Category: blaze media

MAGA world is torn asunder! At least that’s what a lot of D.C. reporters seem to think. The truth is less dramatic. Anger and confusion over recent moves by the administration are real, but also a natural part of governance — and the reality of political success. Of course, that doesn’t mean the players inside the administration are all safe in their jobs.

The White House is currently engaged in heated back-and-forths on two major fronts: the Epstein files and lethal aid to Ukraine and the ongoing U.S. role in that conflict. The administration has set clear paths on both: The Jeffrey Epstein investigation is officially closed, and weapons will continue flowing to Ukraine.

This moment won’t define the administration. The latest drama will look like a sideshow soon enough.

People are angry, and the president is irritated. Major White House players might fall in the aftermath.

First, neither issue is a threat to the MAGA coalition, any more than an aborted freeze on ICE agricultural raids, or strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, or even Elon Musk’s angry departure threatened the president’s authority or popularity with his base. There will always be back-and-forths inside a dynamic coalition with players who are old-time believers and players who secretly long for less confrontational politics.

The first Trump administration was beset on all sides and from within. The second administration is far more unified, and Democrats and their allies in government and American intel agencies are on the back foot — and have significantly less credibility with Republicans than the first time around.

A seriously weakened opposition party naturally creates more opportunities for infighting, and a political movement largely governed by one man is going to clash from time to time with those outside (and inside) players with strong thoughts or stakes in any field.

Sometimes explosions of internet outrage can have an impact, though, as was the case during the brief pause on agricultural immigration raids. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents lacked the resources to crack down broadly before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act put more than $46 billion toward deportation resources, a public shift in policy sat terribly with many of the White House’s faithful supporters. The ensuing reaction caused a pullback.

During a July 3 rally in Des Moines, Iowa, President Donald Trump called out Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins by name as the person who “brought this whole situation up,” while promising to make sure farmers and hotel owners were included in the enforcement process.

Speaking in Washington on Monday, Rollins clarified: “There will be no amnesty.” She added: “The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation.”

BlazeTV host and columnist Auron MacIntyre was one of several to get the message loud and clear: “Always chimp,” he wrote — a reference to “chimping out” when bad policies are floated.

Strong negative reactions won’t always work, though. The president was clearly irritated when New York Post reporter Steven Nelson asked about the Epstein files during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting but allowed Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer anyway. There’s nothing there, she said, and nothing more coming — but that doesn’t mean her position is secure.

Maybe there is nothing else there beyond “this creep” and an imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell. Then again, maybe releasing all that’s known would threaten foreign or domestic intelligence operations around Epstein’s infamous island.

Either way, Bondi’s been under concerted attack for mishandling the media and releases around the Epstein files for months. Prominent conservative voices, including Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, clearly don’t think she’s up to the job. Notably, the president didn’t name her in a Truth Social post defending FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino.

Lastly, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has drifted in and out of Trump’s inner circle — and trouble. Reports suggest he was sidelined during key phases of the Iran strike. On Friday, President Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he hadn’t approved the pause in aid shipments. Then, during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he didn’t know who gave the order to halt the shipments. That kind of public distance from the president doesn’t speak well for Hegseth’s standing.

Still, this moment won’t define the administration. We’re only seven months into a four-year term. The White House remains focused on major priorities: finishing the border wall, revitalizing and reshoring the economy, ramping up immigration enforcement, renegotiating trade, and pursuing global peace. The latest drama will look like a sideshow soon enough.

Plenty of reasons exist to feel energized in Washington right now. The rumored collapse of MAGA isn’t one of them.

Blaze News: FBI, DOJ Epstein memo sparks right-wing outrage: ‘Nobody is believing this’

Blaze News contributor Mike Howell: The Epstein memo is a joke — and the joke’s on us

Blaze News, July 1: Is the FBI salvageable? Here’s what bureau insiders have to say

Blaze News: DeSantis has some serious political advice for Elon Musk to ensure a ‘monumental impact’

Blaze News: Border Patrol chief has defiant message for Mayor Karen Bass after she claims to have stopped ICE raid in Los Angeles

Blaze News: 25 years after a Central American hurricane, Noem’s DHS to end associated immigration Temporary Protected Status

Blaze News: Drug middlemen launch attacks against MAGA allies pushing for health care reforms

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​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The vehicle convoy made up of Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, and the California National Guard was immense as it made its way toward MacArthur Park to conduct an immigration sweep of the crime-ridden area.

The joint effort between the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense was in conjunction with other enforcement operations happening in Los Angeles County on Monday amid Democratic leaders calling for the raids to end and locals becoming increasingly unhinged.

Bystanders on the street started to heckle and jeer at the convoy arriving at MacArthur Park. Once agents exited vehicles and formed a perimeter, people started to gather to voice their anger at the operation. With the high-profile operations and anti-DHS riots, the normal street vendors were not at the park. No arrests were made, but the operation was also intended to show that the federal government has the ability to deploy a large number of assets in the crowded city. Illegal immigrants in the region were arrested in other operations that occurred on Monday.

RELATED: Los Angeles anti-ICE protesters harass DHS agents, military members on Independence Day

Julio Rosas/Blaze Media

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) arrived at the scene and demanded to speak to the person in charge of the operation. She was given a cell phone to speak with El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino and had a brief conversation. Bass asked when the task force would leave, to which Bovino replied that agents would leave once their mission was over.

The small crowd of protesters were just as mad at Bass as they were at the federal agents because they view Bass as collaborating with the Trump administration by allowing the police department to conduct crowd control during riots and protests. Once Bass left, the crowd turned their attention back to the agents. At least one tire on a federal vehicle was slashed before the convoy left.

— (@)

“I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, ’cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, any time we want in Los Angeles,” Bovino told Fox News’ Bill Melugin after the phone call. “We’re going to be here until that mission’s accomplished.”

Violent threats against agents in Los Angeles and around the country have increased as Democrats continue to disparage DHS assets as “kidnappers.” Not only were Border Patrol agents shot at in the border town of McAllen, Texas, but Bovino revealed that four people were arrested in Van Nuys after they allegedly used improvised spikes in an attempt to disable Border Patrol vehicles.

— (@)

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​Politics 

When auto dealers began writing impassioned letters to Congress demanding to keep electric vehicle tax credits alive, it was a clear sign the honeymoon phase of EV policy was over.

Behind the public messaging of “going green” and “building the future,” EV dealers and manufacturers are panicking now that President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has ended the incentives propping up weak consumer demand.

Let’s not sugarcoat this. EV incentives overwhelmingly benefit upper-middle-class and wealthy Americans.

It turns out the incentives did less to protect the environment than to protect an industry shift that never had strong grassroots support in the first place.

CarMax, Carvana, and several dealer groups had urged Congress to preserve the subsidies underwriting their investments in EV sales and service. Now that the “big, beautiful bill” is set to eliminate these subsidies on September 30, these groups are scrambling.

Seeing green

But let’s be honest — this hasn’t been about saving the environment for a long time, if it ever was. It’s about protecting profit margins and preserving political capital after years of lobbying silence.

These same companies and their lobbying arms didn’t push back when mandates were being written into law. Now that the tide has turned, they want taxpayers to continue footing the bill for what is, at its core, a luxury purchase for high-income households with easy access to charging infrastructure. For most Americans, this is out of their price range, and charging infrastructure isn’t available.

No more cushion

Congressional Republicans, backed by growing public skepticism of EV mandates, removed the taxpayer-funded cushion that made EVs appear more affordable than they actually are.

The Senate version of the “big, beautiful bill” ends EV tax credits by September 30, 2025 — three months earlier than the House version. The credits were initially set to expire in 2032.

Here’s what’s going away:

New EVs (under $80,000): up to $7,500 in tax credits;Used EVs (under $25,000): up to $4,000 in tax credits.

