Anna Kepner — a “bubbly, funny, outgoing” 18-year-old Florida high school cheerleader — was found dead in her cabin on a cruise ship in November. Now, court documents reportedly indicate that her 16-year-old stepbrother has been charged with homicide in connection with her death — and Anna’s family wants justice.

CBS News reported that attorneys for Thomas Hudson, the biological father of the 16-year-old stepbrother, wrote in a Feb. 20 emergency filing: “According to social media from the Kepner family, on February 3, 2026, the Petitioner/Father’s son, TH, was charged by the United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida for the [redacted] and homicide of Anna Kepner.”

‘I know Anna fought. I know she fought for her life, so it’s rough. It’s rough.’

The filing is part of a custody dispute between Hudson and Shauntel Kepner, the parents of the 16-year-old stepbrother, CBS News said. Hudson petitioned for custody of his 9-year-old daughter, whom he shares with Shauntel, his ex-wife; Hudson’s daughter primarily resides with Shauntel and Christopher Kepner — the biological father of Anna, the victim.

“There has been a significant and unanticipated change in circumstances that requires the immediate transfer of sole time sharing and parental responsibility,” the petition said, according to Gray News.

The reported homicide case against the 16-year-old male and custody battle for the 9-year-old girl are happening simultaneously.

Here is how the family members are connected:

Anna Kepner — 18-year-old high school cheerleader found dead aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship in November. TH — Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother, reportedly charged with homicide in federal court in connection with her death. He is listed as “TH” in court documents because, as a minor, he has not been publicly named. Christopher Kepner — Anna’s biological father. He is married to Shauntel Hudson. He also is TH’s stepfather. Shauntel Kepner — Biological mother of TH. She shares a 9-year-old daughter with her ex-husband, Thomas Hudson. She is now married to Christopher Kepner. Thomas Hudson — TH’s biological father. He is seeking emergency custody of his 9-year-old daughter, whom he shares with Shauntel.

On Tuesday, WESH-TV said it obtained a court document noting that the Kepner family wants Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother “buried.”

“Immediately after the cruise, the respondent/mother and Chris Kepner expelled [the minor] from their household, and neither has seen [the minor] since then,” the court document stated.

The court document added, “Social media from the Kepner family has indicated that they want the ‘nails in the coffin’ of [the minor], and that both the Kepner family and the respondent ‘want him buried.'”

CBS News reported that there is an ongoing case against Anna’s stepbrother “currently under seal” and that Miami federal Judge Beth Bloom is presiding over it.

The 16-year-old stepbrother appeared at a Feb. 6 hearing in Miami federal court, according to CBS News.

Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida nor the FBI have responded to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

RELATED: College football player raped girl on family cruise, feds say — and allegedly asked her appalling 2-word question afterward

As Blaze News previously reported, Anna Kepner went on a trip aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship, which departed Nov. 2 from Miami for a six-day Caribbean vacation.

According to ABC News, Anna went on the cruise with her grandparents, father, stepmother, siblings, and step-siblings.

Anna’s grandmother, Barbara Kepner, told ABC News, “The two younger girls stayed with the parents, and then the three teenagers, they decided amongst themselves they wanted to stay in the room together.”

The grandmother noted, “But we had a larger room, and we made it very clear that at any time if they weren’t getting along, they didn’t want to be together, we had an extra bed in our room that they could come to.”

On Nov. 7, Anna was found dead, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life vests.

NBC News previously reported that the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office determined Anna’s time of death was 11:17 a.m. Nov. 7.

The Carnival Horizon cruise ship, which has a maximum capacity of nearly 4,000 passengers, returned to Port Miami on Nov. 8.

A source informed ABC News in November that Anna’s death may have been caused by asphyxiation from a bar hold — a chokehold maneuver in which the arm is pressed across the neck. The source noted that there were two bruises on the side of Anna’s neck.

WTVJ-TV reported that a court document filed in early December stated, “The 18-year-old daughter was found asphyxiated under the bed in the room which she shared with TH. The actions of the unsupervised TH are currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Krystal Wright, Anna’s aunt, told WOFL-TV in November, “I know Anna fought. I know she fought for her life, so it’s rough. It’s rough.”

