,” Gonzales says, adding, “Mind blown.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to 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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Eighty-one years have passed since American troops landed at Normandy — an event that changed the course of history and helped bring down the Nazi regime. Yet the 80th anniversary came and went last year with barely a murmur of national recognition.

That silence speaks volumes.

The most enduring lessons come not from strategy but from the men who waded ashore, knowing they might not live through the morning. Why did they do it?

Deep divisions have clouded American political life, but failing to commemorate the most significant amphibious invasion in history marks more than forgetfulness. It reflects a broader unease with our own history and the sacrifices that secured our liberty.

The Trump administration has begun to reverse that drift, reviving public recognition of the past in ways absent during the Biden years. Critics have seized on moments like President Trump’s recent remarks at West Point, where he appeared to downplay Allied contributions. Those contributions must never be forgotten. But the American role in defeating Nazi Germany — and especially in the brutal and heroic assault on Fortress Europe — cannot be overstated.

No day better symbolizes that effort than June 6, 1944.

The beginning of the end

D-Day ranks with Gettysburg, Meuse-Argonne, and Iwo Jima in the American martial canon. Its outcome was anything but assured.

Operation Neptune — the seaborne phase of Operation Overlord — followed months of planning that began in late 1943 after Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin conferred in Tehran. Stalin had pushed hard for a second front to relieve Soviet pressure. Churchill preferred a Mediterranean approach. But the Americans insisted on France. We won the argument.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower became supreme commander. British Gen. Bernard Montgomery was named ground commander. The invasion would take place in late spring.

Three major conditions needed to be met before Neptune could launch.

First, the Germans had to be pinned down in the east. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 had already opened a two-front war that Germany could not sustain. Despite massive Soviet losses, the Red Army had recovered. The Wehrmacht had not. It was arguably Hitler’s greatest blunder.

Second, the Allies needed air superiority. Through strategic bombing and air-to-air combat, the U.S. and Britain weakened the Luftwaffe, hitting factories, airfields, and supply depots. By June 1944, Allied fighters controlled the skies over France.

Third, the Mediterranean had to be secure. Campaigns in North Africa and Italy tied down German forces and freed up Allied naval resources for the invasion of Northern France.

With those conditions met, the Allies selected Normandy as the landing site. Pas-de-Calais was closer to Germany and easier to resupply but far more heavily fortified by the Nazis. Normandy offered a more realistic point of attack — provided the Germans could be fooled.

Deception and preparation

Operation Fortitude aimed to do just that. Allied intelligence fed Germany a steady diet of false information. Fake radio traffic, dummy landing craft, and bogus army units — including a fictitious command under Lt. Gen. George Patton — convinced Hitler that Calais would be the invasion point.

The ruse worked. German commanders remained fixated on Calais long after troops began pouring ashore at Normandy.

Military theorists had long understood how war resists prediction. “Everything in war is simple,” Carl von Clausewitz observed, “but the simplest thing is difficult.” Clausewitz’s “friction” and Helmuth von Moltke’s warning that “no plan of operation extends with any certainty beyond first contact with the main hostile force” applied in full. Amphibious landings, by their nature, magnify every point of failure.

The plan called for landings on five beaches, with three airborne divisions deployed inland. U.S. forces hit Utah and Omaha. British and Canadian forces landed at Gold, Juno, and Sword. Airborne units dropped behind German lines to disrupt reinforcements.

The moon and tide had to align. Weather delayed the launch from June 5 to June 6. That delay caught the Germans off guard. General Erwin Rommel had left France to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Other commanders were away conducting war games.

The landings begin

Allied bombers struck German positions after midnight, followed by naval bombardment. Many shells landed behind the defenses, missing their targets. That failure would prove costly.

British forces advanced steadily, although only the Canadians reached their assigned D-Day objectives. Montgomery had hoped to seize Caen that day. British troops would not take the city for weeks.

The 4th Infantry Division at Utah Beach caught a break, landing in the wrong spot due to strong currents. But the division met light resistance and advanced quickly. The 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled Pointe du Hoc and took heavy losses but completed its mission.

RELATED: The Army called him a handicap. History calls him a hero.

Photo courtesy of Walt Larimore

Omaha was a bloodbath. German defenses remained largely intact, and U.S. troops were cut down on the sand. Casualties reached 2,400 — the highest of any landing. Despite the carnage, immortalized in “Saving Private Ryan,” small units clawed their way inland, broke through the defenses, and held the beachhead.