Too little, too late

Dealers and manufacturers had years to challenge the growing federal mandates that funneled billions into EV production and infrastructure. They didn’t. Why? Because the gravy train was still running.

Billions in government contracts, purchase incentives, and sweetheart regulatory deals made it too lucrative to speak out. Now, with the Trump administration’s sharp reversal of course, the industry wants the benefits to stay — even if the rules are changing.

Sorry, but this is the cost of doing business. You don’t get to opt out of pushback now that the political winds have shifted. If customers want EVs, they’ll buy them.

That’s how the free market works. What we’re seeing now is an attempt to artificially prop up demand with taxpayer dollars, even as surveys show most Americans still prefer internal combustion or hybrid vehicles, citing price, range anxiety, and lack of infrastructure as major concerns.

Judicial speed bump

In a twist that highlights the tangled relationship between politics and policy, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from halting EV infrastructure funds for 14 states.

These funds, stemming from former President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, were designed to eliminate “range anxiety” by building a nationwide EV charging network. The result was $5 billion spent and seven EV chargers that are live today. A massive waste of your tax dollars.

RELATED: Fudged figures wildly exaggerate EV efficiency

Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

U.S. District Judge Tana Lin ruled that withholding these funds exceeded federal authority. Because the U.S. attorney general’s office failed to appeal the order, states like California, New York, and Colorado will see their EV charging infrastructure plans reinstated.

Still, this judicial intervention doesn’t fundamentally shift the larger momentum. Trump’s Department of Transportation has made it clear: The Biden-Buttigieg National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program was a failure, and it’s being removed. The outcome of this legal battle could delay the administration’s intent to unwind EV mandates and boondoggles. But in the end, the EV mandate and incentives will disappear.

Return to sender

Even the U.S. Postal Service is caught in the EV policy crossfire, as the new legislation has ended its $9.6 billion program to electrify its fleet. A substantial part of this budget went to Ford and Oshkosh Defense to supply the USPS with all-electric Next Generation Delivery Vehicles.

Why does this matter? Because it shows just how embedded (and expensive) this EV experiment has become. Forcing the USPS to go 100% electric is a waste of tax dollars and causes problems and delays of mail deliveries — especially considering that manufacturers were having difficulty meeting the promised deadlines and the agreed upon price.

Cui bono?

Let’s not sugarcoat this. EV incentives overwhelmingly benefit upper-middle-class and wealthy Americans. They’re the ones who can afford $60,000 Teslas or $80,000 Hummer EVs. They can afford home chargers, and they have multiple cars and easy access to public charging. The very Americans who are footing the bill for these incentives — the working class — are the least likely to benefit from them.

Moreover, EVs are not as “clean” as their marketing and mainstream media suggest. The mining of lithium, cobalt, and rare earth metals comes with serious environmental and human consequences, often in countries with little regulation. And the electricity that powers these vehicles? Still largely generated from coal and natural gas in many parts of the U.S.

Let the market decide

The EV market hasn’t succeeded like the past administration claimed. There’s still minimal demand; drivers want lower-cost gas vehicles, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids. But the idea that EVs are the inevitable future and must be subsidized into dominance is not grounded in economic or consumer reality.

Manufacturers and dealers made a business bet. Some will win, others will lose. But the solution isn’t to keep squeezing taxpayers. It’s to give consumers choices — gas, hybrid, diesel, or electric — and let the best technology win in a fair and open marketplace.

Instead of begging Congress to keep the incentives, maybe the industry should have taken a hard look at how it got here. Consumers want freedom of choice, not government mandates wrapped in green marketing. If EVs are truly better, they’ll succeed on their own merits.

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Elon Musk claimed in a post on X Saturday that he formed the America Party “to give you back your freedom.”

Musk had been threatening the move if “this insane spending bill passes” Congress and appears to be focusing on the national debt as a major issue.

“There is a precedent for what Musk is talking about. What he’s doing takes on a different form, but we have seen a very well-known billionaire decide he’s going to take it upon himself to disrupt the system. We’ve seen this. It’s what Donald Trump did with MAGA,” BlazeTV host Steve Deace says on the “Steve Deace Show.”

“And in the middle of competing with him every day on the Cruz campaign, I remember saying during one of our strategy sessions, ‘I think the secret to Trump’s sauce is he is creating a third party within the Republican party,’” he continues.

What Trump also did was focus on immigration as his main issue, which Deace believes catapulted him to the top.

“Musk needs an issue. Do not underestimate him as a person. He’s one of the most brilliant men who’s ever lived. He’s one of the most successful men who’s ever lived,” Deace says.

“That being said, if he wants to be anything aspirational, if he’s just pissed off and wants to be an agent of chaos, then nothing I’m about to say matters,” he continues. “Elon Musk is going to need a message. He’s going to need an issue right now. His issue seems to be too much debt. That ain’t going to work.”

“We don’t have too much debt because a bunch of swamp creatures are screwing over the American people. That’s not why we have too much debt,” he explains. “It ain’t the system; it’s the people. Almost half of all federal spending goes to so-called entitlements. And there’s nothing after that.”

Deace notes that 14% of our debt comes from the military-industrial complex. If the interest was paid down, it would be 10%.

“Pennies on the dollar compared to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and now Obamacare,” Deace says, adding that when he asked Grok, Elon’s own AI, how much in government subsidies Elon Musk has received, the answer was a whopping $38 billion.

“The guy who got $38 billion in subsidies is going to turn around and say, ‘We gotta get rid of Grandma’s Social Security check.’ To quote Lucius Fox in ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘Good luck,’” he adds.

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Late Sunday night, the Department of Justice and FBI released a two‑page memo to Axios claiming they found no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein kept a “client list,” blackmailed powerful figures, or was murdered in his cell. The memo clings to the original narrative that Epstein died by suicide in 2019.

To prop up that conclusion, the government published a three-page inventory of items seized from Epstein’s New York property: hard drives, tapes, sex toys, a false passport, and materials labeled with grotesque descriptions.

The Epstein case isn’t over. It is the Rosetta stone of public corruption.

Are we seriously supposed to accept that the case is suddenly closed? Attorney General Pam Bondi once told Fox News a “client list” was literally “sitting on [her] desk.” Now? Crickets. Influencers like Elon Musk are calling it “the final straw,” arguing that the memo is government theater to shield powerful elites.

This newly released list information isn’t just damning — it’s clarifying. No matter what you believe about Epstein’s past, his connections, or the murky circumstances of his death, the physical material collected by law enforcement points to five unavoidable conclusions. Each one raises a deeper and more disturbing question about the integrity of our institutions.

In short, the Epstein narrative is far from closed.

1. Epstein wasn’t a lone predator

The new evidence released from the Justice Department reads like a logistics inventory: dozens of electronic devices, thousands of photos, labeled albums, surveillance tapes, foreign passports, and even blueprints. One man doesn’t accumulate this kind of material — not without help, not without infrastructure.

This wasn’t just one depraved individual hiding a secret life. This was an operation. There were logistics. There was coordination. It was built to function and built to last. It was designed to serve a purpose — and to avoid detection.

2. The digital footprint is too large

Hundreds of hard drives, USBs, CDs, backup servers — some with sick labels such as “girl pics nude book 4.” Employee directories, flight logs, video archives. The kind of data capable of telling a full story — not just of crimes committed, but of the people who enabled them or turned a blind eye.

And yet, the real scandal isn’t just the content of these files. It’s how little the public has been allowed to see. Where is the transparency? Why hasn’t this material been disclosed in full?

3. Intel agency involvement is no longer a fringe theory

An Austrian passport with Epstein’s face. Connections in multiple countries. A global footprint. Honeytrap-style setups. These aren’t signs of a rich playboy — they’re signatures of intelligence tradecraft.

The precision, the longevity, the immunity from exposure for decades — none of it is accidental. None of it should be dismissed. To suggest that this might have had intelligence involvement isn’t conspiratorial. It’s logical.

