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.

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“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.

​Evs, Ev mandate, Donald trump, Big beautiful bill, Auto industry, Lifestyle, Consumer choice, Align cars 

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.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Upload, Video, Free, Sharing, Video phone, Youtube.com, Steve deace show, Steve deace, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Elon musk, The america party, Third party, Republican party, Donald trump, President donald trump, National debt, National debt interest 

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