By nightfall, the Allies had established a tenuous grip on Normandy. U.S. forces pushed toward the port of Cherbourg. British units hammered away at Caen. American troops slogged through the bocage.

On July 25, U.S. forces broke out at Saint-Lo. By August, the Allies had encircled 50,000 German troops in the Falaise pocket. By the end of August, Paris was liberated. Operation Overlord had succeeded.

What D-Day means now

The victory in Normandy depended on strategy, deception, adaptation, and above all, human will. The Allies fought as partners — ideologically divided but functionally united. The Axis powers, despite ideological similarities, failed to coordinate effectively.

Every war plan eventually collapses. Things go wrong. What matters is how commanders and soldiers respond to chaos. D-Day demanded that kind of adaptation under fire. Clausewitz understood this. So did the men who stormed the beaches.

The most enduring lessons come not from strategy but from the men who waded ashore, knowing they might not live through the morning. Why did they do it?

J. Glenn Gray, in “The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle,” offers one answer:

Numberless soldiers have died, more or less willingly, not for country or honor or religious faith or for any other abstract good, but because they realized that by fleeing their posts and rescuing themselves, they would expose their companions to greater danger. Such loyalty to the group is the essence of fighting morale.

These soldiers protected more than one another. They preserved the American republic. They fought against an ideology bent on erasing it.

Success in war depends not only on weapons and tactics but on leadership, courage, honor, and duty. These virtues allow men to overcome fear and endure the chaos of combat. On June 6, 1944, those virtues burned white-hot in a handful of men who refused to retreat.

U.S. Army historian S.L.A. Marshall wrote that “thousands of Americans were spilled onto Omaha Beach. The high ground was won by a handful of men who on that day burned with a flame bright beyond common understanding.”

That flame still burns.

We’ve seen it elsewhere throughout our history — at the Chosin Reservoir, in Hue, in Fallujah, and in Helmand Province. America continues to produce men willing to face death to protect others. We should thank God for that fact — and pray we remain a nation worthy of such sacrifice.

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Rumors have swirled for weeks about comedian and podcasting giant Joe Rogan regularly attending church in an apparent turn to Christianity.

After theologist Wesley Huff appeared on Rogan’s podcast in January, Huff revealed in May that Rogan had been communicating with him about faith while attending church as a “consistent thing.”

Huff called Rogan a very inquisitive individual and said they had been having conversations about scripture. At the same time, however, Rogan had not spoken about it publicly until now.

‘They’re all just trying to be better people …’

During episode 2333 of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan finally revealed that he has been going to church, but explained his recent attendance in a comical manner alongside top-billing comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normand, and Ari Shaffir.

First Normand asked if Rogan had been practicing sobriety, an interesting question at more than two hours into a podcast that typically has the group drinking heavily throughout.

Rogan revealed it had been three months without alcohol, and while the group hilariously talked about the possibility of getting gout, Normand asked if Rogan has been going to church, as well, since it had been rumored online.

“Wait, are you going to church, too, or is that bulls**t?” Normand inquired.

“I have been to church,” Rogan replied. “Why? Have you ever been to church before?” he asked back.

“I’ve been,” Normand revealed.

RELATED: The REAL REASON Joe Rogan shifted toward Christ

Rogan made sure to put a positive spin on his experience despite Normand’s shock at the sober shift.

“It’s actually very nice; they’re all just trying to be better people,” Rogan continued. “It’s a good vibe.”

Gillis, a Philadelphia native, asked Rogan about possibly attending a Catholic church, explaining he had recently attended St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, New York, and enjoyed the experience.

“I tried that; I did that,” Rogan replied. It was unclear when and to what extent Rogan attended a Catholic Mass.

Normand, aggressively inquisitive, then asked, “If it’s not Catholic, which one is it?

“It’s just a Christian church,” Rogan stated.

RELATED: Nate Silver: Young men’s mental stability helps put them out of Democrats’ reach

Photo by Louis Grasse/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Shaffir, who is Jewish, implied that Rogan has been attending a “non-denominational Christian church,” which garnered no appeal from the host.

The group then joked that Rogan was actually attending the church of televangelist Joel Osteen and had gone broke through donations.

“Yeah, I’m just giving all my money to Osteen,” Rogan laughed, before moving on to an article about gout.

“Rogan’s confirmation that he is attending church is a testament to the witness of faithful Christians who have appeared on his show over the years,” said Chris Enloe, faith editor at Blaze News. “His openness toward Christianity and church is evidence of the humility he has demonstrated in those conversations over the years.”