4. The system’s silence is telling

If any ordinary citizen had even one-tenth of what was found in Epstein’s homes — underage photos, encrypted files, coded file names, international travel records — they would already be serving a life sentence. Yet here, we’re met with silence. No high-profile prosecutions. No public hearings. No accountability.

The lack of consequence is the consequence. The silence of the system is itself a kind of answer — and it’s deafening.

5. Every elite institution is on trial

This is no longer just about Epstein. It’s about what happens when justice is optional, when media chooses complicity over courage, when law enforcement protects the powerful rather than prosecutes them, when truth is buried because its exposure might be inconvenient for people in the right circles.

Until this case is fully exposed, every elite institution in America carries a stench it cannot wash off. Public trust is hemorrhaging, and no press release can stop the bleeding.

RELATED: Liz Wheeler unleashes fury: FIRE Pam Bondi over Epstein cover-up scandal!

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A civic reckoning

To dismiss public concern about Epstein as a “conspiracy theory” is to admit that we no longer believe in basic civic accountability. The demand for answers is not fueled by paranoia — it’s a moral and constitutional obligation. If we shrug off what those files contain, we declare that truth is now negotiable, justice is a luxury reserved for the unimportant, and power is a permanent shield for the perverse.

The Epstein case isn’t over. It is the Rosetta stone of public corruption. And if we don’t get to the bottom of it — if we allow the truth to remain buried — we will never restore what’s already been lost.

​Opinion & analysis, Jeffrey epstein, Epstein suicide, Epstein list, Truckload, Evidence, Ghislaine maxwell, Conspiracy, Justice department, Fbi, Kash patel, Dan bongino, Pam bondi, Child sex crimes, Sex trafficking, Cover up, Crimes, Elites, Glenn beck, Liz wheeler, Elon musk, Fox news 

A Trump supporter in Seattle, Washington, believes her political stickers and flags led someone to fire gunshots at her window and vandalize her property.

Police said they were called to the resident’s home at about 3 a.m. on Sunday over gunshots being fired, and they saw bullet holes in the person’s window.

‘I’m scared. I was shaking, and I think I’m going to move.’

The resident of the home spoke to KOMO-TV but did not want to be publicly identified. She said that her residence had been vandalized two other times before the current incident.

In addition to the pro-Trump signs, the resident had displayed signs supporting police as well as a Confederate flag.

The Seattle Police Department said that the resident was “potentially targeted” because of “political and ideological signs in the window of the residence.”

She was asleep at the time of the gunshots and was not injured.

Police said they were able to collect several shell casings at the scene. Images of the window showed four bullet holes.

The homeowner also told KOMO that someone had put “Pride” rainbow stickers on her truck after breaking her two windows.

RELATED: 20-year-old drove through a fence to vandalize a Trump 2020 sign — then got her car stuck

Residents of the neighborhood told KOMO they were surprised by the incidents.

“Surprised it happened, but not super surprised that people are upset,” neighbor Nadine Frehafer said. “Nobody deserves violence against them, obviously.”

“They always damage her window and car,” Ewa Sporna, another neighbor, said. “I’m surprised. I thought once, twice, but a third time, no, a little too much.”

She said she had heard the gunshots.

“I heard the pops, like, pop, pop, pop, few times,” Sporna added. “I’m scared. I was shaking, and I think I’m going to move.”

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​Gunshots at trump window, Seattle trump vandalism, Gunshots trump stickers, Confederate flag vandalism, Politics 

In 2013, I published an article at American Thinker titled “How Detroit Almost Killed My Business.” It drew attention — enough to earn me a spot on Fox News Radio. The theme was simple: Government actions drive up costs until businesses can’t survive. I had to leave Detroit in 1984, along with hundreds of other business owners facing the same pressure.

The title of that article could just as easily have been: “How Could These Government Officials Be So Stupid?”

None of it makes sense — until you realize it isn’t stupidity. It’s sabotage.

Detroit finally declared bankruptcy in 2013. But looking back now, I realize my premise was wrong. The politicians weren’t stupid. They knew exactly what they were doing.

That same year, Diana West released her remarkable book “American Betrayal.” In a book that is part thriller, part tragedy, West exposed the depth of communist infiltration in the U.S. government — a war between those hiding the truth and those trying to expose it. Her research, though controversial, convinced me that America had long been the target of a coordinated effort to destroy it from within.

If America fell, the rest of the free world would follow.

With that lens, I reconsidered Detroit. The people running the city weren’t incompetent. They were executing a plan — to destroy the greatest industrial marketplace the world had ever seen. And they succeeded.

So when I now ask, “How could they be that stupid?” I catch myself.

How could anyone in 2020 vote for a man clearly not in his right mind? How could Americans allow COVID to justify the most extreme restrictions on freedom in modern history?

Masks, social distancing, lockdowns, mandatory shots — all of it was wrong. We know that now. And yet it was pushed with religious fervor.

How could they be that stupid?

How could the government open the borders and let in waves of illegal immigrants — including violent criminals from foreign prisons? Why did we pay to fly migrants in from distant countries, give them EBT cards with monthly refills, and house them in luxury hotels?

How could they cripple energy production, restrict how much water we use to wash dishes, and mandate what kind of car we can drive? What free government tells manufacturers what to build, regardless of market demand?

How could they decide diversity quotas matter more than competence? Why target the military for destruction?

None of it makes sense — until you realize it isn’t stupidity. It’s sabotage.

And now we have Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic Socialist, poised to become the next mayor of New York City. His platform includes rent control, government housing, social policing, city-owned grocery stores, and free public transit. Every one of these policies has failed before.

RELATED: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’

Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

Under socialism, living standards always fall. It’s never been otherwise.

How could Mamdani be that stupid?

From my vantage point as an exile from Detroit, I know exactly what’s coming. I watched a government plan hollow out a once-thriving city. Now New York, the world’s financial capital, is in the crosshairs.

Businesses are already preparing to leave. Can you blame them?

Shakespeare wrote, “What’s past is prologue.” Twelve years ago, I warned what would happen to America’s industrial heartland. Now the ruling class has trained its sights on its financial one.

The question isn’t whether people like Mamdani are sincere. The question is: How can we be that stupid?

​Opinion & analysis, Zohran mamdani, New york city, Socialism, Capitalism, Law and order, Free stuff, Grocery stores, Public transit, Democratic party, Eric adams, Immigration, Illegal aliens, Housing crisis, Hotels for illegal immigrants, Covid-19, Tyranny, Detroit, Bankruptcy, Ruin, Sabotage, Donald trump, Joe biden 

The devastating Texas flood tragedy has been met with heroism, kindness, and, of course, a shocking surge of political spin and falsehoods from the left.

“You get the run-of-the-mill, standard nonsense, of course, from House Democrats saying climate change is obviously a part of the Texas flooding,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says on “Stu Does America.”

“You can understand the corollary of why you might say something as dumb as that. The issue, of course, is, why would you go to that place right now? I mean, even if you think climate change is the issue, you’re not solving it tomorrow,” he continues. “You don’t need to dance on the graves of all the dead children today to make your political point.”

“But of course, they can’t do that,” he adds, before comparing how CNN’s Dana Bash handled the flooding in North Carolina under Biden versus the way she’s handling the flooding in Texas under Trump.

“The former president is falsely accusing federal relief agencies of maliciously withholding and misusing aid,” Bash said on CNN, playing a clip of Trump blasting Biden for giving North Carolina residents $750 while shelling out billions to foreign countries.

“What you just heard is not true. They’re rumors and they’re lies, and they are hurting the very people that thousands of FEMA emergency responders are trying to help,” she continued.

Now, after the Texas floods, Bash appears to be blaming National Weather Service cuts the Trump administration made, asking Rep. Joaquin Castro, “Do you have any indication whether those or other cuts helped play a role in the fact that the people in the flood zone were not prepared and certainly not evacuated?”

