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DAVID MARCUS: China trip a glimpse into the surveillance state America must never become

Fri, 15 May 2026 14:16:32 -0400

Watching Bret Baier live from Beijing this week, you couldn't help but be stunned at his 'Special Report' team's coverage of the surveillance state in China. It's scary.

Baier reported that in China, if you jaywalk, or ride a scooter without a helmet, cameras capture it and almost instantly you get a ticket on your phone. In fact, Baier’s own driver received one after illegally parking for just a couple of minutes.

It brings up an important question for Americans, because our government has every bit the capability, and most of the equipment in place to enforce such laws so aggressively. If that happened, would America still be America?

American society has a lot of unofficial wiggle room in such things. No tickets are given for double parking in New York City during street cleaning, even though it's illegal. Everyone on I-95 is going at least 5-15 miles above the speed limit. And as for jaywalking, most American cities have basically instituted a de facto Manifest Destiny of the intersection.

TOO LOUD? TICKET’S IN THE MAIL

This somewhat gentle and relaxed enforcement of laws that do not pertain to violence or rise to the level of felony, explains why every state has bizarre old laws still on the books that are simply never enforced.

In Delaware, it is illegal to sell pet fur. In Massachusetts, swearing at sporting events is a minor crime. In Minnesota, you can be charged with using a greased pig in a contest. The reason these laws were never repealed is that we just stopped enforcing them and nobody cared.

But what happens if every time a law is passed, it comes with an AI-driven surveillance regime that is capable of detecting almost every violation that takes place? How many speeding tickets did you actually deserve this year, according to the letter of the law?

BRETT TOLMAN: MOUNTAIN RUNNER FACING PRISON FOR USING TRAIL BUREAUCRATS SECRETLY DEEMED OFF-LIMITS

Much of this is cultural. I recall being in Tokyo in 2019, even before tickets could magically appear on your phone, and on a pencil straight, one-lane street, dozens of people on both sides stood waiting to cross. I was mystified, I remember thinking, "It's right there. We can make it. This isn’t storming Omaha beach."

But for the Japanese, a rule is a rule. You follow it.

The concern that we should have about the radical increase in the surveillance state in the United States is that it may make our American culture more like South Asian culture, and that is too high a price to pay for safety and order.

JONATHAN TURLEY: ELITES CALL THE CONSTITUTION 'BROKEN' BUT AMERICANS KNOW IT'S OUR GREATEST GIFT

The wiggle room described above along with, let's face it, a healthy dollop of disdain for authority, is as American as apple pie. In fact, it can almost serve as a kind of fourth branch of government when people en masse just ignore silly laws.

For as bad as the COVID lockdowns were, and for all the horrible calls from progressives at the time for us to be more compliant, like the Chinese, we did see millions of Americans just disobey ridiculous restrictions.

This defiant spirit is central to who we are as a nation, and we need to think about both how much surveillance we have and how our government might choose to use it.

WE COULD WIN THE AI WAR AND STILL LOSE ALL OF OUR FREEDOMS IF WE AREN’T CAREFUL

Given our devices, TVs, Ring door cameras, plus all the state surveillance out there, the tools are in place. So far, our government isn’t using it to control us. They could easily flip a switch and go totalitarian anytime they want.

The means of state surveillance in our society that seemed like science fiction just a generation ago, aren’t going anywhere. That is a losing argument akin to lying in front of a bulldozer to save a tree.

The real debate will be over how much latitude we give the state, not just to use technology to surveil us, but to punish us for transgressions of minor laws. This is a real challenge because Black’s Law Dictionary has no definition of "wiggle room."

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Do we want to live in an America where a human cop can make a judgment to give you a warning instead of a ticket, or a one where a Robocop simply enforces the letter of the law?

Americans, it seems to me, prefer the wiggle room. But how to protect it, well, that is a very challenging question.

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TANVI RATNA: How Trump’s NATO reset is becoming military reality

Fri, 15 May 2026 08:20:55 -0400

For decades, if Europe faced a major war, the hidden assumption was not just that America would show up.

It was that America would organize the fight.

The United States would provide the top commanders, the logistics, the intelligence, the airpower, the nuclear umbrella, the reinforcement routes, the satellites, the refueling aircraft and the command networks that made NATO work when things got real. European allies contributed forces and geography, but the American machine held the alliance together.

That is changing.

TRUMP EFFECT FORCES GERMANY TO REPRIORITIZE DEFENSE AS NATION PLAYS CATCH-UP IN MILITARY SPENDING

Trump’s NATO reset is no longer just a demand that Europe spend more money. It is becoming a change in who plans the fight, who moves the forces, who covers the flanks, and who supplies the weapons Europe would need if the next crisis arrives while Washington is focused elsewhere.

I previously argued in this space that the 2026 National Defense Strategy put the new bargain in writing: Europe remains allied with the United States, but it no longer gets to be the first claim on American military capacity. Iran made that prioritization visible faster than Europe expected.

Now the military machinery is moving.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL SAYS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES HAVE TO DO 'MUCH, MUCH MORE' TO INCREASE DEFENSE SPENDING

The most important evidence is NATO’s command map. In February 2026, mere days after the launch of the National Defense strategy, NATO allies agreed to redistribute senior command roles so that for the first time, not Americans but Europeans moved into leadership of all three major Joint Force Commands: Norfolk, Naples and Brunssum. The United Kingdom is slated for Norfolk, Italy for Naples and Germany and Poland for Brunssum.

For context, a Joint Force Command is the war-planning layer between political decisions and battlefield execution. If Russia pressures the Baltics, if the Mediterranean erupts, or if reinforcements have to cross the Atlantic, these headquarters matter because they organize the campaign. They decide how the theater is run: where forces go, what gets reinforced first, and how land, air, sea, cyber and logistics are coordinated in a crisis.

Moving Europeans into all three is therefore not a staffing shuffle. It is Europe being moved into responsibility for the actual conduct of regional war.

'PUTIN IS PUSHING THE LIMITS’: EASTERN ALLIES WARN TRUMP NOT TO PULL US TROOPS

Brunssum is the Eastern Flank command closest to Russia. In practical terms, that means Poland, the Baltics, the Suwałki Gap and any serious Russia contingency. Germany and Poland moving into leadership there matters because Poland is no longer only the frontline country warning Western Europe about Moscow, spending heavily on tanks, and serving as Ukraine’s logistics hub. It is being pulled into NATO’s operational core.

Naples is the Southern Flank command closest to the Gulf region and Africa. That means the Mediterranean, the Balkans, North Africa, migration pressure, Red Sea disruption, energy routes and Middle East spillover. Italy’s elevation matters because Iran showed that the southern theater is no longer secondary. A Gulf crisis can hit European shipping, fuel prices, naval deployments and NATO politics almost instantly.

Norfolk is the Atlantic and High North command. It protects the reinforcement artery between North America and Europe. If American or Canadian forces have to cross the Atlantic to reinforce Europe, Norfolk matters. It also links the Arctic, the Nordics and the North Atlantic sea lanes.

EUROPEAN OFFICIALS PITCH NEW IDEA TO SHORE UP DEFENSES WITH TRUMP'S RETURN

This is a new military map of Europe.

The old political map was Paris, Berlin and Brussels. The emerging military map is Poland on the Eastern Flank, Italy in the Mediterranean, Britain on the Atlantic artery, Germany as the logistics and industrial base, and the Nordics tied into the High North and Baltic theater.

But Washington is not giving Europe the whole machine.