Christopher Kepner cryptically told People magazine in November that he wanted his stepson to face consequences but did not appear to directly blame him for Anna’s death.

“I do not stand behind what my stepson has done,” Christopher stated.

He declared, “I want him to face the consequences. … I will be fighting to make sure that does happen.” But Christopher also indicated, “I cannot say that he is responsible, but I can’t decline.”

However, Christopher pointed out, “He was the only one … in the room, and the FBI has an ongoing investigation in which they will have to provide the evidence to say that he did do it or did not do this.”

Anna was set to graduate from high school this year and had aspirations of joining the U.S. Navy after graduation and later becoming a K-9 police officer, according to her obituary.

Anna’s obituary describes her as a Christian whose “faith blossomed as beautifully as her smile.”

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​Murder, Anna kepner, Anna kepner case, Anna kepner murder, Cruise ships, Cruise deaths, Homicide, Crime, Stepbrother, Charged 

The aftermath of the viral Tucker Carlson-Mike Huckabee interview has, for me, included the privilege of private conversations with both men, as well as an on-air discussion with Huckabee on my show.

I want to give both men every benefit of the doubt, because I have genuine affection for each of them and respect the lifetime of contributions both have made to the cause. But whether their nearly two-and-a-half-hour clash clarified anything or merely deepened the confusion likely depends on the eye of the beholder.

God initiates covenants. We break them. Then we depend on God’s mercy to bail us out.

Still, let me offer a spiritual clarification as Christians think through the issues now in front of us. My fear is that in arguing over modern Israel, we will become so determined to win secondary battles that we lose sight of the primary truths that govern all of us.

The stakes are not small. If believers drift too far off course, the consequences are damning in the most literal sense.

So we should begin here: You cannot determine whether the current state of Israel is a reconstitution of covenant Israel merely by examining the nation’s behavior. If you have read the Old Testament and tried to compile a list of Israel’s greatest hits in covenant faithfulness, you will not end up with anything resembling a list of bangers like most of Led Zeppelin’s catalog.

From the beginning, the pattern ran the other way. Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the first words God ever wrote by hand and came down to find the chosen people in the middle of a pagan orgy. After that came the familiar cycle: disobedience, judgment, repentance, deliverance, and then disobedience again — with slavery and captivity poured in for good measure.

Carlson and Huckabee can argue Israel’s borders all they want, but it should surprise no one that the nation never fully possessed the borders outlined in Genesis 15. As with so many things, human beings are terrible at obedience. We always have been.

That is the lesson. God initiates covenants. We break them. Then we depend on God’s mercy to bail us out.

The Jews did not attain a level of holiness that compelled God to bring forth the Messiah. Quite the opposite. Israel had hit bottom, spiritually and temporally. So God initiated yet again, through Christ Jesus, reminding humanity once more that we are utterly lost without Him.

That remains true whether you believe the modern state of Israel is a prophetic extension of Old Testament Israel or not. We must not lose that point, and its implications are not remote, theoretical, or merely historical.

Many Americans, after all, love to read our own national story in providential terms. Fine. Then how are we doing with the whole “endowed by their Creator” business in the Declaration of Independence?

RELATED: Trump’s Iran gamble: Peace Prize or Persian Gulf firestorm

Photo by Tajh Payne/US Navy via Getty Images

Do we know what a gender is? No.

Do we know what a border is? No.

Do we know what a baby is? No.

Do we know what a marriage is? No.

Do we know what a family is? No.

Do we know what a law is? No.

Do we even know our own heritage, customs, and traditions? No.

Sure, people will stand and sing “God Bless America” at the next sporting event, maybe even with tears in their eyes. Then many of them will settle back into their seats and applaud while the world burns around them, so long as someone keeps scratching their bellies.

That is idolatry.

For by grace you have been saved through the free gift of faith — and not by your own doing, lest anyone should boast.