“The National Weather Service did warn about this,” Burguiere comments. “As we pointed out, when you make a warning and it’s the middle of the night and the whole thing develops between midnight and 4 a.m., it’s really, really hard to get enough people awake to avoid tragedy.”

According to NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, most offices usually have two on staff when the weather is benign, and there were five on staff the night of the storm.

The NWS office also issued a flood watch for the area at 1:18 p.m. on Thursday, which was 15 hours in advance. While a flash flood warning was issued at 1:14 a.m., most residents were likely asleep.

Even a reporter on ABC News explained that “they were actually staffed extra because they knew it would be a big night.”

“Do I think that something happened from the weather service side that was related to that? No. I think that they were staffed fully. I think they did the best they could and put out the warnings in a pretty timely fashion,” the reporter said.

“There you go. I mean, it’s not just the conservatives saying that. If you actually find people who are honest in the media — and you had an example there — they will tell you that this had nothing to do with Trump’s funding issues,” Burguiere adds.

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​Video phone, Free, Video, Sharing, Camera phone, Upload, Youtube.com, Stu does america, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Dana bash, Cnn, Texas floods, North carolina floods, President biden, President trump, The trump administration, The biden administration 

President Donald Trump announced during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting that he is considering a bold strategy to confront the ongoing crime crisis in Washington, D.C.

In the event that the city’s current leadership fails to deliver on significant crime reduction, Trump stated that the White House might intervene.

Trump’s comments were in response to a reporter’s question about the New York City mayoral race and whether he would endorse any of the candidates.

‘We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you.’

Trump described Zohran Mamdani as a “communist,” urging voters not to cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee.

“This is a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion, other than he’s got a good line of bulls**t,” Trump stated.

The president stopped short of endorsing any of the remaining candidates, including current New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

“I’m not getting involved,” Trump remarked. “But I can tell you this, I used to say, ‘We will not ever be a socialist country.’”

“If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to,” he stated.

“We could run D.C.,” Trump continued.

RELATED: Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

He explained that the administration is currently “looking at D.C.,” citing the high crime rates.

The president noted that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is “working very closely” with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) to address crime, adding that the two are “doing all right.”

A year-to-date comparison from the Metropolitan Police reports that violent crimes are down 25% in 2025, with homicides down 2%, sex abuse down 47%, assault with a dangerous weapon down 22%, and robbery down 26%.

— (@)

Trump contended that if the administration took over D.C., it “would be run so proper.”

“We’re thinking about doing it, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “We want a capital that’s run flawlessly, and it wouldn’t be hard for us to do it.”

RELATED: Metropolitan Police Department refuses public access to Jan. 6 use-of-force reports

Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Trump later added that his administration has “a good relationship” with Bowser, stating, “We’re testing it to see if it works.”

He returned to discussing New York City, vowing that it would be “run properly.”

“I’m going to bring New York back,” he promised. “I love New York.”

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​News, New york city, New york, Washington dc, Washington d.c., Washington, Dc, D.c., Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Zohran mamdani, Eric adams, Andrew cuomo, Curtis sliwa, Susie wiles, Metropolitan police, Crime rates, Politics 

President Donald Trump denied that his administration was exploring an amnesty program for illegal aliens after reports of a whisper campaign advocating the controversial policy emerged.

The president made the comments during a media briefing with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins when asked about the possibility of an amnesty program.

‘We got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties too. We’re going to work with them, and we’re going to work very strong and smart.’

“There’s no amnesty,” said the president. “What we’re doing is we’re getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work program.”

“This morning we talked about protecting the farmers and the farmland, but obviously this president’s vision of no amnesty, mass deportation continues,” Rollins explained, “but in a strategic way, and then ensuring that our farmers have the labor that they need.”

“[Labor] Sec. Chavez-DeRemer has been a leader on this. Obviously this comes out of the Labor Department, but moving toward automation, ensuring that our farmers have that workforce, and moving toward an American workforce. So all of the above,” she added.

RELATED: Harris admits to Telemundo: I’m for amnesty for illegal immigrants

— (@)

“We’ve got to give the farmers the people they need, but we’re not talking amnesty,” the president added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the message on social media.

“As President Trump just said: No Amnesty,” she wrote.

Opponents of amnesty have become concerned after Trump mentioned that he has heard from farmers and hotel owners that they are struggling to run their businesses because of deportations. He has suggested that the administration might make concessions to allow workers to remain in those industries.

“Farmers, look, they know better. They work with them for years. You had cases that where — not here, but just even over the years — where people have worked on a farm for 14, 15 years, and they get thrown out pretty viciously. And we can’t do it,” said the president on Thursday during a rally in Iowa.

“We got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties too,” he added. “We’re going to work with them, and we’re going to work very strong and smart.”

RELATED: Democrats are bringing ‘DREAMers’ to Trump’s address to Congress

The president also appeared to anticipate some anger from his supporters over the policy.

“Serious radical-right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy,” he said. “But they’ll understand.”

‘We must deliver mass deportations, not amnesty.’

On Monday, various MAGA figures registered their disdain for any amnesty plan that might be considered.

“No amnesty. No debate. No compromise,” replied Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“There is no other issue the conservative base feels more passionately about than immigration,” responded Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. “In just a few decades, everyday Americans have watched their country transform into a nation of strangers. We must deliver mass deportations, not amnesty.”

“Any sort of mass amnesty plan would result in a devastating midterm defeat for Republicans in Congress,” Todd Starnes said.

Former President Joe Biden had made immigration amnesty one of the promises of his presidential campaign, but he was never able to pass any bill through Congress.

Trump’s mass deportation plans will likely escalate after the passage of his “big, beautiful bill” of federal funding that includes more than $26 billion in new spending for immigration enforcement.

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​Trump no amnesty, Illegal alien amnesty, Amnesty hotel farm workers, Trump immigration, Politics 

As the garbage worker strike in Philadelphia continued into its eighth day, the union’s social media account was absolutely obliterated for trying to scold a resident for “scabbing.”

Philadelphia officials have been unable to agree on a wage increase with the AFSCME District Council 33 union, so the group orchestrated a garbage worker strike in an attempt to force lawmakers to cave to their demands.

‘Is the purpose of this to make people hate unions?’

Mountains of garbage are piling up in the “City of Brotherly Love,” and union members are resorting to violence and intimidation in order to achieve their goals. Some industrious residents have figured out that they can make some money on the side by picking up their fellow Philadelphians’ trash for a small fee.

On Sunday, the AFL-CIO union in Philadelphia suggested that residents should avoid “scabbing” by working to ease the garbage crisis. The account pointed to one example of scabbing and responded, “This is scabbing btw and is a pretty bad look tbh.”

The union went on to explain what scabbing was in a second post.

They added, “Scabbing is when union work is done by non union workers while the union is withholding their labor during a strike. In this case, the union has specifically asked the public not to do this or use the dumpsters the city set up. Thus, this what we call a double whammy scab.”

The union’s demand was met with scorn and ridicule by many critics online.

“Unionized government workers are upset that residents might drive their own garbage to the dump. They should — according to the union — just let the garbage sit inside their own homes, rotting, because to do otherwise is a ‘bad look,’ and insufficiently pro-labor. LOL. LMAO,” read one response.

“Yeah if my trash is piling up you can f**k right off with that union BS,” another user said.

RELATED: Union members threaten and harass residents who dare drop off garbage during Philadelphia strike: ‘This is disgraceful’

“Sorry their willingness to do important public work at a reasonable price is undercutting your attempt at holding the public hostage,” read another response.

“Is the purpose of this to make people hate unions?” Frank Fleming joked.

“The union is claiming that they have a moral monopoly over the concept of removing trash from houses, such that no one is allowed to do that if they forbid it,” another user said. “Ponder for a moment how insane that is.”