‘MAKE NATO GREAT AGAIN’: HEGSETH PUSHES EUROPEAN ALLIES TO STEP UP DEFENSE EFFORTS

The United States keeps SACEUR, the top NATO military command, and the commands that integrate air, land and maritime power. That means Europe is being asked to run more of the regional fight, while America keeps the pieces that decide capabilities and whether the fight can be sustained, escalated, reinforced and won.

That is exactly what a Trump NATO reset looks like in practice. Europe gets more of the commands and America keeps the system.

The force posture is starting to follow the same logic. The planned withdrawal of about 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany is not just a headcount story. The drawdown reportedly affects a brigade combat team added after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and cancels a planned long-range fires battalion with Tomahawk missiles that German officials viewed as a deterrent against Russia.

HEGSETH WARNS EUROPEANS 'REALITIES' OF CHINA AND BORDER THREATS PREVENT US FROM GUARANTEEING THEIR SECURITY

That matters. A brigade combat team is combat power. Long-range fires are what allow a force to strike deep targets, command posts, air defenses and logistics nodes before they hit NATO troops. These are exactly the kinds of capabilities Europe long assumed America would provide in a serious contingency.

Pulling them back tells Europe the new strategy is not paperwork but serious. NATO’s exercise schedule points in the same direction. The drills are not random. They show the wars NATO thinks it may have to fight.

Exercise Steadfast Dart 26 involved more than 10,000 troops from 13 member states and tested rapid deployment and sustainment of the Allied Reaction Force in Brunssum’s area of responsibility. Translation: can NATO move forces quickly into the Eastern Flank before a Russian crisis becomes a disaster? Amber Shock 26 put roughly 3,500 troops and heavy equipment into the crucial Suwałki Gap with Russia to practice movement and logistics in one of Europe’s most dangerous corridors. Cold Response 2026 brought about 30,000 troops from 14 allies across Norway and Finland, tied to the High North problem in the Arctic theater against Russia.

NATO CHIEF SIGNALS ALLIES MAY ACT ON HORMUZ, WARNS OF ‘UNHEALTHY CODEPENDENCE’ ON US

The Strait of Hormuz was not Europe’s battlefield, but Europe was exposed. Oil, LNG, shipping insurance, industrial costs and inflation all depend on maritime security. When Washington pushed allies to help police the strait, Europe faced a real military question: could it help secure an energy artery when America was busy elsewhere?

The EU’s Operation Aspides had supported more than 640 merchant vessels in its first year, including more than 370 close-protection escorts. But it operated with only a handful of high-end European ships. When Hormuz became the crisis point, EU ministers had no appetite to extend the mission into the strait, even while acknowledging Aspides lacked enough naval assets.

That was not just political caution. It exposed the mechanics of European power: too few ships, narrow mandates, legal constraints and limited appetite for risk.

BRETT VELICOVICH: IRAN BUILT A DRONE TERROR MACHINE — AMERICA JUST HACKED IT

Iran did not create the NATO reset. It showed why the reset has urgency. Europe is now building around the gaps the old bargain allowed it to avoid.

Air and missile defense is one example. Europe is expanding initiatives such as European Sky Shield and signing contracts for systems like IRIS-T SLM. But serious air and missile defense depth could take five to ten years, and some deliveries run toward 2028 to 2030.

Drones show the same gap. Europe is launching drone and counter-drone initiatives, including cooperation with Ukraine, but there is still limited evidence of European mass production on the scale Ukraine, Russia or Iran have made central to modern war.

Ammunition is improving, but the math is brutal. Europe is trying to move from roughly 300,000 shells annually toward 2 million while supporting Ukraine and rebuilding its own stockpiles. Military power is not a press release. It is output per month.

The most revealing dependency may be above the battlefield. Europe can get more command responsibility, but it still relies heavily on the American layer that makes command effective. That is why spending alone is not the story.

Europe can spend more and still fail if the money buys fragmented national arsenals instead of one usable military machine. Collaborative procurement was only 18 percent of EU defense investment in 2022, far below the 35 percent benchmark. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, urgent buying flowed heavily to non-European suppliers.

In plain terms, Europe has to stop building 27 separate shopping carts and start building a war machine.

That is the next phase of Trump’s NATO reset. He got Europe to spend. Now Europe has to convert spending into hard power: air defense, drones, shells, ships, logistics, space assets and industrial surge.

The important point though is that what Trump foreshadowed is now happening.

The Pentagon formalized it. NATO’s command map is changing. The old NATO bargain made America the automatic first responder in Europe. The new bargain gives Europe more command responsibility and more of the conventional burden, while America keeps the strategic levers.

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That is Trump’s NATO reset becoming military reality.

This article is a Fox News Digital exclusive from the Tanvi Ratna’s Substack series on different theaters President Trump is realigning with the Iran War.

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How Trump handed the Democrats a gift by seeming to dismiss financial worries of Americans

Fri, 15 May 2026 08:10:56 -0400

The speaker of the House is trying to rescue the President of the United States from a bad blunder.

Or, to put it in layman’s terms, "Cleanup on Aisle 3!"

In what can only be viewed by Democrats as a gift-wrapped present from the political gods — and which you will hear repeated thousands of times before November — Donald Trump appeared to blow off concerns about the financial struggles of his fellow citizens.

Mike Johnson began: "I don’t know the context in which he made that comment–"

Hold on. When a seasoned lawmaker begins that way — even though the offending words were said on camera and already blasted around the world — he is saying he doesn’t want to answer the question. He wants to immediately pivot to his spin.

TRUMP PROMISED LOWER COSTS; THE IRAN CONFLICT NOW THREATENS THAT PLEDGE

A quick recap for those living without electricity: Donald Trump, who spends more hours talking to journalists than any president in history, had committed a linguistic felony. He is usually immune to such missteps by reframing the question, which all pols have some basic ability to do.

Before he left for China, a reporter asked whether he was motivated to make a deal with Iran because of "Americans’ financial situations."

"Not even a little bit," Trump said — and he didn’t stop there.

"The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran — they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all."

That’s where he stepped in it. Trump repeated the negative premise in a complete sound bite, rather than focusing solely on nukes.

The Johnson explanation:

"I can tell you the president thinks about Americans’ financial situations. I talk to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day, and we talk about it constantly. He is laser-focused on trying to resolve the conflict in Iran. Because if we get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, that will alleviate pressure on gas prices and other things in the economy."

Message: He cares.

TRUMP TORCHES DEMS' 'FAKE AFFORDABILITY' PITCH – BUT GOP PANIC IN DEEP RED STATE HINTS VOTERS AREN'T BUYING IT

Which is reminiscent of George H.W. Bush (who had a tendency to read his talking points) saying after winning the Persian Gulf War, in response to criticism that he was too focused on policy: "Message–I care."

The Louisiana congressman did try to convey that message without contradicting what Trump had actually said.

Now you could argue that Trump was just being ham-handed, that he was trying to convey that nothing was more important to him than stopping the Iranians on the nuclear front.

But in recent weeks, the president has talked a great deal about his White House ballroom. He has said Barack Obama should be imprisoned over what happened in 2016. He has continued his retribution campaign against political enemies, especially James Comey, who he’s called a "dirty cop" and against whom he orchestrated the "seashell" indictment after a previous one was thrown out of court.

None of this broadcasts a message of affordability, especially with soaring prices on such items as beef, coffee and tomatoes.

MIKE JOHNSON SAYS HOUSE GOP WORKING FULL STEAM AHEAD ON TRUMP'S 'AFFORDABILITY AGENDA'

In his comments the other day, Johnson turned to a favorite Trump punching bag. He said they were trying "to reverse the inflation of the Biden years that was at a 40-year high."