So once again, it is revival or bust. That is why I keep saying it and why I keep praying it. There is no other road to the only promised land that finally matters.

​Usa, Israel, Tucker carlson, Mike huckabee, Jews, Christians, Old testament, Opinion & analysis 

Some cruise lines decided to bypass stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, this week due to ongoing violence in the country following the death of cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.

Oseguera, a 59-year-old drug lord who led the Jalisco New Generation cartel, was killed by the Mexican army during a security operation over the weekend in the town of Tapalpa. Six other cartel associates were also killed in the raid.

‘We’ve made the decision to shift itineraries on a handful of sailings to bypass Puerto Vallarta for the next few weeks.’

Oseguera’s death sparked violence in the streets from his apparent supporters, who set fires to vehicles and blocked roads in western Mexico.

The U.S. briefly issued a shelter-in-place order for tourists in certain parts of Mexico, including Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Ciudad Guzmán, Tijuana, Chiapas, and Michoacán. That order was lifted on Tuesday.

Carnival Corporation told Blaze News that it had altered itineraries to skip stops in Puerto Vallarta.

“Our team has been monitoring things in Mexico throughout the week, and cruise tourism has continued to operate normally across most of the country. That said, we’ve made the decision to shift itineraries on a handful of sailings to bypass Puerto Vallarta for the next few weeks,” Carnival Corporation said. “Our cruise lines are directly notifying affected guests and travel advisors.”

RELATED: ‘Nobody wants to go fishing anymore!’ Trump vows to defeat ‘murderous’ drug cartels as chaos sweeps Mexico

Photo by Yilmaz Yucel/Anadolu via Getty Images

A spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line also stated that the company had bypassed a scheduled stop in Puerto Vallarta.

“The safety and well-being of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit are always a top priority. Due to ongoing security operations and the recent U.S. travel warning issued for select areas in Mexico, Norwegian Bliss’ scheduled call to Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 25, 2026, has been canceled. We are closely monitoring the ongoing situation and any additional itinerary updates for ships scheduled to call to Mexico in the near future will be communicated directly with impacted guests,” the spokesperson told Blaze News.

RELATED: ‘Start driving north’: US tourists stranded in Mexico after slaying of top cartel boss ‘El Mencho’ sparks chaos

Photo by Ulises Ruiz / AFP via Getty Images

Royal Caribbean told Blaze News on Wednesday that “the safety and security of our guests and crew are always our top priority” but that there had not been any changes to the cruise line’s visits.

“Should there be, we will contact impacted guests and travel agents directly,” the company said.

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​Cruise, Cruise line, Carnival cruise, Royal caribbean, Norwegian cruise line, Puerto vallarta, Mexico, Cartels, El mencho, Nemesio oseguera cervantes, Drug trafficking, Drug lord, Politics 

With the Texas primaries fast approaching, candidates are scrambling to pitch a last-minute winning message to voters.

Primary elections are set to take place March 3, leaving Republicans and Democrats with just days to edge out their competition. Here is everything you need to know about the three major primaries that have taken center stage.

1. Ken Paxton vs. John Cornyn vs. Wesley Hunt

Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images, Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The three-way primary giving Republicans a headache has been the GOP Senate race with Sen. John Cornyn, the establishment-backed incumbent, fending off Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Cornyn and Paxton had already been facing off in the bitter primary before Hunt decided to throw his hat in the race.

Hunt’s ambitions are not expected to go far, but his candidacy is forcing the GOP to pour more resources into a race that ought to be a slam dunk.

RELATED: ‘Loser mentality!’ Sparks fly as Texas Republicans spar to succeed Ken Paxton in debate moderated by Allie Beth Stuckey

In a two-way race between Cornyn and Paxton, the attorney general has maintained a narrow 2.3 point average lead. Three-way polls show Hunt pulling a significant portion of the vote from both candidates, with one survey showing 36% support for Paxton, 34% for Cornyn, and 26% for Hunt.

If none of the candidates are able to secure at least 50% of the vote, the Republicans will be forced into a runoff, draining more valuable resources Republicans could otherwise spend in tougher races. Notably, President Donald Trump has refrained from endorsing any of the candidates.