The AFSCME District Council 33 union represents about 9,000 municipal workers in Philadelphia.

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​Social media vs unions, Philadelphia garbage strike, Union garbage strike, Union ridiculed online, Politics 

Jeffrey Tucker, president of the Brownstone Institute, received an alleged leaked document detailing a plot to sabotage Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and while he admits he doesn’t “know how you authenticate something like this” — he does believe the contents are cause for concern.

The membership of the organization the memo is attributed to includes vaccine manufacturers, drug manufacturers, and hundreds of other biotech firms.

Among those are Pfizer and Merck.

“It’s time to go to the Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr. to go,” reads a document that seems to contain notes from an April 3, 2025, meeting of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s Vaccine Policy Steering Committee.

“This document is essentially a summary, or the minutes readout, of this April 3, 2025, meeting, allegedly, in which they are trying to figure out how to get Bobby Kennedy out of office,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler explains.

“Now, that in and of itself is not terribly scandalous, except for the fact that they are not interested in the science that Bobby Kennedy is trying to reclaim in public health in our government,” she continues.

While the document’s stated agenda is “to go to the Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr. to go,” that’s not the issue Tucker and Wheeler have with it — but rather how they plan to do it.

“So there are conspiracy theories, and there are conspiracies. This is a conspiracy,” Tucker says, explaining that the group allegedly plans to remove RFK Jr. via creating a divide between MAHA and MAGA.

“So you just assert that RFK is operating at odds with the MAGA agenda. So you want to drive a wedge between those two things and find ways to do that to turn the executive office of the White House against what RFK is doing,” he says, explaining the plan to Wheeler.

Another alleged piece of their plan, Tucker says, is to “divide the MAHA alliance itself by making more diffuse and chaotic the coalition that supports RFK and is looking into the safety of these products.”

“And one of the ways they’re planning to do that is what I think we could call triangulation,” he explains. “You reach out to conservative influencers, they may name several institutions here where they think are vaccine friendly, along with several administration employees that they think are probably weak and sort of corruptible in some way.”

“This memo is very clever,” he continues, adding, “They’re trying to sort of drive a wedge between RFK and the agency’s appointees that he’s named based on their past positions.”

While Tucker and his colleagues remain unsure of the veracity of the document, a spokesman from BIO claims the organization’s vaccine task force had nothing to do with it.

“The purported memo was not produced by BIO. We have never seen or heard of this document, and it certainly does not accurately represent the spirit, strategy, or mission of BIO’s work,” he said. Though, in an interview with the Daily Signal, “He declined to confirm or deny the veracity of the quote about lobbying for Kennedy’s ouster.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Camera phone, Video, Upload, Video phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Robert f kennedy jr, Jeffrey tucker, The brownstone institute, Vaccine manufacturers, Big pharma, Rfk jr 

Thousands of teachers gathered in Portland, Oregon, July 3-6 for the annual convention of the National Education Association.

Becky Pringle, the Democratic NEA president who reportedly made over $500,000 while fighting to keep schools closed at kids’ expense between September 2020 and August 2021, made abundantly clear in her keynote address on July 3 that America’s largest teachers’ union is little more than a radical political entity. She indicated that now, more than ever, the union seeks to undermine the American people’s democratically elected president, his government, and those state governments that would dare depoliticize the classroom, spare children from leftist propaganda, dismantle DEI, and uphold parental rights.

“Our country is depending on us, on this community, to lead the way from dogmatism back to decency,” Pringle said in her speech, which she mainly shouted at her audience.

Although the NEA resolutions passed at the convention were apparently kept private this year, Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, obtained a copy. The resolutions, referred to as business items, reveal precisely how the radical union intends to wield its power in the coming months.

“It looks like a declaration of war on the Trump administration,” DeAngelis told Blaze News.

‘You really can’t make this stuff up.’

“We already knew that the NEA was basically an arm of the Democrat Party based on their campaign contributions. Nearly all of their political funding is funneled to Democrats’ campaign coffers every single election cycle, and we knew that the NEA supported Kamala Harris in the presidential election,” DeAngelis continued. “But these resolutions take it up a notch.”

According to the images of the documents obtained by DeAngelis and corroborated in a report in Education Week, one of the business items adopted at the convention obligates the NEA to “defend against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions.”

The NEA indicated that the price tag on this initiative is an “additional $3,500.”

RELATED: MASSIVE VICTORY: SCOTUS sides with parents; Alito nukes LGBT indoctrination campaign

Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage

“You really can’t make this stuff up,” DeAngelis said. “You have the nation’s largest teachers’ union, in their attempt to call the president a ‘fascist,’ misspell the word. It’s another bit of free advertising for school choice and homeschooling.”

— (@)

Another business item adopted at the convention, according to the documents provided by DeAngelis, commits the union to using “existing media channels to oppose any move to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education as an illegal, anti-democratic, and racist attempt to destroy public education and privatize it in the interest of the billionaires.”

“I don’t know how in the world they can say getting rid of the Department of Education, which has failed at every academic metric for low-income and minority kids, is somehow racist,” DeAngelis told Blaze News. “If anything, keeping that department around has more roots in racism than anything since it has failed to close achievement gaps and to get black kids, in particular, at proficiency levels in reading and math.”

‘They’re trying to subvert the will of parents.’

The documents provided by DeAngelis indicate that the NEA, which equated states’ rights with Jim Crow, also adopted a business item to support “affiliates in states where legislative bodies have taken or are taking actions that silence educators, restrict collective bargaining, remove fair dismissal protections, or other actions that negatively affect public education, educators, and potential voter suppression laws that seek to undermine public education.”

RELATED: Why indoctrinated kids just handed the Big Apple to a radical Marxist

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

According to the language of this business item, which singles out Arkansas and South Carolina as states in “extreme need,” the support could take various forms, including lobbying, providing legal assistance, and “mobilizing retired and current NEA members.”

The teachers’ union appears keen to continue turning American students against their government, in part by championing student protests against both law enforcement and Trump’s policies.

“NEA opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) kidnapping of student leaders and supports students’ right to organize against ICE raids and deportations,” says business item 63, among those apparently adopted at the convention. “We will protect our students’ right to free speech and defend their right to dissent and organize against Trump’s policies, including attacks against LGBTQ+ students, and against racism.”

— (@)

Such efforts might have to wait a year, as the NEA indicated that “this item cannot be accomplished with current staff and resources under the 2025-26 Modified Strategic Plan and Budget.”

In addition to supporting student uprisings, the documents provided by DeAngelis indicate the NEA adopted another resolution declaring its support for mass movements against the government, including the “No Kings” protests and the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Los Angeles.

When asked about the relevance of the NEA’s agenda to parents, DeAngelis said, “These resolutions are your wake-up call to homeschool your kids,” and reiterated, “It’s free advertising for school choice.”

“Would you want these lunatics at the National Education Association like Becky Pringle teaching your kids? Do you want them to help you raise your children? Do you want them to push back against everything you’re trying to do in the household?” said DeAngelis. “They’re trying to subvert the will of parents.”

DeAngelis underscored that teachers’ unions don’t regard schools as a place for kids to read, write, and learn math but rather as the means “to control the minds of other people’s children” and “churn out more Democrat foot soldiers to push their progressive worldview on the rest of the country.”

“We must use our power to take action that leads, action that liberates, action that lasts,” Pringle said in her speech, adding that the NEA is going to “educate, communicate, organize, mobilize, litigate, legislate, elect.”

Blaze News has reached out to the NEA for comment and to confirm the authenticity of the provided documents.

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​National education association, Nea, Teachers union, Teachers unions, Teachers, Education, Indoctrination, Becky pringle, Leftism, Schools, Department of education, Trump, Donald trump, Trump administration, Politics 

A terror attack on an ICE facility in Texas has led to attempted murder charges against 10 members of an Antifa terror cell, according to federal prosecutors.