Small problem. The annual inflation rate was just announced at 3.8 percent for April, eliciting gasps from some TV economists.

The president did draw support from an unexpected source: John Fetterman.

The Democratic senator told Fox News this his stance is rooted in his support for Israel and Trump being the first president to take on the terrorist state of Iran.

"I mean, he said something that got clipped, saying, ‘I’m not thinking about American people financially.’ But what he really was saying, what he did say is like, ‘I am really thinking that we can’t ever let Iran building a bomb’.’

It didn’t get "clipped" by most media outlets. But I’m sure Trump appreciated Fetterman’s vote against invoking the War Powers Act, which would have required Hill approval before the war could continue–especially with three Republicans breaking ranks with their party.

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No president can single-handedly turn around the economic ship of state. Even with Trump’s pick, Kevin Warsh, confirmed as Fed chairman, there’s no guarantee that interest rates will quickly be cut, despite a long lobbying campaign by the president.

And he certainly didn’t help himself with his ill-chosen words.

Trump tries to cut blue-state Medicaid fraud and save more green

Fri, 15 May 2026 07:00:16 -0400

Just how bad is Medicaid fraud? Six months ago, Minnesota dominated the news for losing an estimated $9 billion to thieves since 2018. Yet now the federal government is saying that medical providers are likely fraudulently billing about $100 billion every year. The good news is that the Trump administration is now fighting to close what is likely one of the biggest loopholes behind this unprecedented theft of taxpayer money.

On April 21, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — Dr. Mehmet Oz — announced that his agency will require states to develop stronger plans to review their Medicaid providers. Nationwide, there are millions of such providers, and by law, states must revalidate their enrollment in the program at least every five years.

Through this process, states check providers’ medical licenses and confirm their compliance with all relevant state and federal laws. Revalidation is expressly designed to prevent fraudsters from cheating taxpayers.

But states are failing this basic job. My organization has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to 48 states and D.C., seeking their data on how many Medicaid providers have been revalidated. Roughly two-thirds of states haven’t responded at all, while still others provided partial responses with useless data. Still, among those few states that have taken our request seriously, the data they provided points to a deeply concerning nationwide trend.

READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD

Consider Georgia. The state has a record of 374,774 Medicaid providers, yet roughly 21,000 are longstanding providers that haven’t been revalidated in the past five years. Things are far worse in Illinois. Of the 222,000 Medicaid providers in the state, more than 25% have gone longer than five years without proving the validity of their participation in the program. One Illinois provider hasn’t been revalidated in more than nine years.

It’s unlikely that all these Medicaid providers are defrauding taxpayers. But without strict state enforcement, fraud inevitably becomes more common. Revalidation looks at license verification, checks providers against death records, flags providers excluded from participating in Medicaid, and otherwise confirms that these providers are who they say they are and do what they say they do. The Trump administration cracked down on 447 hospices in Los Angeles alone for fraudulent billing — the very sort of thing revalidation can identify.

Revalidation can also ferret out providers that are banned from practicing in one state yet still bill Medicaid in another state. For example, my organization’s research on the "Little Mogadishu" complex in Minneapolis found multiple healthcare providers that were placed on Minnesota’s Medicaid exclusion list, but not the federal exclusion list.

VANCE ANTI-FRAUD TASK FORCE SUSPENDS 447 HOSPICES IN LOS ANGELES OVER MORE THAN $600M IN SUSPECTED FRAUD

One was an adult day care where its license was revoked for 35 violations — including staff failing to interact with patients. Separately, an Inspector General’s report found 12% of all providers terminated for cause in one state were participating in another state’s Medicaid program just months later.

Revalidation can even flag providers that are using the identity of someone else — say, a doctor who retired years before. In California, con artists stole the identities of doctors —two of whom were deceased — to fraudulently bill millions for hospice care.

Operation Never Say Die in April 2026 charged multiple individuals for $60 million in fraudulent billings through phantom hospice clinics. When states don’t look into their Medicaid providers, scams like this abound.

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Dr. Oz has given states 30 days to tell his agency how they’ll strengthen their legally required review of Medicaid providers. History shows how urgently necessary this is. Some 1.6 million providers in the separate Medicare program were revalidated in the early 2010s, and more than 500,000 had their status deactivated and another 34,000 had their status revoked altogether, saving taxpayers $2.4 billion. Today, if better provider revalidation prevented even just five percent of improper payments in Medicaid, taxpayers would save billions annually.

It remains to be seen how states will respond to the Trump administration’s demands, which are more than justified for the sake of taxpayers. Yet even if governors get serious about revalidation, the five-year timeline is still too long. Over the course of a half-decade, bad actors could easily bilk Medicaid for enormous sums, then rinse and repeat under a different provider name in the same state or somewhere else.

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It would be far better if states had to review providers every few years. The Trump administration could pursue this via regulation — or better yet, legislation like another reconciliation bill.

In the meantime, every state should follow Dr. Oz’s lead and come up with a serious plan to confirm that every single Medicaid provider is above board. Because states have gotten lazy, untold billions of taxpayer dollars have been stolen. The Trump administration is right to demand immediate change, so that the Medicaid fraud crisis doesn’t become even more mind boggling than it already is.

The CCP controls the most intimate elements of our life. Most Americans have no idea

Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:52 -0400

Critical minerals quietly power every aspect of modern American life. As you pour your morning coffee, you are relying on copper wiring and silicon chips working behind the scenes inside your coffee maker. When you grab milk from the refrigerator, you are depending on metal components, copper wiring, and electronic controls to keep everything cold. Turn on the TV to another round of bickering politicians on cable news, and you are looking at a screen built with indium, lithium, and rare earth phosphors.

Flip off the lights, hop in your car, connect your phone to Bluetooth, and turn on your favorite podcast for the drive to work. That everyday routine depends on copper, lithium, and a whole host of other critical minerals that power batteries, speakers, navigation systems, electric motors, and modern communications technology.

These materials are so deeply embedded into our daily lives that most Americans would never think twice about them. But they should.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WORKS TO BREAK CHINA’S RARE EARTH MINERAL STRANGLEHOLD ON AFRICA

Beijing certainly has. The Chinese Communist Party has spent decades and hundreds of billions of dollars cornering the market on critical minerals, from mining to processing and refining. Today, China controls roughly 70 percent of global rare earth mining and nearly 90 percent of rare earth refining capacity, dominating the supply chains that underpin America’s economic and national security.

This is not just about what goes into your coffee maker or your iPhone. Critical minerals are essential to America’s military strength, powering everything from advanced fighter jets and missile systems to radar, satellites, and communications technology. China knows this and has demonstrated time and time again its willingness to weaponize global supply chains for geopolitical leverage.

Last year, Beijing imposed sweeping export controls on rare earth elements, disrupting global markets and sending shockwaves through defense and manufacturing supply chains. The consequences hit Americans directly. Supply disruptions drive up costs, slow manufacturing, threaten jobs, and make everything from cars to consumer electronics more expensive and harder to produce.

My home state of California’s aerospace industry offers a clear example of what is at stake. The sector supports more than 350,000 jobs and generates tens of billions of dollars in annual economic output. It is also central to America’s defense industrial base, producing advanced aircraft, satellites, and missile systems. Without reliable access to critical minerals, thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity are at risk.

President Trump and his administration understand the urgency of this challenge and are moving quickly to restore American energy and mineral dominance. Recent efforts to strengthen domestic mining and support companies like MP Materials and Lithium Americas are important steps in the right direction.