2. Jasmine Crockett vs. James Talarico

Photo by Alberto Silva Fernandez/Getty Images, Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for MoveOn

While Republicans duke it out in the Senate primary, their Democratic counterparts are also trying to find their footing.

Tensions reached a boiling point after Stephen Colbert’s show decided not to air on TV an interview with state Rep. James Talarico, pointing the finger at the Trump administration and the FCC’s “equal time” regulations. Rep. Jasmine Crockett sought to set the record straight, claiming her challenger’s interview was actually canned due to a decision from Colbert or the network, saying they didn’t want to have her on the show.

RELATED: ‘Maybe I should endorse Jasmine Crockett’: Lauren Boebert jokes with, praises James Talarico amid heated Texas primary

Crockett has become a rising star for the progressive faction of the party, while Talarico has branded himself a blue-dog Democrat with a Christian upbringing.

Although Talarico’s attempts to moderate would likely give him an advantage in the general, Crockett has maintained an average of a three-point advantage against her primary opponent. It’s also worth noting that polls predict that no matter the nominee, both Crockett and Talarico would have the best shot of securing the Senate seat going up against Paxton.

3. Tony Gonzales vs. Brandon Herrera

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, by Scott Stephen Ball for The Washington Post via Getty Images

The House primary that has recently become the center of controversy has been in Texas’ 23rd congressional district between incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales (R) and gun YouTuber Brandon Herrera.

Herrera came within striking distance of unseating Gonzales in 2024, but Gonzales narrowly managed to maintain his House seat. Gonzales’ odds at re-election are now looking slimmer than ever after a massive scandal broke, derailing his campaign and bringing calls of resignation from his Republican colleagues.

RELATED: ‘Desperate rage’: Republican accuses lawyer of ‘blackmail’ amid affair rumors linked to staffer’s suicide

The nightmare began when Gonzales’ former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles tragically took her own life by setting herself on fire in the backyard of her Uvalde home back in September. A month after her horrific passing, reports began to surface alleging that Gonzales had had an affair with Santos-Aviles.

These allegations resurfaced after new text messages were turned over to the media that appear to confirm the affair. The most recent set of alleged text messages seem to show Gonzales pressuring Santos-Aviles to send explicit photos as well as asking about her favorite sexual position.

This sparked a massive rebellion within the GOP with mounting pressure for Gonzales to resign. Notably, Trump has not yet rescinded his endorsement of the Texas Republican.

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​Donald trump, Texas, Texas primary, Tony gonzales, Brandon herrera, Regina santos-aviles, Jasmine crockett, James talarico, Stephen colbert, Fcc, Texas senate primary, Texas senate race, Wesley hunt, John cornyn, Ken paxton, House republicans, House democrats, Senate republicans, Senate demcorats, Politics 

Many parents assume the battles over “woke” education are largely settled — that whatever excesses defined the last few years have been corrected and that schools have moved on.

Recently uncovered internal curriculum guidance from Maryland’s largest school district suggests otherwise.

Eighth-grade students were shown graphic, politically charged material about Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a geography lesson.

The documents reveal that Montgomery County Public Schools encourage teachers to center lessons on white supremacy, racial and gender identity, and the need for students to engage in “resistance to and liberation from” existing social structures. These guidelines were discussed at a recent PTA meeting and outline what the district calls the “Characteristics of Anti-Bias/Antiracist Curriculum.”

Teachers are instructed to emphasize themes of injustice, racism, oppression, implicit bias, and inequity across subject areas — an approach that reframes education not simply as the transmission of knowledge, but as a moral project aimed at reshaping how students understand society and their place within it.

Left alone, this might have remained a quiet local issue — noticed by a handful of parents, discussed briefly, and eventually absorbed into the bureaucratic background noise of a large school system. Instead, the documents became public.

That’s because of Defending Education, a national grassroots nonprofit that helps parents and communities understand what is being taught in schools — and advises them on coordinating a local response when academic instruction drifts into political or ideological advocacy.