On the Fourth of July, a local Texas officer was shot in the neck by anti-ICE activists just outside of the North Texas ICE facility in Alvarado near Forth Worth. On Tuesday, prosecutors released more information about the alleged terrorists who were arrested for their part in that plot.

Police also found a flag reading, ‘Resist Fascism. Fight Oligarchy,’ as well as masks, goggles, gloves, weapons, fireworks, flyers, and body armor.

Eleven people were arrested, and of those, 10 were charged with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer. The 11th person is facing a charge of obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said the “coordinated attack” on the ICE facility involved 10 to 12 people clothed in black militaristic garb and began at about 10:30 p.m. Members of the group fired off fireworks and vandalized vehicles at the facility in an apparent attempt to lure the officers out of the building.

“Make no mistake — this was not a so-called peaceful protest. It was indeed an ambush,” said acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson.

Two unarmed officers walked out to talk to the group, and an officer with the Alvarado Police Department also responded. The officer was shot in the neck by someone in the woods, and another person fired between 20 and 30 rounds at the ICE officers.

The group members fled from the scene but were apprehended later by officers. They were found with guns and a Kevlar vest, according to law enforcement.

Prosecutors said that a jammed AR-style firearm was recovered from the scene. Police also reportedly found a flag reading, “Resist Fascism. Fight Oligarchy,” as well as masks, goggles, gloves, weapons, fireworks, flyers, and body armor.

The officer who was shot is expected to survive.

The suspects face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

RELATED: Trump administration mocks Mexicans rioting over American citizens immigrating to Mexico City

“This was an egregious attack on federal and local law enforcement officers, and it is part of an increasing trend of violence against them,” said Larson. “This will not be tolerated. Those who use violence against law enforcement officers will be found, and they will be prosecuted with the toughest criminal statutes and penalties that we have available to us.”

Republicans have been excoriating some Democrats for their overheated rhetoric against ICE officers and have tried to link the hysterics to violence against federal officers.

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​Alvarado ice attack, Anti-ice terrorists, Terror attack on ice facility, Attack on ice, Politics 

Sharon Robinson — the mother of a 6-year-old boy who was nearly abducted Sunday night on a New York City street — told WNYW-TV that a stranger grabbed her son “unbeknownst” to her.

“Somebody ran to [my son] and scooped him up unbeknownst to me,” Robinson recalled to WNYW after the incident on Coney Island. “I heard him yell. I turn around. There’s a complete stranger with my son, footballing him like a football, holding him in his arm and running away.”

‘Why was that little boy so far away from his parents in the 1st place[?]’

The child’s family said they were walking together from an amusement park near the intersection of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, the station reported.

The family added to WNYW that a male picked up the child; the station said he could be heard on video calling for one of his parents as he was lifted off the sidewalk.

The following video report shows the incident unfolding — as well as the suspect throwing the boy to the sidewalk as his parents approach and then the parents running after the suspect:

RELATED: Dad making delivery sees carjacker entering his vehicle — and his child also is inside car, cops say. Things soon get primal.

Robinson in the aftermath added to WNYW: “I run towards him. I say, ‘Hey, what happened?’ He ignores me, keeps running. When he saw he couldn’t outrun me, he slammed [my son] to the ground, midair, hit the concrete. His knees hit the [ground], he’s screaming. I couldn’t worry about that, I had to go catch him ’cause the police were doing nothing.”

Robinson’s son — identified as Rah’Shem Gantt, according to WABC-TV — told WNYW afterward, “It was scary. I bumped into the guy to go to the candy shop, get popcorn, and the guy throw me on the ground for [no] reason. Then all the people said stop. He threw me on the ground.”

Roy Gantt, the boy’s father, added to WABC that “when I turned around, I noticed a man pick him up and run by way of the boardwalk. Once he saw us chasing him, he threw [Rah’Shem] down. It sounded like he hit his head on the concrete.”

Gantt told WABC that he and the boy’s mother chased the man and pinned him down for about four minutes until police arrived.

“That was someone who attempted to kidnap my son, then assaulted him,” Gantt added to WABC, which noted that several witnesses on the crowded street stayed with the crying boy and his toddler sister while their parents pursued the suspect.

“The cops came and thought we were jumping on somebody for no reason,” Gantt recounted to WABC. “We had 10, 15 people come up and vouch for us.”

Robinson recounted to WNBC-TV, “I run across the street, and I tackle the guy … [but] the police jumped on me and slammed me against the window ’cause they thought I was attacking the guy. I tried to explain, ‘Hey, this stranger slammed [my] baby on the ground.'”

“I had my foot on his chest to hold him down,” she noted to WABC. “I didn’t have the heart to stomp him. Violence is not my way.”

Police told WNYW that 36-year-old Jonathan Robalino is the male seen in the video attempting to run off with the child — and he faces charges of assault, attempted kidnapping, and failure to exercise control of a minor.

RELATED: Shocking video shows 6-year-old boy allegedly being kidnapped. Then family members take matters into their own hands.

WNBC, citing police sources, said Robalino has seven prior arrests. A member of the Guardian Angels group said Robalino is known in the area and may suffer from mental illness, WNBC added.

The child was treated for a head injury at Coney Island Hospital and is expected to recover, WNBC reported.

While commenters on WABC’s video report praised the boy’s parents for catching the suspect, others wrote that they should have kept a closer eye on their son. It isn’t clear in the video how far away the parents were from their child, but the clip shows that once the perp picks up the kid, it takes his parents about four seconds to get to the man before he throws their son to the sidewalk.

Here are some of the comments giving kudos to — and criticizing — the mom and dad:

“Parents of the YEAR!” one commenter wrote. “You saved your adorable baby boy, and many more by refusing to let him get away, you are awesome!!””Love how the parents protected him, but keep your children close don’t let them out of your sight,” another user advised.”Why was that little boy so far away from his parents in the 1st place[?]” another user wondered.”I see young children alone away from parents as they chat among themselves,” another commenter observed. “Pay attention, those kinds of people are out there, ok.””Awful criminals, parents keep an eye at all times, very scary,” another user wrote.”Why was the child standing on the curb behind the parents[?]” another commenter asked.”Ummmm, why is your six-year-old not close to yall[?]” another user inquired.

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​Crime thwarted, New york city, Coney island, Parents, Child, Attempted child abduction, Parents tackle suspect, Arrest, Assault charge, Attempted kidnapping charge, Failure to exercise control of a minor charge, Crime 

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a near-unanimous order temporarily allowing President Donald Trump to restart his plan for mass federal layoffs after he was blocked by lower courts.

The 8-1 ruling had a lone dissenter: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

‘The inevitable consequence is … frustrating the government’s efforts to impose budgetary discipline and build a more efficient workforce.’

The president had ordered mass firings as part of his plan to cut down the size of the federal government, but in May, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco ruled against him and blocked the action.

Illston said the president “likely must request congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks” and ordered 20 executive-branch entities and “any other individuals acting under their authority or the authority of the president” to refuse layoff orders.

“As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” she wrote.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the district court had overstepped its legislative authority in the order and called on the Supreme Court to allow Trump’s layoffs to continue as planned.

“The inevitable consequence is to compel federal agencies to keep large numbers of employees on the payroll without necessity, at unrecoverable taxpayer expense, thereby frustrating the government’s efforts to impose budgetary discipline and build a more efficient workforce,” wrote Sauer.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with the president to allow the plan while litigation continues.

RELATED: Trans activists outraged over Supreme Court allowing Idaho to temporarily ban treatment for minors: ‘Incredibly devastating’

In her dissent, Brown Jackson accused the rest of the court of demonstrating an “enthusiasm for greenlighting this president’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied an appeal from the government in June and sided with Illston’s ruling.

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​Supreme court trump victory, Trump wins at supreme court, Trump layoff plan, Federal layoffs, Politics 

Tech giant Microsoft has denied media reports that it has replaced American workers with those from other countries through visa programs.