But America cannot solve this problem alone. Even with increased domestic production, global demand for critical minerals is projected to skyrocket in the coming decades. Some estimates show the world will consume as much copper over the next 25 years as humanity has in all of recorded history.

This is why we must work alongside our most trusted allies and friends to build strong, resilient supply chains away from China.

This week, my Developing Overseas Mineral Investments and New Allied Networks for Critical Energies (DOMINANCE) Act passed out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The DOMINANCE Act helps lock in President Trump’s critical minerals strategy and creates a coordinated approach to secure the supply chains that power our economy and national defense. This legislation strengthens America’s ability to work with allies, reduces dependence on China, and ensures the free world — not the Chinese Communist Party — controls the resources that will define the 21st century.

This is not just about energy or industrial policy. It’s not about military might or geopolitical competition, although that is certainly part of the calculus. At its core, this challenge is about protecting the American Dream, and our way of life.

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The appliances in our homes, the cars we drive, the technology we rely on each day, and the military systems that defend our nation all depend on secure critical mineral supply chains. America can either meet this moment now, or risk regretting it for the next 100 years.

I am optimistic that, under this administration and alongside our allies, America can reclaim our critical minerals supply chains and take back our energy future.

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Phyllis Schlafly was right: America must put babies and mothers first

Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:13 -0400

"Feminism has changed the way women think, and it has changed the way men think, but the trouble is, it hasn't changed the attitudes of babies at all," said my mother, Phyllis Schlafly. I am so fortunate that my mother put babies first. In the 1960s and 1970s, a new ideology was fashionable: that women do not need or want either men or babies. Phyllis Schlafly lived a fulfilling life centered on her husband and children; which was in stark opposition to the idea that single women are happier alone.

I am so happy that she did put babies at the center of the conversation, because, as her child, I was the beneficiary of her putting babies first.

The current birth dearth is not due to lack of government money; it is due to a culture that tells young women to put career first and that men are expendable. Today, 40% of births in the United States are without the benefit of marriage. And marriage is definitely a benefit for the child. Children who are raised with a mother and a father married to each other are the most privileged group in America. These children are more likely to finish school, get employed, earn more money, be happier and healthier, and also to start their own families.

MORE AND MORE GEN Z WOMEN SAY THEY DON’T WANT KIDS. AS A YOUNG MOM, HERE’S WHAT THEY GET WRONG

Intact families should be celebrated, not economically punished by bad tax policies. A true choice for mothers is the choice to nurture their own children, not to succumb to the economic and social pressures for them to farm them out to institutional day care. Mothers should never be economically punished for raising their own children.

Babies were always the first priority for Phyllis Schlafly. She especially liked to talk to babies. Whenever she saw a baby or toddler in public, she would immediately engage in an active conversation with the child. Today, digital interactions have replaced much face-to-face communications and our daily spoken word count has diminished. Texting is a poor substitute for talking! Babies need to hear a rich variety of words in order to develop speech, especially the sound and inflection of their own mother’s voice. Institutional day care cannot provide the same vibrant, nurturing chatter that comes from a mother.

Phyllis Schlafly rightly saw that feminist ideology devalued motherhood. She started an award for the Full-time Homemaker of the Year to honor women who prioritize their babies. Phyllis asked: would you rather be in an office instructed by a boss or managing your household from your own kitchen? She rejected the phrase "working mothers" to describe employed women, because, as she said, "all mothers work all the time".

The concept of taxpayer-paid day care for young children reflects a misplaced understanding of who is responsible for their care. Young children want and need their parents, not a nanny state, to look after them. Government welfare programs encourage the disintegration of the family by leading mothers to seek government support rather than support from fathers. Subsidized day care can undermine the family unit by diminishing the provider's role in the home. Americans consider whether it is wise policy to encourage mothers to leave their babies with government employees. What most mothers desire in paid work is to work inside their home or to work a flexible schedule that allows them to prioritize their family.

At Eagle Forum, we believe in public and private virtue, meaning taxpayer money should be spent wisely and families should have control over their own households. If Congress truly wanted to help families, it should increase the dependent deduction on income taxes. Those savings would directly benefit families, without routing taxpayer money through a government intermediary.

Here is who loses under taxpayer-paid babysitting:

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The child loses because what the child most wants is mother care, not day care. Day care may be expensive, but mother care is priceless.

The mother loses because no one cares more about her child than she does. The day care worker can never be emotionally invested in the welfare of the child.

The day care workers lose because wages are still low. Increasing the supply of day care will not raise workers’ wages.

The taxpayers lose because when the government pays, prices rise (as we have seen in the ever-rising prices of college education and health care). The subsidies will ensure that the day care businesses can raise their prices without losing customers.

Stay-at-home mothers lose as they do not receive any subsidy for choosing to remain at home and raise their own children. They have resisted the social pressure to return to paid employment and place their children in institutional babysitting.

However, there are some winners under taxpayer-paid babysitting:

Day care bureaucrats win because they can expand their business models. As in education, additional government funding often goes to administration rather than workers. Instead of supporting small family-run daycares, the industry will shift toward larger, institutional services.

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Politicians win by pretending to give money to the people.

No job is more vital than motherhood. We honor all mothers who choose this important job.

Blue state bill targets homeschoolers in latest government power grab

Fri, 15 May 2026 05:00:02 -0400

After decades of parental rights victories, Connecticut may become the first state to go backwards on homeschool freedom in the past 50 years. The Connecticut Senate advanced a bill attacking homeschooling families by a vote of 22 to 14, mostly along party lines. Three Democrats joined all Republicans in opposition. The measure cleared the House 96-53 last week, with four Democrats crossing the aisle to stand with Republicans.

Those margins fall short of the two-thirds supermajority required in both chambers to override a gubernatorial veto.

Connecticut families now have only one remaining safeguard. Leadership should respect the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children and block this Orwellian legislation.

BLACK CONSERVATIVE FATHER AND FAITH LEADER HOMESCHOOLS 6 KIDS TO 'GET GOD IN': 'WHAT COULD BE MORE IMPORTANT?'

The proposal would force homeschooling families to prove their innocence to the government before they can educate their own kids at home. It requires annual notices of intent and background checks by the Department of Children and Families when a child is withdrawn from public school. Families would be barred from homeschooling altogether if a parent or any other adult in the household faces an active DCF investigation or appears on the state’s abuse and neglect registry.

For decades, states across the country have steadily expanded parents’ rights to direct their children’s education. This legislation reverses that progress in one stroke.

"Everyone agrees that child abuse is a serious concern and the government has an important role in addressing it," Home School Legal Defense Association attorney Ralph Rodriguez said. "But expanding regulation over thousands of homeschooling families is unlikely to solve failures that occur within the child protection system itself."

Added Mr. Rodriguez: "The more effective approach is to strengthen the institutions responsible for identifying and responding to abuse rather than placing new regulatory burdens on families exercising their constitutional rights."

Democrat-led states have launched similar assaults on homeschooling in recent years. Proposals surfaced in California, Illinois, and New Jersey. Those efforts stalled or failed — for now. Connecticut has now emerged as the latest battleground. During floor debate, Sen. Rob Sampson (R) delivered a powerful closing statement: "Parents are not subjects–they are citizens–and they do not need the permission of this state government or anyone in this room to educate their own children."

Such a broad attack on parental rights is blatantly unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the primacy of parents over the state when it comes to child-rearing decisions. If the proposal becomes law, parents should challenge it in court, where it deserves to be struck down.

In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the Supreme Court declared that "the child is not the mere creature of the State." The state cannot override parents’ authority without compelling justification. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) protected Amish parents’ right to direct their children’s education beyond the eighth grade. Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) struck down a state law restricting foreign-language instruction, affirming parents’ liberty "to establish a home and bring up children" and "to control the education of their own."