Founded in 2021 by free speech advocate Nicole Neily, Defending Education operates according to a model of indirect activism, emphasizing transparency, documentation, and resources over directives. Parents, Defending Education argues, know their schools better than any national group ever could. What they often lack is access to internal materials, legal context, and a sense of whether what they’re seeing is isolated — or part of a broader pattern.

As the organization puts it in its Empower resources:

Knowledge is power. If you walk into a meeting confident that you know what you’re talking about, you’ll be more effective.

That principle underlies most of Defending Education’s work: Collect primary documents, explain what they mean in plain language, and allow families to decide for themselves how — and whether — to act.

Why the Montgomery County case matters

According to Defending Education, the Montgomery County guidance reflects a broader trend: Controversial frameworks are often introduced not as standalone courses, but as values meant to permeate instruction across subjects, grade levels, and disciplines.

In a press release, Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives at Defending Education, said the language in the MCPS materials should concern parents who were told such frameworks were not entering K-12 classrooms:

This internal guidance from Montgomery County Public Schools looks and sounds a lot like Critical Race Theory, despite repeated assurances to parents nationwide that CRT is not in K-12 schools.

Lessons framed around “resistance to and liberation from white supremacy” — and that ask students to “challenge the current social order” — risk dividing students and indoctrinating them into far-left ideology rather than upholding the American ideal that individuals are judged by their character and achievements, not the color of their skin.

Not an isolated case

The Montgomery County documents are not an anomaly. They are one of many examples Defending Education has uncovered across the country in recent months, spanning classroom instruction, curriculum design, and civil rights enforcement.

Recent cases include:

Minnesota (Hermantown Middle School):
Eighth-grade students were shown graphic, politically charged material about Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a geography lesson, including claims of people being “dragged, beaten, tased, and shot.” The lesson asked students to consider whether ICE had “gone too far” and tied immigration enforcement to President Trump’s campaign promises. School officials defended the material as aligned with state standards. Portland, Oregon:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into Portland Public Schools following a Title VI complaint filed by Defending Education. The complaint alleges millions in taxpayer dollars were diverted to race-exclusive programs associated with the district’s Center for Black Student Excellence, potentially violating federal civil rights law.

RELATED: ‘Whites … need not apply’: Trump DOJ sues Minneapolis Public Schools for alleged racial discrimination

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Across these cases, Defending Education functions less as a protest group and more as an institutional clearinghouse. Its work includes:

Collecting internal documents and guidance through parent tips and public-records requests; Publishing primary materials so parents can judge content for themselves; Explaining education law, civil rights rules, and parental rights in accessible language; and Providing tools for local engagement with school boards and administrators.

In practice, Defending Education operates as a kind of relay between local parents and a national platform. It gathers tips from families, obtains internal materials through public-records requests, and publishes primary documents so parents can see exactly what schools are saying and doing — often in their own words.

The organization then provides legal and policy context around those materials, helping families understand whether what they’re seeing is routine, questionable, or potentially unlawful.

How to get involved

Parents can explore Defending Education’s Empower resources to understand basic education law, parental rights, and common curriculum frameworks; follow the organization’s reporting to see whether local concerns mirror national trends; or submit tips and documents when something doesn’t seem to align with what schools have publicly promised.

Some parents go further — connecting with others in their district, attending school board meetings more prepared than before, or using Defending Education’s materials to frame questions in ways administrators are more likely to answer. Others simply want reassurance that they’re not imagining patterns that feel hard to name. In either case, the organization’s premise is the same: You know your school best — but you shouldn’t have to navigate it blind.

​Defending education, Public school, Crt, Critical race theory, Wokeness, Education, Provisions 

A family of foreigners visiting California were kicked out of the famed La Jolla Cove in San Diego after they were caught allegedly harassing the sea lions.

Visitors and tourists to the cove are warned to avoid the sea lions, but unruly behavior has led some activists to call on the state to shut down access to human beings in order to protect the animals.

‘Why shouldn’t I give you a citation for kicking an animal?’