Enloe added that he hopes Christians will pray for Rogan and that the comedian will continue in some form or another to share his journey with his audience.

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The state of California has spent a whopping $7 billion on a high-speed railway project that was greenlit in 2008. Today — a decade and a half later — not one single track has been laid. Now the Department of Transportation has put California on notice, threatening to pull the plug on $4 billion in federal funding for the project if the state doesn’t address missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and unrealistic ridership projections by mid-July.

On Wednesday, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted the following to X:

— (@)

“How did the state keep this charade up for 15 years?” asks “Blaze News: The Mandate’s” Jill Savage.

Blaze Media editor in chief and former California resident Matthew Peterson says this isn’t surprising in the least. “California is exactly like the federal government in terms of the corruption and the wasting of money in broad daylight,” he says. Between the state’s stringent laws on environmental protection, labor, housing, and business operations and wealthy entities with the means to “prevent growth and development at all costs,” “you can’t build anything in California.”

“So the idea … that you could build a high-speed rail given the regulations California already had … was absolutely absurd without fundamentally changing the law,” says Peterson. However, “what everyone also knew is that this [project] would employ a lot of people and pay off a lot of people for a long period of time,” making it a classic “boondoggle.”

“From the beginning, this was destined to fail,” he says, calling Duffy’s ultimatum “music to my ears” after four years of Pete Buttigieg, who knew “basically zero” about transportation.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), however, is digging his heels in, publicly maintaining that California’s high-speed rail project is progressing, often highlighting milestones like completed environmental reviews and land acquisition as proof.

Peterson scoffs at Newsom’s remarks. “If you take any message from this,” let it be: “As California goes, so goes the nation.”

“Everyone with any common sense knew this was ridiculous from the beginning; it was all corruption in plain sight … just sitting there daring for anyone to common-sense it to death, and that never happened. It still kept on going forward,” he says. “That is exactly where we’re at as a nation, and we’re going to need a lot more from Sean Duffy and others to say, ‘To hell with this,’ and put a stop to it.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above above.

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March 26, 2024. It’s a pitch black, wintry night in Baltimore. Frigid winds batter the maintenance workers patching potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a 1.6-mile lifeline high above the icy Patapsco River.

Then: disaster.

Since the Panama Canal expansion in 2016, vessels like the Dali haul up to 24,000 TEUs — making them massive floating cities older bridges weren’t built to endure.

The Dali, a 984-foot ship out of Singapore loaded with 4,700 containers, loses power leaving the Port of Baltimore.

No propulsion, no steering — just a 95,000-ton steel giant drifting. Minutes after a desperate mayday call at 1:27 a.m., it crashes into a pier at 6.5 knots.

The bridge collapses instantly. Built in 1977, it simply wasn’t designed to withstand impact from a ship that size.

Eight workers fall into the icy river; only two survive. Fifty thousand tons of debris now block Baltimore’s port, eventually causing the regional economy a $1 billion loss.

RELATED: Wife of Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse victim remembers father of three as always ‘fighting for us’

Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

One year later, reconstruction of the bridge is still underway and not expected to be completed until 2028 — at a price of $2 billion.

Is the Golden Gate next?

Now imagine the same thing happening to any one of dozens of other bridges across the country. According to a recent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the danger is all too real.

The NTSB report calls for 68 bridges across 19 states to undergo urgent “vulnerability assessments” to determine if they can withstand a ship strike.

These bridges — including California’s Golden Gate Bridge, New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, and Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge — have two things in common: They all span major shipping lanes and were all built before 1991, predating the modern safety standards meant to address growing ship sizes.

The NTSB has given the bridge owners — an assortment of 30 different state departments of transportation, port authorities, and other entities — 30 days to provide updated evaluations of these structures.

Big ships, big problems

A bridge’s vulnerability stems from its age, design, and exposure to ship traffic. The Key Bridge, completed in 1977, handled smaller vessels in the 1980s — like one that grazed it in 1980 with minimal damage.

Today’s ships, however, are far larger. In the 1970s, they carried 800 containers. Since the Panama Canal expansion in 2016, vessels like the Dali haul up to 24,000 TEUs — making them massive floating cities older bridges weren’t built to endure. The NTSB found the Maryland Transportation Authority never adjusted its risk calculations for these modern giants.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has required updated assessments since 1991, following the NTSB’s investigation of the 1980 collapse of Florida’s Sunshine Skyway, which killed 35. Maryland helped craft those rules but didn’t apply them to Key Bridge.