Homeschool Legal Defense Association President James R. Mason put the problem plainly: "As the US Supreme Court has affirmed, a state cannot treat every parent as a potential threat simply because some parents do wrong. That presumption of suspicion — applied universally, before any evidence of harm — is, in the court’s own word, ‘repugnant’ to American tradition."

Mr. Mason also noted that "the way Connecticut places families on the registry has been ruled unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which includes Connecticut."

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Even if approved, the bill may have little immediate bite. During the May 4 floor debate, it was even admitted that the legislation as written lacks an enforcement mechanism. Parents denied approval by the government could simply continue homeschooling their children with no consequences for noncompliance.

That admission raises an obvious question. If the bill carries no real penalties, why adopt it at all? The rational explanation is that this might be the opening move in a longer campaign. Collecting data and establishing oversight on innocent families today sets the stage for clamping down with real enforcement teeth tomorrow.

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Connecticut has no business targeting homeschool families while its own public schools are failing spectacularly. In Hartford, only 16 percent of students are proficient in math and 18 percent are proficient in reading. This dismal performance comes despite annual per-student spending exceeding $25,000. Lawmakers should focus on fixing the government monopoly schools under their control before harassing families who have chosen to raise and educate their own children.

Connecticut should block this proposal and send a clear message that the state stands with parents, not against them. Parental rights are not privileges granted by the state. They are fundamental liberties that government exists to protect.

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DAVID MARCUS: Democrats love whistleblowers, unless they attack Saint Fauci

Thu, 14 May 2026 11:04:33 -0400

It was an amazing sight in the Senate on Wednesday, as the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by its chairman, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., held an explosive hearing featuring a CIA whistleblower testifying on COVID origins, and not a single Democrat bothered to even show up.

Every chair on the left of the dais sat empty as high-ranking CIA official James Erdman outlined the duplicity and lies, not just of the government during COVID, but especially of disgraced former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, which is precisely why the cowardly Democrats took the morning off.

According to Erdman, suppression of the lab leak theory, now widely accepted as how the COVID pandemic began, "was significantly influenced by Anthony Fauci, injecting himself into the IC [intelligence community]."

What followed was a detailed description of how, at every turn, Fauci put scientists in oversight positions in place who not only backed up his wet-market theory, but in some cases were arguably complicit in the creation of COVID and the subsequent coverup.

WHO IS JAMES ERDMAN III? CIA WHISTLEBLOWER WHO WENT FROM COVID MANDATE FIGHTS TO SENATE SPOTLIGHT

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pulled no punches, saying the reason Fauci lied was "because he helped fund the Wuhan lab. He supported and funded gain-of-function research, and then he tried to cover it up, and then he worked to cover it up from the American people," adding, "I hope he’s indicted."

I asked Rutgers professor and molecular biologist Richard Ebright, a longtime Fauci critic, about why he thought the true story of COVID’s origins is taking so long for the public to hear. His answer was troubling.

"Misfeasance and malfeasant science administrators," Ebright told me. "Notably, [former National Institutes of Health Director] Francis Collins and Fauci, deliberately misinformed the public about the origin of COVID, and many scientists, science journalists and general journalists joined them in deliberately misinforming the public about the origin of COVID."

EX-CNN PUNDIT ADMITS TRUMP WAS LIKELY 'RIGHT' ABOUT COVID-19 LIKELY LEAKING FROM A LAB

Ebright is not some conspiracy theory podcaster. He is, in fact, the very type of world-class expert that Fauci deliberately banned from the official scientific conversation about COVID. Any voice opposed to the wet-market theory and the immiserating public policy of lockdown was labeled a kook.

Ebright believes all of us were intentionally misled.

"All informed persons, without exception, understood by January-February 2020 that COVID likely entered humans through a research-related incident, involving reckless gain-of-function research performed in Wuhan and enabled by U.S. government funding approved by Collins and Fauci in violation of U.S. government policies prohibiting funding for such research."

FORMER WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKER ADMITS HE 'SCREWED UP' ON COVID-19 LAB LEAK THEORY

Given all of this, and the fact that COVID impacted, in generally harmful ways, every single American citizen, it is not just shocking, but utterly unacceptable that not one Democratic senator could be bothered to even show up to Wednesday’s hearing.

A cynic might suggest that this avoidance by Democrats owed to the fact that they would have been expected to hopelessly defend Fauci, who they helped to turn into a cross between a folk hero and a religious icon, and who clearly was not straight with us.

If Fauci was just honestly wrong about the lab leak theory, that would be one thing and deserving of reputational damage. But if he was knowingly wrong, and hiding his own role in gain-of-function research, then we are in crime of the century territory.

DAVID MARCUS: DEM SENATORS' SHAMELESS ANTICS SHOW WHY PARTY IS IN SHAMBLES

The absent Democratic senators are doing the only thing they can do. Indeed, the only thing that any of the mad authoritarians who authored our COVID response can; they are ignoring it now and pretending it didn’t happen.

Trillions of dollars lost, millions of hours of kids' education lost, family members dying alone in empty hospitals, and we are not even being offered an "Oops," much less an apology. Instead, Democrats want us to shut up about it.

I asked Ebright what the worst case scenario is if we fail to fully understand what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. He was blunt.

DR. MARC SIEGEL: TRUMP IS RIGHT TO BLOCK 'DANGEROUS' GAIN-OF-FUNCTION RESEARCH

"Reckless gain-of-function research continues, and continues to receive U.S. government funding," he said. "This sets the stage for a next, possibly even worse, lab-generated pandemic."

In the end, that is what all of this is really about and why the Democratic senators who played hookey should be ashamed of themselves. They would rather put America at grave risk than admit they were wrong about COVID.

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So long as the Democrats remain deaf, dumb and blind as to the ever-growing allegations and evidence of Fauci’s malfeasance, the American people will never get the full story. But that doesn’t mean Republicans can’t keep discovering pieces of it.

According to Hawley, there are already enough pieces for an indictment of Fauci. And who knows what remains to be discovered?

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America holds the advantage as Trump meets Xi in high-stakes summit

Thu, 14 May 2026 09:00:49 -0400

President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing with a strong hand to play in talks with China’s President Xi Jinping. It’s all due to his military and trade moves over the past 16 months.

Of course, to read the press, you’d think doom awaits. "Xi is confident in his country’s power; Trump is weakened with U.S. mired in war," fretted The Washington Post on Monday, May 11. From New York, the Council on Foreign Relations asserted on Sunday that at the Trump-Xi summit, China will have the upper hand. The general take is that Trump is reeling from the Iran war, while Xi is some sort of mastermind, ready to hop into global leadership. "Xi wants to project China as a more reliable and responsible counterweight to U.S. volatility," as the Post put it.

You’ve got to be kidding me. The reality is that Trump has put America in a much stronger geopolitical position versus China. Last spring, China was yanking export licenses for critical minerals and jeopardizing factory production around the globe. Now, the U.S. Navy sits athwart China’s No. 1 oil route in the Strait of Hormuz. That’s a new poker hand.

Xi has spent the past year purging military officers, dealing with a slowing economy, and coping with China’s lag in the AI race by turning inward.

TRUMP HEADS TO CHINA WITH THE UPPER HAND — AND XI KNOWS IT

In contrast, Trump has cut trade deals around the world attracting trillions of dollars in foreign investment. He’s clobbered Iran’s military and ended the rule of Chinese chum Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. The U.S. Pacific Fleet has intercepted illicit shadow tankers bound for China’s teapot refineries that sneak in oil from Iran and Russia. The sophisticated display of military power in Operation Epic Fury made eyeballs pop in China’s People’s Liberation Army.