On Sunday, San Diego photographer Jim Grant said he witnessed one such incident and recorded a San Diego City park ranger kicking out a group of people from the Cove.

“He was giving a really, really stern warning to a couple of kids about throwing things,” said Grant to KNSD-TV. “Finally he told the mother, ‘Woman in the brown jacket, come to the top of the stairs.'”

The video shows the mother interacting in broken English with the ranger.

“Where are you guys from?” the ranger asks.

“China,” the mother says.

“China? In China, do you guys throw dirt at the animals too?” he asks.

“Why shouldn’t I give you a citation for kicking an animal?” the ranger asks later on.

He decided not to give the family a citation but did follow through with kicking them out of the Cove.

Grant said he’s never seen anyone kicked out of the Cove in decades of shooting photos there.

The woman got off easy. Harassing sea lions is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and carries a punishment of up to $30,000 per violation and up to one year in prison.

RELATED: Man decapitated sea lion on Christmas and rode away on e-bike with its head, California officials say

“The Cove is not your personal petting zoo, and it’s not the wild, wild west. There are federal regulations that are put there for a reason,” Grant added.

In July 2024, video captured at the Cove showed sea lions charging at beachgoers and causing a panic. Experts said that they were not actually chasing people but were likely just looking for a suitable place to mate.

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​La jolla cove sea lions, Marine mammal protection act, Chinese people harass animals, Chinese kicked out of la jolla, Crime 

When it comes to artificial intelligence, the Trump administration has made its position clear: America will not choke innovation with red tape.

That instinct is understandable and, in many ways, correct. AI is moving fast, and heavy-handed regulation could do real damage. If the United States cripples its own companies, China will gladly take the advantage. And no one on the right wants blue-state politicians using AI rules to smuggle “woke” ideology into the next generation of powerful models.

The goal should be straightforward: Build an American AI future in which freedom is embedded from the start, and constitutional guardrails shape the systems that will increasingly shape us.

As White House AI adviser David Sacks recently put it, “We don’t like seeing blue states trying to insert their woke ideology in AI models, and we really want to try and stop that.”

Fair enough.

But what happens when resistance to bad regulation hardens into resistance to any regulation at all?

That question is now surfacing in Utah, where the White House is reportedly opposing a Republican-sponsored AI transparency bill. The fight may sound parochial, but it raises a much larger question: Do conservatives have the discipline to protect constitutional liberty in the AI age?

Utah isn’t California

The Utah proposal is not a European-style crackdown. It would not impose speech codes, mandate ideological compliance, or try to centrally plan the AI economy.

At its core, the bill focuses on transparency and accountability. It would require frontier AI companies to disclose serious risks, plan for safety in advance, report major problems, and protect whistleblowers who raise alarms.

That’s far from radical.

If the administration’s AI strategy is to stop progressive states from embedding political orthodoxy into algorithms, Utah’s bill does not belong in that category. The measure is about making sure the companies building extraordinarily powerful systems acknowledge the risks up front and take responsibility when things go wrong.

Treating that effort as if it were blue-state social engineering confuses two very different problems. There is a real difference between using AI regulation to enforce ideology and asking powerful firms to level with the public about systems that could reshape society.

The myth of an ‘unregulated’ AI market

Another uncomfortable truth lurks beneath this debate: AI is not operating in anything like a free-market vacuum.

The European Union has already enacted its sweeping AI Act. That regulatory regime will not stop at Europe’s borders. American companies that operate globally will feel its force, and American users will feel the downstream effects.

If the United States adopts a posture of total federal non-engagement, it will not preserve a neutral market. It will hand the regulatory initiative to Brussels.

That would be a serious mistake. Europe does not regulate with American constitutional principles in mind. It regulates through a bureaucratic worldview that prizes centralized control over freedom. If Washington refuses to establish clear guardrails rooted in our own constitutional tradition, foreign regulators and multinational firms will fill the void.

Power without constitutional guardrails

AI is quickly becoming part of the infrastructure of modern life. These systems increasingly shape how information flows, how public opinion forms, and how daily choices get nudged.