It has been just two months since Microsoft cut 7,000 employees, or roughly 3% of its workforce, in May, including almost 2,000 in Washington state. Last week, Microsoft wasted little time before implementing another round of mass layoffs.

‘We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success.’

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced another round of cuts that affects 4% of the workforce, which totals around 9,000 employees losing their jobs, according to CNN.

A spokesperson from Microsoft told CNN that the cuts are simply a case of reducing managerial layers while becoming more productive through new technologies.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” the statement claimed.

With the last formal count of Microsoft workers from 2024 standing at 228,000, some are speculating that the thousands upon thousands of layoffs — including 10,000 in 2023 — are made possibly by the use of artificial intelligence. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella even said in April that as much as 30% of the company’s code has been written by AI.

This does not paint the whole picture, however, as figures from the Department of Labor suggest that Microsoft is relying heavily on foreign labor for large numbers of its workforce in the United States.

RELATED: ‘Doing her best’: ICE agents mass-arrest illegal employees at ‘family-owned’ manufacturer in North Carolina

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

As first noted by WorldNetDaily, statistics from the Office of Foreign Labor Certification showed that Microsoft has requested thousands of foreign workers through the temporary specialty occupations program.

In total, the company filed 14,181 Labor Condition Applications to sponsor foreign workers for temporary employment visas through initiatives like the H-1B program.

Also according to WorldNetDaily, the May layoffs, which included 817 software engineers, coincided with Microsoft submitting over 6,000 H-1B requests for software engineer roles that matched the same job titles and locations as those of the American employees who received their marching papers.

In a statement to Blaze News, however, Microsoft rejected the implication of these reports.

“It’s wrong to suggest our H-1B applications are in any way related to the recent job eliminations in part because employees on H-1Bs also lost their roles,” Microsoft’s David Cuddy explained. “This data far exceeds the actual H-1B petitions we filed the past 12 months, and 78% of those were extensions for existing employees and not new employees coming to the U.S.”

RELATED: Don’t let rural America become the next New York City

Image via Department of Labor

Blaze News asked the Department of Labor to explain the statistics and clarify whether the number in question included visa extensions, previously existing visas, and more. The federal department did not respond.

Blaze News also asked investor David L. Bahnsen of the Bahnsen Group about the DOL statistics, and he stated that the vast majority of foreign contributions to “high-end aspects” of the U.S. labor market “come in specialized sectors where the U.S. talent pool lags far behind Indian and Asian contributors (math and science).”

The investor also advocated for an increased number of H-1B visas from the federal government.

The Microsoft Corporation filed the third-most requests for H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visas in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Labor Department. This placed the company behind NVIDIA, which requested a massive 27,244 foreign workers, while Amazon had even more at 31,817.

Cisco and Oracle were lower on the list, along with three divisions of Goldman Sachs and Amazon Web Services.

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​Microsoft, Foreign labor, News, Lay offs, Washington, Software engineer, H-1b, Visas, Politics 

The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department refused to provide Blaze News with copies of the Use of Force Incident Reports from its massive presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Blaze News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with MPD on May 15, seeking the officer-prepared reports on the use of force for crowd control at the Capitol during the explosive Jan. 6 protests and subsequent rioting.

‘No, you’re going to kill her!’

Under MPD policy, the department had until June 2 to provide a response to the Blaze News request, but failed to do so until June 10.

“Your request was considered,” wrote MPD FOIA specialist Shania Hughes in a letter to Blaze News.

“A review of our records determined the information you seek is law enforcement sensitive and not for public release.”

Hughes’ letter cited §2-534(a)(4) of the Code of the District of Columbia, which states:

The following matters may be exempt from disclosure under the provisions of this subchapter: Inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters, including memorandums or letters generated or received by the staff or members of the Council, which would not be available by law to a party other than a public body in litigation with the public body.

The D.C. Code makes no mention of the subjective and nebulous term “law enforcement sensitive.”

Hughes’ letter said release of the details of force used against protesters at the Capitol “would constitute as a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” She cited §2-534(a)(2) and §2-534(a)(3)(c) of the D.C. Code, which make reference to “information of a personal nature” that would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

RELATED: Former Jan. 6 defendant gets life sentence for plot to kill FBI agents, other law enforcement

MPD Sgt. Frank Edwards fires crowd-control munitions into the packed West Plaza crowd at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Department of Justice / Metropolitan Police Department

The sections of D.C. Code do not define the term “personal privacy” or explain why it applies to police officers employed by a government agency who were on duty during rioting at the Capitol.

Blaze News filed another FOIA request with MPD on May 1, seeking a record of all Jan. 6 use-of-force complaints. The department returned a spreadsheet listing a single complaint having to do with “shoving.”

Jacqueline Hazzan, legal counsel for the MPD Office of Police Complaints, said the details of that complaint would not be released because they would “reveal information about the agency’s internal deliberative process before it was completed” and “cause an unwarranted invasion of others’ personal privacy.”

The issue of police use of force on Jan. 6 still draws interest 4.5 years later because of what is contained on Capitol Police CCTV security video, MPD bodycam footage, and third-party videos that were often seized by the FBI for use in prosecuting close to 1,600 people who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

‘It wasn’t until I saw the video that I realized how bad it was.’

Metropolitan Police routinely refuse to release any bodycam footage from Jan. 6. Former Jan. 6 defendants have posted a large cache of MPD bodycam video, but the department practice has been that the public is not allowed access to Jan. 6 video.

Blaze News covered a high-impact use-of-force case in the point-blank shooting of Pennsylvania dump-truck driver Mark Griffin with a 40mm shell filled with hard rubber baton rounds. The shot — fired by an officer, according to video — split Griffin’s left femur from top to bottom. The injury required several surgical procedures to repair, including insertion of a titanium plate with 14 screws.

Sgt. Frank Edwards, the officer who video shows fired the shot, told a colleague late in the day on Jan. 6 that MPD went through 500 crowd-control munition shells, grenades, and gas canisters that day.

Other prominent Jan. 6 use-of-force cases included the beating of protester Rosanne Boyland by MPD Officer Lila Morris. Boyland had collapsed at the mouth of the Lower West Terrace Tunnel and appeared to be lifeless when Morris used a wooden walking stick to strike Boyland in the face, head, and ribs, according to video evidence.

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Metropolitan Police Department Officer Lila Morris winds up with a wooden walking stick to strike protester Luke Coffee and shortly turns her fury to a lifeless Rosanne Boyland outside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Department of Justice/Metropolitan Police Department Bodycam

It is unknown the extent of injuries Boyland suffered as a result. Third-party video and bodycam footage showed that Boyland was bleeding from her right eye and her nose. There was a visible injury above her right eye that was not mentioned or documented by paramedics, the emergency room physician, or the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in its autopsy report.

The use of the walking stick against Boyland was “brought to our attention and reviewed thoroughly,” MPD public affairs specialist Alaina Gertz told the Epoch Times in April 2022. The review “did not substantiate the allegations you have outlined,” she said, suggesting that the videos of Morris striking Boyland were not properly vetted for “authenticity.”

Bagshaw had ‘gone hands-on with demonstrators in Washington for years.’

The Epoch Times filed a FOIA request for Officer Morris’ Jan. 6 bodycam footage, but MPD refused to grant access, saying releasing the video would violate Morris’ privacy.

Protester Victoria C. White of Rochester, Minn., was beaten in the head, neck, and face by then-Lt. Jason Bagshaw and other officers inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel about 20 minutes before Boyland collapsed, video showed. Capitol Police CCTV security video and MPD bodycam footage showed that White was struck nearly 40 times with steel riot batons and fists.