China experts caution Trump is forfeiting prestige by meeting on Xi’s home turf. But for Trump, it’s irresistible. Accompanying Trump to Beijing is an American dream team of CEOs who dominate everything from low Earth orbit (that’s Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX) to top-grade aircraft engines (that’s Larry Culp of GE Aerospace.)

He wants to look Xi Jinping in the eye, and there is no substitute for sitting down at a negotiating table.

MARTIN GURRI: LET'S LOOK AT ALL THE GLOBAL BENEFITS TRUMP REAPED BY GRABBING MADURO

Watch for four major moves in Beijing.

Trade

This is a business trip. Team Trump hates what China’s rise did to the USA. Here’s the good news. "Our trade deficit in goods with China fell to $202 billion in 2025—the lowest it has been since 2004. And China’s share of total U.S. imports fell to about 9 percent, the lowest it has been since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testified Apr. 28.

LIZ PEEK: TRUMP'S MAJOR TRADE WINS COULD BE ROCKET FUEL TO US ECONOMY

What Trump wants now is a stable, balanced and civil relationship with China. His plan is managed trade: a new policy where the U.S. and China negotiate tariffs sector by sector and expand trade on non-sensitive goods.

Export deals

Agriculture is at the top of the list, including exports of soybeans, dairy, and corn. Farmers are hoping for a long-term deal with China – although China has failed to live up to similar promises in the past. Aviation watchers predict Boeing could sell China up to 500 airliners and CEO Kelly Ortberg will be on the trip. This is all part of Trump’s plan to narrow the trade deficit. Trump wants America positioned for maximum sales.

TAIWAN WATCHES TRUMP-XI MEETING FOR SIGNS CHINA WILL TEST US RESOLVE

Iran

Trump will come down hard on China for selling Iran sodium perchlorate and other chemicals for ballistic missile fuels. Beijing is already anxious. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just slapped sanctions on Chinese satellite imagery companies and on Qingdao Haiye Oil Terminal Co., which receives Iranian oil. Dwindling oil could hit plastics and chemicals industries and stunt Chinese economic growth.

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Artificial Intelligence

Trump and Xi may chit-chat about AI safety, but the U.S. should steer clear of so-called agreements. The U.S. must win the AI race. As of May 1, 2026, the U.S. government’s National Institute of Standards reports the best U.S. model, Open AI GPT 5.5, is approximately eight months ahead of China’s DeepSeek V4 Pro.

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Whatever you think about AI, you don’t want a world where Xi Jinping sets AI standards. America’s best chance here is the unfettered success of our tech titans and start-ups. They are winning this race with model innovation, and by deploying the whole AI tech stack across global markets ahead of China. Only our U.S. tech sector has the money to compete with China.

China remains a formidable military competitor. China is once again landfilling for new bases in the South China Sea. China has doubled its nuclear missile arsenal from about 250 to over 600 weapons and massive expansion continues unabated. However, Trump’s blend of trade deals and military deterrence is proof positive of America’s unrivaled global leadership.

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MIKE DAVIS: Virginia court's gerrymandering decision unmasks Left's insanity

Thu, 14 May 2026 07:21:58 -0400

The Virginia Supreme Court correctly and courageously ruled Friday that a Democrat-backed gerrymandering referendum violated the Virginia Constitution. The ruling ensured that Virginia, a state that Republicans lost by only about 5% in 2024, would keep its 6-5 Democrat-Republican map, compared to the 10-1 Democrat map Democrats cooked up. Leftists went insane over the ruling. Since then, Virginia appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The outlandish displays from Democrats to the decision are chilling but informative: If they ever gain power nationally again, the whole country will turn into what Virginia has become.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger ran as a "moderate." During her campaign of platitudes, she stayed away from the leftist proposals of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, instead focusing on kitchen table issues like affordability. Upon taking office, Spanberger unmasked herself, immediately ending Virginia’s cooperation with ICE. Leftist legislators began introducing proposals to authorize the prosecution of ICE agents, an insurrectionist display against the lawful assertion of federal authority. Spanberger rubber-stamped the radical state legislature’s leftist agenda—which included a slew of new tax increases and pro-crime policies—and topped it off by backing Virginia's gerrymandering efforts, along with former President Barack Obama, who previously decried gerrymandering.

The Left attempted to redistrict by lawsuit for decades in states it was not able to otherwise gerrymander. Alabama, Texas and Louisiana all had cases before the Supreme Court in recent years to force illegal and unconstitutional race-based gerrymandering that produced some of the least capable DEI members of Congress in the history of our Republic.

Leftists poured more than $60 million into the effort to ram the Virginia referendum through. The problem was that early voting had begun before the legislature voted in favor of sending the referendum to voters. Under the Virginia Constitution, two separate assembly votes must occur prior to submitting a referendum for voters’ approval or disapproval, with an election in between. Democrats argued absurdly that the first vote occurred prior to the election even though early voting was well underway in the election Spanberger eventually won.

DAVID MARCUS: VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS STEP ON A $70M RAKE AND NOW THEY'RE CRYING

Many warned this plan was unconstitutional, among them former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The determined and deranged Democrats did not listen. A trial court judge enjoined the referendum from proceeding, but Jay Jones, the radical leftist attorney general — who once supported the murder of children of his political rivals — argued the Virginia Supreme Court could not rule on the referendum's legality until after its completion, that is, after voters had gone to the polls. The Supreme Court agreed and allowed the referendum to proceed as Jones requested.

The referendum narrowly passed, and the Supreme Court then heard arguments over its constitutionality. In a 4-3 decision authored by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, an appointee to the Court of Appeals by then-Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, the Supreme Court invalidated the referendum. The takeaway was clear: Legislatures may redraw maps, and even gerrymander, but gerrymanders cannot be race-based, and must be drawn according to the state’s law and constitution.

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Leftists lost their minds after the Supreme Court’s ruling. Jones lambasted the decision as political — restrained rhetoric for a man who had fantasized about putting bullets in the heads of then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert’s children. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., railed against the decision, huffing that the Supreme Court should have ruled prior to the referendum, never mind that the justices did exactly what Jones asked: permit the referendum to proceed, then rule on its lawfulness. Some online leftists urged Spanberger to ignore the court. The most ridiculous suggestion, however, would destroy Virginia's judiciary.

JONATHAN TURLEY: EX-CONSERVATIVE ICON JOINS LEFT'S RUTHLESS COURT-PACKING SCHEME

Michigan State University law professor Quinn Yeargain proposed that the legislature lower the retirement age of justices to 54, the age of the youngest justice in the majority. The whole court would then have to retire, the leftist legislature could select an entirely new bench, the new justices would rehear the case, and the referendum would pass. Another version of this fantasy involved challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's independent redistricting commission that voters approved in 2020.

Thankfully, enough sane Virginia Democrats put their collective foot down to stop this insanity. One accurately characterized the plan as "schizo hopium." Even though the deranged plan failed, it remains instructive. Imagine if Democrats achieve the trifecta: the House, the Senate and the White House. They relentlessly bashed the U.S. Supreme Court and will undoubtedly continue when the justices decline to take up Jones’ absurd appeal of the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling.

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Leftists yearn to pack the U.S. Supreme Court, adding at least four justices. Virginia stepped back from the cliff that many demented Democrats wanted to jump over, for now. If radical Democrats assume power as they did in 2021, they will not hesitate to jump off that cliff and take the rest of the nation with them.