That is power.

We have already watched major corporations use private power to shape public life. Social-media companies moderated, suppressed, and curated speech in ways that tilted public debate. Large firms adopted ESG frameworks that embedded political priorities into lending, hiring, and investment. In both cases, powerful institutions pushed ideological outcomes without a vote being cast or a law being passed.

Nothing suggests AI will escape those pressures.

RELATED: If AI isn’t built for freedom, it will be programmed for control

gorodenkoff / Getty Images

The companies building frontier systems carry their own assumptions, incentives, and cultural biases. If those assumptions get baked into foundational models — and those models then get integrated into education, finance, media, hiring, and governance — ideological influence will move from the margins to the infrastructure of society.

Yes, clumsy central planning would hurt innovation and weaken America’s position against China. But the answer cannot be blind faith that market incentives alone will protect liberty. That asks a great deal of institutions that have already shown a willingness to steer political and cultural outcomes in their preferred direction.

The real challenge is making sure extraordinary technological power develops inside a framework that respects constitutional rights, individual liberty, and personal autonomy.

A pro-liberty AI framework

The Trump administration is right to resist ideological manipulation in AI models and to oppose sweeping regimes that would handicap American innovation while China races ahead.

But someone will shape the boundaries of this technology. The only real question is whether those boundaries reflect American constitutional principles or the preferences of foreign regulators and corporate boards.

Red states such as Utah should be treated as allies in that effort, not obstacles. They can serve as proving ground for approaches that protect transparency, due process, free expression, and individual autonomy without strangling innovation.

Artificial intelligence will shape the next century more than any single statute. Total non-engagement may sound pro-growth, but in practice it leaves the foundational rules of the AI era to someone else.

The goal should be straightforward: Build an American AI future in which freedom is embedded from the start, and constitutional guardrails shape the systems that will increasingly shape us.

​Ai, China, Usa, Liberty, Ai regulations, Artificial intelligence, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Utah, Legislation, Woke ai, Leftism, Red states, Blue states, Brussels, European union, Free speech, Censorship, David sacks, Free market, Transparency 

Jared Hudson is a former Navy Seal, a devoted Christian, a current Republican candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, and the founder of Covenant Rescue Group, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting human trafficking and child exploitation through law enforcement training; operations to rescue victims and arrest perpetrators; and advocacy.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” Hudson joined Rick Burgess to dive into today’s darkest headlines — Epstein, child exploitation, cultural depravity, and political corruption — and ultimately connect them to the bigger reality of spiritual warfare.

During their conversation, however, Hudson told Rick something that genuinely shocked the BlazeTV host: After years of infiltrating the child exploitation industry, there’s an even darker underworld operating in the United States.

Since Covenant Rescue Group kicked off in 2019, Hudson and his team have seen things most of us can’t even begin to imagine.

“I mean, we’ve seen guys having sex with 18-month old babies — their own children,” he says.

And yet, Hudson says his work in D.C. politics has shockingly exposed him to even deeper levels of depravity.

“I feel [depravity] more now in the politics side that I’ve gotten involved in running for U.S. Senate than I do in the child exploitation side,” he told Rick, who was taken aback by this declaration.

“You just said that you have sensed demonic activity [in politics] more … than you’ve even seen in Covenant Rescue with human trafficking and child exploitation. So, why would that be?” he asks.

Hudson explains that dealing with child exploitation, while undeniably monstrous, is in some ways easier because it’s still “taboo” and widely opposed.

“Look at the outcry from both sides of the aisle on this Epstein stuff, right?” he says.

Even though there are fringe groups that want to destigmatize pedophilia by pushing it “into a sexual orientation,” by and large, “we are, as a society, not past protecting children,” he explains.

Hudson compares that to the D.C. swamp, which runs on “partiality.”

“Everybody within politics, even if they disagree with exploitation or whatever, they show partiality,” Hudson says.