A vulnerability assessment uses a mathematical model, factoring in ship size, speed, traffic patterns, and bridge strength to produce a risk score. If it exceeds AASHTO’s limit, solutions like pier reinforcements or tugboat escorts can lower the danger.

New bridges have followed this federal mandate since 1994, but many older ones remain untested — until now.

Not urgent … until it is

The NTSB doesn’t claim these 68 will fail tomorrow. The Golden Gate’s owners hired consultants in 2025, and New York’s Department of Transportation notes the East River rarely sees Dali-sized ships.

Still, the risk persists. Since 2021, over 300 ships lost propulsion in U.S. waters, often near bridges. The Key Bridge collapse serves as a stark warning, with six lives lost and massive economic and societal disruption that persists to this day.

Retrofitting bridges with pier reinforcements or tugboat escorts could cost millions per structure. The new Key Bridge carries a price tag of $1.7 to $1.9 billion, largely federally funded, with completion set for 2028. If several of the 68 bridges fail, losses could climb into the billions, disrupting ports like Long Beach or Miami and hammering national trade.

RELATED: Why Johnny can’t build

nojustice/Getty Images

Maryland’s MDTA argues the Dali’s owners bear responsibility, citing negligence. It settled with the Justice Department for $102 million in October 2024 after evidence of poor maintenance — faulty transformers and disabled backups.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy countered Maryland’s stance, noting that the state had decades to realize how vulnerable the bridge was to a ship strike.

“Not only did MDTA fail to conduct the vulnerability assessment on the Key Bridge, they did not provide, nor were they able to provide, NTSB the data needed to conduct the assessment,” Homendy said. “We asked for that data, they didn’t have it. We had to develop that data ourselves.”

For commuters, crossing one of these 68 — like the Verrazzano-Narrows or Sunshine Skyway — means staying alert. Near-term changes might include stricter tugboat requirements or adjusted shipping lanes.

No more ‘Green New Scam’

One promising sign is U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s recent announcement of nearly $4.9 billion in available funding from the Federal Highway Administration for major bridge projects (the Bridge Investment Program) and up to $500 million for repairing or replacing bridges in rural areas (the Competitive Highway Bridge Program).

According to Duffy, the removal of Biden-era environmental restrictions will make such spending far more effective than in the past:

The previous administration handcuffed critical infrastructure funding requirements to woke DEI and Green New Scam initiatives that diverted resources from the Department’s core mission. Under the Trump administration, America is building again.

Like all man-made structures, bridges testify both to our ingenuity — and to our all-too-human frailty. The NTSB’s findings are a sobering reminder that we must never ignore the latter.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio slapped four judges on the International Criminal Court with sanctions on Thursday over their efforts “to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel.”

The antagonistic efforts on the parts of the judges — Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia — are particularly provocative since the court has no jurisdiction over either country, as neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the court or party to the Rome Statute, which founded the court in 2002.

“The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,” Rubio said in a statement. “This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.”

The sanctions are in accordance with President Donald Trump’s February executive order titled “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” in which he indicated the U.S. will “impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions.”

In the order, Trump noted that the ICC has engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting America and Israel; has unlawfully asserted jurisdiction over and launched probes concerning American personnel; and has “abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.”

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the two Israelis in November, accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes — including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, and persecution — allegedly committed between Oct. 8, 2023, and May 20, 2024.

RELATED: Liberals freaked out over Vance’s Munich speech. Just wait till they read the State Department’s Substack.

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Numerous Western officials said that they would implement the warrants, including then-EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

Trump said that the ICC’s endeavor to have officials from non-member nations arrested “set a dangerous precedent,” in part by threatening to infringe on the sovereignty of the U.S. and Israel and undermining both nations’ national security and foreign policy work.

‘The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty.’

The State Department indicated in its announcement of the sanctions against the four ICC judges that the agency does “not take this step lightly” and that it “reflects the seriousness of the threat we face from the ICC’s politicization and abuse of power.”

The ICC condemned the actions, claiming they constitute “a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”

“Targeting those working for accountability does nothing to help civilians trapped in conflict. It only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity,” continued the ICC. “These sanctions are not only directed at designated individuals, they also target all those who support the Court, including nationals and corporate entities of States Parties.”