Vote accordingly.

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REP JIM JORDAN, REP TOM McCLINTOCK: Democrats think they can overrule laws

Thu, 14 May 2026 07:00:42 -0400

Students of American history may recall the nullification crisis of the 1830s, when South Carolina asserted for itself the right to declare federal law void inside its state borders. President Andrew Jackson asserted federal authority, South Carolina backed down, and the crisis passed peacefully.

The idea that a state could nullify federal law effectively ended three decades later with the bloodshed of the Civil War. It was further buried in the 1950s by Supreme Court decisions and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizing the National Guard to enforce federal law in Little Rock, Arkansas.

But for today’s radical Democrats, there is a new front in the nullification fight — this time around criminal aliens and so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions.

JD VANCE, ICE FLIP SCRIPT ON SANCTUARY CITY LEADERS AS 'CHAOS' ERUPTS ACROSS MN: 'THIS IS DANGEROUS'

In sanctuary jurisdictions across the country, from California to Virginia, state and local officials are declaring themselves immune from federal immigration laws. These cities and states, all run by Democrats, each have policies or ordinances that obstruct federal immigration enforcement within their borders.

These sanctuary jurisdictions prohibit their law-enforcement agencies from working or even communicating with federal immigration officials. Some, like Washington and Colorado, prohibit local jails from delaying the release of criminal aliens so that federal authorities may safely take them into custody. Officials in Minnesota want to go even further, seeking to place restrictions on where and how federal authorities may enforce immigration law in the state.

By providing safe haven for illegal aliens — including violent criminals, child abusers, and drug traffickers — and impeding federal authorities from safely enforcing immigration statutes, sanctuary jurisdictions essentially declare federal immigration law to be void within their borders.

The debate over sanctuary jurisdictions isn’t merely some abstract legal disagreement — although the Constitution is crystal clear that federal law is the supreme law of the land, and Democrats’ appeals to states’ rights and an obscure legal concept known as the anti-commandeering doctrine fall short.

At least one-third of Americans live in localities that refuse to enforce federal immigration law. For these American citizens, radical Democrats’ sanctuary policies can be life and death.

Look no further than Fairfax County, Virginia. The far-left prosecutor there, Steve Descano, ran for office promising to make charging decisions that would "avoid immigration consequences." In December 2025, Descano’s office dropped assault charges against an alleged MS-13 gang member and released him onto the street, despite a request from federal immigration authorities to take the illegal alien into custody. Just one day after his release, the gang member allegedly committed a murder. If Fairfax County was not a sanctuary jurisdiction — if Descano and local officials allowed immigration authorities to enforce federal law—this killing could have been avoided.

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Sanctuary jurisdictions put law-enforcement officers in danger too. In Denver, for example, local authorities released an illegal alien and suspected Tren de Aragua gang member rather than allow federal immigration officials to take him into custody in a secure jail facility. When immigration officials sought to arrest the gang member on the street, he tried to flee and assaulted an officer. This attack on law enforcement could have been avoided.

Sanctuary policies act as a pull factor for illegal immigration, incentivizing foreign nationals to enter the country. As we saw during the Biden Administration, a record number of illegal aliens surged across the border, knowing if they could get to a sanctuary jurisdiction they would be here to stay. An untold number of illegal aliens — including criminals and terrorists — entered the United States in those four years.

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The modern Democrat Party has become the party of open borders and unlimited illegal immigration. It is a party that demonizes federal law-enforcement officers and defunds vital immigration law-enforcement operations. It is the party, quite simply, that prioritizes the protection of criminal aliens over the safety of American citizens.

The nullification of federal law died with the secessionists and segregationists decades ago. But today’s radical Democrats are reviving it to protect criminal aliens from federal immigration enforcement. That’s wrong and just plain dangerous. The sooner Democrats respect federal immigration law, the better for the public safety of all Americans.

Republican Tom McClintock represents California's 5th congressional district and is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

Trump-Xi’s China summit is a defining test for America in the new Cold War

Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:58 -0400

When Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly declared that mastery of artificial intelligence is "the front line and main battlefield of international competition," he was not indulging in political theater. He was announcing the strategic framework now guiding Beijing’s economic, military and technological ambitions.

After 24 years in uniform and another two-plus decades studying America’s adversaries — from the Pentagon to a think tank to writing 14 books on geopolitical threats — I have learned to take authoritarian leaders seriously when they openly declare their intentions.

As President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing on May 14 for his first visit to China since 2017, the central question is whether Washington fully understands the scale of the contest now unfolding.

A summit unlike any other

TRUMP HEADS TO BEIJING FOR HIGH-STAKES XI TALKS AS TAIWAN TENSIONS, TRADE DISPUTES TEST US STRENGTH

This is not a routine summit centered on trade disputes or diplomatic optics.

According to Reuters, senior officials expect discussions involving Iran, Taiwan, semiconductors, rare earth minerals, tariffs, computing infrastructure and military stability.

No Trump-Xi meeting in recent memory has carried this level of geopolitical risk.

TRUMP’S TARIFF WAR WITH BEIJING IS PART OF A MULTI-PRONG STRATEGY TO SECURE AMERICA FROM A MUCH BROADER THREAT

The Middle East remains in open conflict following the Iran war. That conflict has forced the Strait of Hormuz closure, triggering the most severe global energy shock in years and giving Beijing unusual leverage over economies desperate for stable supply chains. Taiwan sits under mounting Chinese military pressure. Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing are accelerating toward what increasingly resembles a new Cold War — not centered on nuclear weapons, but on chips, data, automated systems, infrastructure and digital control.

Beneath the ceremonial handshakes lies something far larger than diplomacy. Trump and Xi are not merely negotiating trade balances. They are negotiating over who shapes the international order for the next generation.

The new AI Cold War

STEVE FORBES: THE AI COLD WAR HAS BEGUN AND AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE

For years, many American policymakers viewed China primarily through an economic lens. That era is over.

Beijing now openly links computing power, industrial policy, military modernization, surveillance systems and digital infrastructure into a unified strategy of national power. In my new book, "The New AI Cold War: Liberty vs. Tyranny in the Age of Machine Empires," I describe this struggle as "not a war of tanks and missiles alone, but of algorithms, data, and digital power."

Recent developments confirm that China is moving faster than many in Washington appreciate.

TOP AI FIRM ALLEGES CHINESE LABS USED 24K FAKE ACCOUNTS TO SIPHON US TECH

A major National Review analysis warned that Beijing is preparing to flood the world with exports of its computing technology after becoming increasingly self-sufficient in chips, infrastructure and open-source machine-learning systems. Huawei’s newest Ascend processors reportedly approach the performance of advanced Nvidia systems, while Chinese firms such as DeepSeek and Alibaba aggressively expand deployment across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. What once looked like a technology gap is narrowing into a strategic race.

The theft dimension is no longer theoretical. On April 23, White House Science Advisor Michael Kratsios formally accused China of conducting "industrial-scale campaigns to distil U.S. frontier AI systems" — leveraging tens of thousands of proxy accounts and jailbreaking techniques to extract capabilities from American models and train cheaper Chinese versions.

Anthropic has documented that three Chinese laboratories generated over 16 million fraudulent exchanges with its systems to accomplish exactly that.

AI ARMS RACE: US AND CHINA WEAPONIZE DRONES, CODE AND BIOTECH FOR THE NEXT GREAT WAR

Washington and Beijing are also exploring possible guardrails and crisis communications channels, recognizing that neither side benefits from uncontrolled escalation involving autonomous systems and cyber operations. When rival powers negotiate emergency protocols for machine-directed conflict, the world has entered a new era.