And where partiality thrives, so does depravity, he explains, citing James 3:16-17: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

“Career politicians, even if they claim to be Christians, they sell access … and they’re partial to donors,” Hudson says, arguing that these politicians disregard those who “can’t write [them] a max donation check,” “support a super PAC,” or “put [them] on a platform that’s going to reach a 100,000 people.”

“They’re partial to their club as opposed to the people they’re elected to represent. And you have a bureaucracy that’s in place, and you have these elitists that are in place that think that they can buy … your position, buy you, buy access to you … and own [you],” he explains.

This kind of systemic corruption isn’t occasional or confined to certain groups — it’s baked into the structures and normalized at every level.

“It’s across the board for everything — congressmen, even the president,” Hudson says.

“Everything’s for sale,” Rick echoes.

To hear more, watch the full episode above.

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Affordability has become a problem for nearly every American. Inflation and the rising cost of living keep chewing through paychecks, and the old markers of the American dream — home ownership, small-business ownership, a secure retirement — feel farther out of reach than they have in years.

Some people respond by demanding more government involvement in daily life. President Trump has taken the opposite view: The government should step back.

Success will not come only from repealing rules. It will come when regulators stop seeing entrepreneurs as problems to manage and start seeing them as partners in growth.

Within days of returning to office, Trump signed two major executive orders aimed at saving money for business owners and taxpayers alike: Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation and the much-discussed DOGE initiative. Their core principle was simple: For every new federal regulation, agencies should eliminate 10 old ones.

One year later, the results are real.

I have spent that year on the front lines of the fight against unnecessary regulation as a regional advocate in the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Congress established the office in 1976, but it has taken on renewed life under the current administration.

My team and I have spent the past year meeting with small-business owners — many still trying to recover from the economic damage of the COVID lockdown era — to identify ways the federal government can serve as a partner instead of a roadblock.

Nationwide, our team has met with more than 12,000 businesses.

The full report is available publicly, but the top-line results from the past year are straightforward:

We flagged more than 300 regulatory issues for federal regulators.We helped influence changes to 23 federal regulations affecting millions of businesses.We saved small businesses nearly $110 billion in unnecessary regulatory costs.

That last number is significant, but it also shows the scale of the broader problem. Federal regulation costs the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion a year by some estimates — roughly 12% of GDP. Much of that burden falls hardest on smaller firms that cannot absorb legal and compliance costs the way large corporations can. Meanwhile, the Code of Federal Regulations has swollen from a few thousand pages decades ago to more than 180,000 pages today.

For small businesses, that kind of regulatory sprawl is not an abstraction. It is a threat.

Big companies can keep in-house counsel, compliance officers, and HR departments on payroll. A family business, a contractor, or a startup working out of a garage cannot. Excessive regulation tilts the playing field toward the largest players and against the very people most likely to create new jobs and local wealth.

For too long, federal rulemaking has treated small-business owners as an afterthought. We once heard that giant firms were “too big to fail.” Today, many small businesses face a different reality: they are becoming too small to succeed.

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One of the most effective tools we have built to push back is the SBA’s Red Tape Hotline — 1-800-827-5722 — which allows small-business owners to speak directly with federal staff about regulatory burdens and offer suggestions for reform. Through that hotline, we have heard from thousands of people we could not have reached in person.

Our broader goal is to improve the regulatory climate for every business owner in the country. But even saving a mom-and-pop shop a few billable hours with an attorney can make a real difference.

In one especially memorable case, SBA staff helped a toy company in Mississippi clear a shipment through Customs and Border Protection in time for December — literally saving Christmas for that business.

The philosophy behind this work is the same one that guided me as mayor of Riverton, Utah, where I recently completed two terms. Riverton has grown because we kept taxes, fees, and regulations low enough for businesses to thrive. Companies came, jobs followed, and the city’s sales-tax revenue doubled during my time in office. Watching that same pro-growth approach work at the national level has been deeply rewarding.

Still, this is only a first down, not a touchdown.

Success will not come only from repealing rules. It will come when regulators stop seeing entrepreneurs as problems to manage and start seeing them as partners in growth. If we can make that shift, we can do more than trim costs. We can make the American dream attainable again.

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