Blaze News reached out to the State Department for comment on the ICC’s characterization of the sanctions but did not immediately receive a reply.

RELATED: Rubio wages war on foreign free-speech tyrants with visa ban

Photo by JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP via Getty Images

As a result of the Trump administration’s sanctions, the judges’ property and interests in property in the U.S. or in the control of American persons will be blocked and reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Similarly, any entities directly or indirectly owned by the judges will also be blocked.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump and Rubio, stating, “You have justly stood up for the right of Israel, the United States, and all democracies to defend themselves against savage terror.”

“The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” said Rubio. “I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel.”

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Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed ways forward for the country under the Trump administration and beyond at the American Compass New World Gala on June 3.

Although the two Republicans,
who appear to be contenders in the 2028 presidential election, hit different beats, they were largely singing the same tune about prioritizing Americans, strengthening the country, and abandoning the failed globalist thinking that has undermined security, prosperity, and dignity in the United Sates.

Their outlooks on the future provided some indication of the staying power of President Donald Trump’s vision as well as how it might evolve in the years to come.

Returning to reality

Rubio kicked off
his speech by countering the progressive notion that human nature changes over time, stressing that “technologies change, the clothes we wear change, even languages change, governments change — a lot of things change, but the one thing that is unchanged is human nature.”

Rubio suggested that this static nature accounts for why history often repeats itself and helps explain humans’ unshakable “desire to belong,” which naturally scales up to nationalism, despite nationhood being a relatively “new concept” in the grand scheme of things.

“If you put humans anywhere — a handful of people anywhere — one of the first things they start doing is trying to create things that they can join or be a part of,” said Rubio. “The advent of the nation-state is a normal evolution of human behavior because people think it’s important to belong to something, and being part of a nation is important. And I think that’s really true, obviously, increasingly in how geopolitical decisions are made.”

‘We’ve undermined our position in the world.’

Despite man’s immutable desire to belong and the naturalness of this desire’s expression in nationalism, Rubio suggested that many in the West nevertheless entertained the fantasy that the dissolution of the Soviet Union meant the inevitable and imminent universalization of liberal democracy — that “the entire world is going to become just like us”; that “nationhood no longer mattered when it came to economics”; “that right now the world would no longer have borders”; and that it didn’t matter where things were made.

Rubio noted that this idealistic outlook “became part of Republican orthodoxy for a long time,” which accounts for why the GOP long proved indifferent to the outsourcing of labor and the offshoring of productive capacity.

RELATED: Liberals freaked out over Vance’s Munich speech. Just wait till they read the State Department’s Substack.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The decades-long flirtation with liberal globalism “robbed a nation of its industrial capacity, of its ability to make things,” thereby hurting the economy, hurting the country, robbing people of jobs, and eating away at the social fabric of the nation, suggested Rubio.

“What you find is because of all of those years of neglect, because of the loss of industrial capacity, we didn’t just undermine our society, we didn’t just undermine our domestic economy — we’ve undermined our position in the world,” said the secretary of state, whose department
recently signaled an interest in taking up the mantle of Western civilization.

‘You can never be secure as a nation unless you’re able to feed your people.’

Now that America and the rest of the world are facing a “crunch,” the days of illusion are over, and geopolitics are adjusting accordingly.

Rubio indicated that the Trump administration is undertaking a reorientation of domestic and foreign approaches “to take into account for the fact that you can never be secure as a nation unless you’re able to feed your people and unless you’re able to make the things that your economy needs in order to function and ultimately to defend yourself.”

Accordingly, Rubio suggested that the country moving forward needs to:

make decisions with the nation-state in mind and engage the world “in a way that prioritizes our national interest above all else”;
guarantee America’s access to the requisite “raw material and industrial capacity that is at the core both of the decisions that we’re making and the areas that we’re prioritizing”; and
rectify trade imbalances with fully developed countries.

While this direction is possibly good news for the American people, it bodes poorly for stubborn
champions of the globalist dream.

RELATED: ‘Woke right’ smear weaponized by liberal interlopers against MAGA conservatives, populists — and Arby’s?

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie, for instance,
recently complained about the MAGA vision for the future.

The MAGA movement is waging war on the nation’s economic future, rejecting two generations of integration and interdependency with the rest of the world in favor of American autarky, of effectively closing our borders to goods and people from around the world so that the United States might make itself into an impenetrable fortress — a garrison state with the power to dictate the terms of the global order, especially in its own hemisphere. In this new world, Americans will abandon service-sector work in favor of manufacturing and heavy industry.