At 4:11 p.m., a bystander at the tunnel mouth repeatedly tried to intervene to protect White. He shouted at police, “No, no, no, no. Please … please don’t beat her!” and “No, you’re going to kill her!” according to the bodycam of MPD Officer Andrew Wayte. In one violent series, Bagshaw repeatedly pummeled White in the side of the face with a closed fist, security video showed.

“It wasn’t until I saw the video that I realized how bad it was,” White said in a 2022 Jan. 6 documentary. She sued Bagshaw and MPD Officer Neil McAllister in March 2024. That lawsuit is ongoing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols.

RELATED: Fact-check: President Trump authorized 20,000 National Guard troops for duty on Jan. 6, 2021

Protester Victoria White is tossed around by police during a severe beating in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Bodycam Images/Metropolitan Police Department

The lawsuit said White was subjected to “objectively unreasonable, excessive, and indeed, deadly force that shocks the conscience.”

Bagshaw has been with MPD for more than 22 years. A July 2022 article in the Washington Post said Bagshaw has “gone hands-on with demonstrators in Washington for years, winning colleagues’ respect but drawing criticism from demonstrators.” The article did not mention Bagshaw’s actions against White in the tunnel on Jan. 6. Bagshaw was promoted to commander in April 2022.

The FBI began collecting use-of-force data from law enforcement agencies nationwide on Jan. 1, 2019. Of 18,514 federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide, 5,481 reported use-of-force data to the FBI. Participation in the National Use-of-Force Data Collection is encouraged, but not mandatory.

Both MPD and the Metro Transit Police Department supply use-of-force data to the FBI, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

In 2024, 11,445 of the nation’s 19,277 law enforcement agencies participated in the data collection system. The reporting agencies represent 72% of federal, state, local, and tribal sworn officers nationwide, according to the FBI.

In 2024, the primary uses of force reported included firearms, hands/fists/feet, canine, and electronic control weapons such as a taser, according to the database. Police uses of force were a response to failure to comply with verbal commands, attempt to escape or flee from custody, using a firearm against an officer or other person, displaying a weapon at an officer, and resisting being handcuffed or arrested, the FBI reported.

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Church leaders have long been limited in what they can say to their congregations about political candidates and political matters as a result of an amendment introduced in 1954 by then-Democratic Senator Lyndon Johnson, who was supposedly keen on hamstringing his political opponents.

President Donald Trump, making good on a 2016 campaign promise, took action against the so-called Johnson Amendment in his first term, signing an executive order directing his Treasury Department to effectively halt its enforcement.

“Faith is deeply embedded into the history of our country, the spirit of our founding, and the soul of our nation,” Trump said at the time. “We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore.”

Despite numerous attempts, Republicans have been unable in the years since to go the distance and pass legislation repealing the amendment, leaving its enforcement up in the air.

This proved to be an issue for organizations such as Grace Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and New Way Church in Palm Coast, Florida, which were investigated by the IRS during the Biden years for alleged violations of the Johnson Amendment.

The Internal Revenue Service agreed in federal court Monday, however, that church leaders are now free not only to speak to their congregations about electoral politics but to endorse political candidates without worrying about losing their tax-exempt statuses.

The ban

The Internal Revenue Code prohibits churches and other tax-exempt nonprofit organizations “from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

RELATED: Wake-up call: This is what happens when Christians are afraid to offend

Blaze Media Illustration

According to a 2007 IRS publication clarifying how churches could avoid violating the ban and possibly losing tax-exempt status, church leaders can speak for themselves, as individuals, freely on political matters as well as address issues of public policy.

They cannot, however, “make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official functions of the organization.”

‘First Amendment rights don’t end when a pastor, church member, or even a political candidate steps on the platform of a church.’

Progressives have long championed this ban. After all, it serves to attenuate the influence of religious leaders in American politics.

Conservatives, alternatively, have argued that the so-called Johnson Amendment stifles free speech; limits the ability of religious leaders, acting in their official capacities, to become more fully involved in the political process; and creates a legal environment ripe for abuse and biased enforcement.

The win

The National Religious Broadcasters and a pair of Texas-based churches sued the IRS in August, claiming that “churches are placed in a unique and discriminatory status by the IRC” and that the agency “operates in a manner that disfavors conservative organizations and conservative, religious organizations in its enforcement of § 501(c)(3).”

The religious coalition’s complaint — which alleged that the Johnson Amendment violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — stressed that churches should have the same freedom of speech as the hundreds of newspapers organized under § 501(c)(3) that are permitted to openly endorse political candidates.

In a joint court filing intended to settle the lawsuit on Monday, the IRS confirmed that endorsing candidates does not qualify as taking part or intervening in a political campaign.

“When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate[s]’ nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign,’ within the ordinary meaning of those words,” the filing says.

“Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates,” the filing continues. “Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted.”

The agency indicated that this interpretation of the Johnson Amendment is “in keeping with the IRS’s treatment of the Johnson Amendment in practice,” citing Trump’s 2017 executive order.

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

“First Amendment rights don’t end when a pastor, church member, or even a political candidate steps on the platform of a church,” First Liberty Institute, the legal outfit that represented Grace Church and New Way Church in their battles with the IRS, said in a statement obtained by Blaze News. “The IRS weaponized the Johnson Amendment to silence churches and pastors for decades. This is great news for religious organizations, churches, and religious liberty.”

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told the New York Times that this outcome “basically tells churches of all denominations and sects that you’re free to support candidates from the pulpit.”

“It also says to all candidates and parties, ‘Hey, time to recruit some churches,'” added Mayer.

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The Trump administration is moving to prevent foreign adversaries from owning farmland in the United States, following reports that foreign entities own nearly 45 million acres of agricultural land.

During a Tuesday morning press conference, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, a multi-agency effort to protect America’s food supply by banning foreign rivals, including Chinese entities, from purchasing farmland in the U.S.

‘We are working to issue regulatory action to remove over 550 entities from foreign countries of concern from our preferred catalog.’

Rollins was joined at the press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.

“American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research, and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,” Rollins stated.

The action plan includes “seven critical areas,” as outlined on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website. These areas focus on increasing transparency and imposing stricter penalties for foreign ownership of farmland. Additionally, it emphasizes redirecting domestic investments to strengthen supply chain resilience, combating foreign crime syndicates and biological threats, safeguarding research, and ensuring the USDA aligns with the administration’s America First agenda.

The USDA aims to partner with state leaders and members of Congress to swiftly implement executive action and legislation to prevent “countries of concern or other foreign adversaries” from purchasing farmland.

RELATED: From Wuhan to Michigan: Feds nab ANOTHER Chinese scholar in alleged bio-material smuggling plot

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Rollins stated that the Trump administration would use presidential authorities to “claw back what has already been purchased by China and other foreign adversaries.”

She noted that she signed a memo on Tuesday, canceling USDA-affiliated contracts or research arrangements with 70 citizens from countries of concern.

Rollins added, “We are working to issue regulatory action to remove over 550 entities from foreign countries of concern from our preferred catalog.”

The agency will roll out an online portal for those in the agricultural industry to “report possible false or failed reporting and compliance with respect to [the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act].”

As of December 2023, nearly 45 million acres of agricultural land are owned by foreign countries, including hundreds of thousands of acres by Chinese entities, according to a report by AFIDA.

RELATED: Trump admin to intervene on behalf of New Jersey family trying to stop government seizure of 175-year-old farm

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Another top goal of the administration’s action plan is to address biological material threats. This follows reports in June that federal authorities arrested multiple Chinese nationals who allegedly attempted to smuggle biological material into the United States.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Bondi stated that two of the individuals allegedly involved in the schemes had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

“It’s going to stop. FBI has opened over 100 bio-smuggling investigations in recent years,” Bondi said.

She also stated that the administration is cracking down on pesticide trafficking across the southern border, noting that “illegal and highly toxic chemicals from Mexico were smuggled into the U.S.”

“The Department of Justice is prioritizing the arrest of those illegal aliens doing it,” Bondi added.

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