After presenting the possibility of a powerful, indomitable, and reindustrialized America as a terrifying prospect, Bouie stumbled upon the truth of the project under way, stating, “The aim, whether stated explicitly or not, is to erase the future as Americans have understood it and as they might have anticipated it.”

Kicking bad habits

Oren Cass, founder of American Compass,
pressed Vance about the project of “reshoring and reindustrialization” that the Trump administration is pursuing.

Vance noted that at its core, the project is about addressing “stagnating living standards” affecting normal Americans “who just want to start a family, work in a decent job, earn a
livable salary, and have dignified work.”

‘The complete disconnect between their views on foreign policy and economic policy made me realize, again, that we’re governed by people who aren’t up to the job.’

The vice president suggested that the offshoring of industry, an under-investment in technology, heavy industrial regulation, and high energy costs are among the factors that have made it difficult for “normal people who work hard and play by the rules to have a good life.”

He also identified a “misalignment between the … normal Americans and the talking heads in Washington” and an unworkable separation of the making of things from the innovating of things — a issue he raised in his March speech at the American Dynamism Summit — as problems warranting remedy.

RELATED: Vance: Trump’s growth plan ditches cheap labor for real jobs that will fuel American greatness

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

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previously noted that in his American Dynamism speech, Vance suggested that the Trump administration plans to help innovators wean off cheap foreign labor and begin on-shoring industry, partly by incentivizing manufacturing and investment inside the United States with tax cuts and other policy instruments; by erecting tariff walls around critical industries; by reducing regulations and the cost of energy; and also by enforcing immigration law and securing the border to drain the pool of cheap illegal alien labor.

In his conversation with Cass on Tuesday, Vance reiterated that America needs to effectively get innovators and labor back on the same page and in the same country and to ensure that educational institutions are equipped to supply them with talent.

Vance also criticized “pro-globalization” elements of the leadership class who are indifferent to “whether a given part of the supply chain existed here, or China, or Russia or somewhere else” yet frequently champion foreign entanglements fought with outsourced munitions and technologies.

“The complete disconnect between their views on foreign policy and economic policy made me realize, again, that we’re governed by people who aren’t up to the job,” Vance told Cass, “until four months ago when the American people actually gave the country a government it deserved. And obviously we’re in the very early days, but I think that we’ve done more in four months to solve these problems. But this is not a five- or a 10-year project. This is a 20-year project to actually get America back to common-sense economic policy.”

When
asked by NBC News’ Kristen Welker last month whether he figured the MAGA movement could survive without him as its leader, President Donald Trump said, “Yes, I do. … I think it’s so strong. And I think we have tremendous people. I think we have a tremendous group of people. We talked about a number of them. You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic.”

Trump added that Vance is “a fantastic, brilliant guy” and “Marco is great.”

A straw poll
conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February reportedly found that 61% of the over 1,000 attendees said they would support Vance as the future GOP standard-bearer.

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​Maga, Future, Jd vance, Vance, Marco rubio, Conservatism, Populism, Futurism, Labor, Working, Make america great again, Donald trump, Republican, President, State department, Secretary of state, American compass, Politics 

After the House narrowly passed President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — in true Washington fashion, it’s already been reduced to an acronym: BBB — the usual suspects sounded the alarm. Libertarians and deficit hawks recoiled. Elon Musk, the former DOGE chief, called it a “disgusting abomination.” He warned it would pile another $2.4 trillion onto the national debt over the next decade. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) slammed it as hypocritical, saying Republicans can’t keep pushing tax cuts without real spending cuts to match.

I sympathized. I flinched at the trillion-dollar price tag too. My immediate thought: “This is what Democrats and GOP sellouts do — not fiscal conservatives.”

The BBB is the first major Republican bill in decades that doesn’t bend to Democratic narratives. It doesn’t apologize for putting American citizens first.

Then Stephen Miller showed up.

While critics accused the bill of being just another bloated omnibus, Miller pushed back. He took to X to argue that the BBB isn’t some lobbyist-driven monstrosity. It’s a focused, unapologetic conservative package: secure the border, overhaul welfare, and revive the economic growth unleashed by the 2017 tax cuts. For the first time in a long time, I decided to hear the argument out.

Border security for real this time

I didn’t need much convincing on border security. But Miller pointed out something the corporate left-wing media barely mentioned: The BBB fully funds the border wall — both physical infrastructure and new tech. Republicans have promised that since 2016. Nearly a decade later, they finally have a bill that delivers.

— (@)

This isn’t more messaging fluff. The bill puts $45 billion toward border security — the largest commitment in U.S. history. It increases Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity by 800% over the previous fiscal year, funding facilities to detain more than 100,000 people per day. It also includes $8 billion to hire 10,000 new ICE officers and staff.

If the bill ended there, it would be a no-brainer. But I still had concerns — starting with the deficit.

Does it add $2.4 trillion to the deficit?

We can’t call ourselves fiscal conservatives while borrowing like Democrats. Miller knows that, and he didn’t dodge the question.

The bill, he argued, enacts the most sweeping welfare reform in U.S. history. It includes over $2 trillion in net spending cuts. Programs like Medicaid and food stamps would be tied to citizenship and work requirements — policies conservatives have supported for years but rarely fought for seriously in Congress.

And then there’s the tax side.

The BBB extends the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — one of the clearest drivers of economic growth during Trump’s first term. That’s what triggered the $2.4 trillion deficit estimate, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But here’s the twist: The CBO’s figure isn’t based on new spending. It’s based on continuing tax relief. Miller’s argument is straightforward — there’s a world of difference between scoring a bill that way and actually running up the national credit card.

RELATED: Trump’s $9.3B rescission push faces a GOP gut check

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Attributing the deficit to tax cuts is like blaming hydrogen peroxide for the wound it’s meant to treat. The real cause of the deficit isn’t lower taxes. It’s decades of spending on bloated welfare, bureaucratic waste, and corporate handouts that the DOGE identified — exactly the kind of garbage the BBB cuts.

Even ABC News, buried in the middle of a critical write-up, admitted that the bill would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion and reduce spending by $1.2 trillion. If that’s not a conservative win, what is?

Letting the 2017 tax cuts expire over CBO scoring fears would amount to a massive tax hike on the working and middle classes. Extending them strengthens the economy, boosts small businesses, and keeps the government from choking growth just to massage a deficit number.

Why not pass these reforms separately?

Border security — check. Welfare reform — check. Pro-growth tax cuts — check. So why cram it all into one bill? Why not pass each measure individually, on its own merits?

Miller addressed that too. In a perfect world, each item would pass as a clean bill. But in the real world, every one of these provisions would require 60 votes in the Senate — including Chuck Schumer’s. That’s not happening.

— (@)

The reconciliation process, however, only requires a simple majority. It’s the only legislative path available. For once, Republicans are using the rules the way Democrats do: to win.

I didn’t like it at first. It felt like a compromise. But now I see it as the only way to do what we’ve been saying we want to do for years.

Miller won me over

The BBB is the first major Republican bill in decades that doesn’t bend to Democratic narratives. It doesn’t water down core principles. It doesn’t apologize for putting American citizens first.

And unlike Louisiana Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s endless parade of “small ball” continuing resolutions, the BBB actually moves the ball down the field. It lays out a coherent conservative agenda — and the administration is determined to get it passed.

— (@)

I’m still a fiscal hawk. I still want smaller bills, much less spending, and a federal budget that doesn’t look like a summertime pig roast. But I also want results. And this might be the only chance we have to deliver the policy victories we’ve been promised for a generation.

Stephen Miller changed my mind. I hope other conservatives will give him a fair hearing too.

​Opinion & analysis, Stephen miller, Donald trump, Elon musk, Rand paul, Big beautiful bill, Bbb, Congress, Budget deal, Budget cuts, Immigration and customs enforcement, Illegal immigration, Republicans, Border wall, Funding, Tax cuts, Tax cuts and jobs act, Welfare reform, Chuck schumer, Continuing resolution, Conservatives, Priorities, Promises 

Some things just go together: President Trump and Diet Coke. Tom Cruise and death-defying stunts. Target and Pride Month.

Since launching its first campaign a decade ago, the big-box retailer has been one of the most eager participants in the annual weeks-long orgy of LGBTQ “representation,” which finds free-spending, virtue-signaling brands sponsoring events, releasing collections of Pride-themed products, and festooning their logos with rainbows.

Many big corporate sponsors have either pulled out entirely, scaled back, or asked that their donations not be publicly disclosed.

Perhaps no company has gained more publicity from the summer same-sex sale-a-bration than Target. It’s also attracted plenty of backlash, most notably a
highly publicized consumer boycott two years ago.

But nothing could have prepared one Target shopper for what she encountered upon entering the store last week.

“Tuck-friendly” women’s bathing suits? “Queer”-affirming children’s apparel?

That’s so 2023.

This year Target has gone viral for indulging in a decidedly more traditional (and, ironically, more “inclusive”) display of pride:
good, old-fashioned American patriotism.

Putting ‘Pride’ aside

“Walking into Target – instead of a giant “PRIDE” display as in the past, they have a USA section!! This is winning!”
posted Wisconsin mother of four Katie Yonke on X Tuesday, emphasizing her enthusiasm with three American flag emojis.

While Yonke’s post is anecdotal at best, it does reflect the company’s newly low-key approach to Pride Month.

As one TikTok user
pointed out, Target’s latest Pride collection now largely consists of a series of collectible bird figurines.

Social media silence

Other corporate behemoths are also downplaying their Pride involvement.

For evidence of this, one need look no farther than X. In addition to
Target, Anheuser-Busch, IBM, XBox, Disney, Starbucks, Nike, Bank of America, Converse, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty are among the brands that have not acknowledged Pride Month with changes to their profiles.

Perhaps even more telling is Google’s silence on the matter. While recent regional
“Google Doodles” have commemorated the 2025 Korean presidential election and Italy’s Republic Day, nary a “love is love” sign is to be found on the search giant’s homepage.

RELATED: ‘Sesame Street’ targets children for Pride Month … again: ‘This should not be promoted to kids’

Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

Google has also
removed Pride Month and several other “holidays” from the Google Calendar, calling the proliferation and maintenance of these moments of remembrance “unsustainable” for the Calendar team.

Apple is another major Pride booster avoiding the spotlight this year. Its
collection consists only of an Apple Watch band and some accompanying wallpapers.

Donations on the down-low

Sponsorship of Pride events in cities like San Francisco, Columbus, and St. Louis has also taken a hit. Many
big corporate sponsors have either pulled out entirely, scaled back, or asked that their donations not be publicly disclosed.

New York City Pride, the largest Pride event in the nation, has usually depended on a handful of “platinum” donors — high-profile brands like Garnier, Mastercard, Skyy Vodka, and Target who give at least $175,000 to event organizer Heritage of Pride. This year, all but one have decreased their commitments.

Donors such as Nissan, PepisCo, Comcast, and Diageo have also
stepped away from Pride celebrations.

Beating around the Busch

Anheuser-Busch has backed out of events in Columbus and San Francisco, as well as its hometown of St. Louis.

The brewer’s cold feet come as no surprise, considering the fallout from its
disastrous Bud Light marketing campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April 2023. The ensuing conservative boycott was devastating to the company; clearly, other companies paid close attention.

Re-engineered allyship

Pride goeth before a fall. Even those who reject such wisdom as outdated could have seen this coming, thanks to consulting firm Gravity Research’s report from April.

The
key takeaway from the report’s survey of corporate leaders is that brands are increasingly publicity-shy when it comes to Pride Month. Rather than risk the backlash of abandoning it altogether, may have chosen to “re-engineer” their approach: “As polarization deepens, brands are favoring lower-profile, internally focused strategies that minimize public exposure while signaling commitment to employees.”

The report goes on to reveal some surprising statistics: “39% of companies plan to decrease overall engagement, and 41% report no change compared to previous years. No executive said they plan to increase Pride efforts overall.

Related: Rainbow rebellion: How Christians can take back what Pride Month stole

Martin Wahlborg/iStock/Getty Images Plus

The report also
found that such companies were responding to pressure from three major groups: the Trump administration, conservative policymakers, and activists.

Gravity Research President Luke Hartig
told CNN, “It’s clear that the administration and their supporters are driving the change. Companies are under increasing pressure not to engage and speak out on issues.”

Power of the pocketbook

In short, the highly effective boycotts levied against Anheuser-Busch and Target two years ago were just the beginning of more sweeping change, catalyzed by Trump 2.0’s crusade against DEI policies.

Companies previously so quick to engage in trendy social causes are discovering that their activism comes with a price; controversy is far less appealing when it starts to affect the bottom line. They will no doubt pivot, as they always do, and live to sell another day.

Meanwhile, consumers on all sides have been reminded of their own immense power. No matter how much money is thrown at promoting a certain worldview, it’s their dollars that get the final say.

​Pride month, Google, Target, Apple, Pride, Trump administration, Go woke go broke, … goeth before a fall, Culture