Exporting digital authoritarianism

The danger extends beyond the technology race itself.

GORDON CHANG: CHINA'S RISING MARKETS MASK A FRAGILE ECONOMY, SOCIAL DISCONTENT

China increasingly fuses automated surveillance, industrial policy, machine-learning infrastructure and state power into a digitally enforced authoritarian system. According to Huawei, its "Safe City" platforms have been deployed in hundreds of cities worldwide.

Governments across Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East now rely on Chinese surveillance infrastructure. China is not merely exporting cameras and software. It is exporting a governance philosophy built on control rather than consent.

In many cases, nations adopting Chinese systems also inherit Chinese technical standards, Chinese data ecosystems and Chinese assumptions about censorship, monitoring and centralized authority. That matters because the emerging contest between Washington and Beijing is not simply economic. It is ideological.

CHINA’S GLOBAL AGGRESSION CHECK: TAIWAN TENSIONS, MILITARY POSTURING, AND US RESPONSE IN 2025

Taiwan: the most dangerous flashpoint

Taiwan may be the summit’s most combustible issue.

Reuters reported that Trump intends to discuss Taiwan arms sales directly with Xi, acknowledging publicly that Beijing wants those sales reduced. Xi’s government has made clear it will never tolerate Taiwanese independence, and any ambiguity from Washington would embolden further aggression. Any concession there would be a grave mistake.

HORMUZ CHAOS SPARKS WARNING: CHINA COULD STRANGLE TAIWAN WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT

Taiwan produces more than 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Losing reliable access to that manufacturing capacity would severely damage American defense production, communications systems and advanced computing industries.

But Taiwan is about more than chips. The island sits at the center of Indo-Pacific maritime security and represents a test of American credibility with allies from Tokyo to Manila. Softening support for Taiwan in exchange for temporary diplomatic concessions elsewhere would not produce peace. It would invite further escalation.

Iran and China’s energy leverage

TRUMP TO CONFRONT XI AT HIGH-STAKES SUMMIT OVER CHINA BACKING FOR IRAN, RUSSIA

Iran will also weigh heavily on the summit.

China remains one of the largest buyers of Iranian oil, helping sustain Tehran economically despite Western sanctions. The Strait of Hormuz closure has sharpened that leverage: China has weathered the energy shock better than most, giving Xi unusual geopolitical confidence at the negotiating table.

Trump must not trade long-term American strategic interests for vague Chinese promises regarding Iran. Beijing may offer diplomatic assistance or pressure on Tehran, but any arrangement that strengthens China’s geopolitical position while leaving Iran strategically intact would weaken America’s long-term standing across the Middle East.

TRUMP MUST BE STRONG AGAINST CHINA TO KEEP THE PEACE

The defining contest

Xi comes to the summit seeking economic relief, tariff stability and strategic breathing room. Trump arrives facing the challenge of preserving American leverage without triggering uncontrolled escalation.

Both leaders likely want stability. Neither side benefits from direct confrontation between the world’s two largest powers. But history teaches that stability without strength rarely lasts.

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The Psalms warn that "unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." America’s watchmen cannot afford complacency.

This summit is not merely about tariffs, Taiwan, or temporary diplomatic agreements. It is a reckoning over who governs the technologies, infrastructure and strategic systems that will shape the 21st century. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected in Beijing just days after Trump’s departure — a reminder that the alliances forming around this contest will define the global balance of power for a generation.

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America’s allies in Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra, London and beyond are watching carefully.

The question is no longer whether the United States and China are competing for global influence. The question is whether America still possesses the clarity, resolve, and strategic patience required to prevail in the defining geopolitical contest of our age.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM ROBERT MAGINNIS

MORNING GLORY: President Trump needs to finish the war against Iran once and for all

Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:30 -0400

My mornings begin with coffee — how did I ever get through high school without coffee? — and the "News Items" newsletter from John Ellis, longtime NBC News poobah whose reputation for fairness and seriousness led his hobby of collecting key stories and circulating a summary of them to friends and family to become an influential summary of the key stories from overnight as well as the obscure and the incredible (but always true and very well sourced).

John’s missive had been my 6 AM companion for so many years that when he decided to expand the shop, I was one of scores of recipients who said "Hey, I’ll invest a few bucks to grow that project — the country needs one newsletter that does not spin and can’t be spun," and over the next many years it’s grown into a replacement for the long march through the legacy outlets for an AM update on the world’s news.

"News Items" doesn’t have a slant, so when it opens with a "Well that really matters!" moment, I paused and considered its vast implications. Wednesday’s "News Items" began this way:

MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP MUST REJECT A SECOND MUNICH AND HOLD FIRM AGAIN IRAN

"1. The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities. Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway. People with knowledge of the assessments said they show — to varying degrees, depending on the level of damage incurred at the different sites — that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases they can launch missiles directly from launchpads that are part of the facilities. Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments."

Having given up on the New York Times years ago — and the already infamous "rape-trained dogs" column from Nicholas Kristof must have sent more subscribers who relied on the platform for actual news as opposed to recipes and puzzles or The Athletic to the exits — I would not have known about that report early yesterday but for "News Items."

The newsletter can certainly be trusted to provide a faithful summary of a story from a platform that is not trusted by the center-right, but a story of consequence nonetheless.

The CIA — presumably the lead agency for the assessment that was leaked — is currently led by the very competent John Ratcliffe. But the CIA has a checkered record on Iran from 1979 when they didn’t see the Islamic Republic coming (much less what it portended) to 2007 when its "assessment" of Iran’s nuclear ambitions wholly missed the mark. That 2007 debacle should haunt consumers of this report:

"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

So declared the opening words of the key judgments of the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on "Iran's Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities." The CIA might have had collaborators in the broader Intelligence Community in that enormous "swing and a miss" of an NIE 19 years ago, but the damage it did in handcuffing President George W Bush regarding Iran in his closing months was vast.

Of course President Obama spent eight years trying to find ways to welcome Iran into the community of nations —including the now infamous pallets of cash Obama sent the IRGC as part of the JCPOW—perhaps not realizing because of that 2007 NIE that the Islamic Republic was and would always remain a rogue and dangerous theocracy run by a two lunatic dictators in succession since 1979, fanatics whose whole plan was to build and use nuclear weapons to end first Israel and then any other opponent of its end-times apocalyptic vision including the U.S. if it could build the missile capable of reaching the homeland. No update and improved NIE was ever leaked even after Israel pilfered the entire Iranian nuclear file. But we know Team Obama was ideologicallly predisposed to play and lose the three-card monte Iran has been playing with the world for half a century.

That’s a longer way of saying that (1) the new assessment could be as wrong as 2007’s, but (2) hope isn’t a strategy especially when it comes to the battle with Iran. This time, as with 2007, the president ought to again go with the Intelligence Community’s assessment.

Which should mean that the next wave of planning for massive strikes on Iran’s arsenal should already be far advanced.

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Iran’s immediate response the to the February 28 attacks was to lash out not just at Israel and U.S. bases, but at a dozen other countries and their militaries and infrastructure. Like the proverbial wounded beast, the lunatic regime went wild. Noted. Iran wasn’t chastened or changed by the massive blows that rained down on it. Rather, the lunatics that remained regrouped and doubled and tripled down on vengeance.

It is relatively calm now with President Trump in China, but the "News Items" summary of the New York Times’ summary of the intelligence leak should mean the resumption of strikes when President Trump returns.

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There is no point to negotiation with the third string fanatics in Tehran. There is only the path of sustained degradation of their capabilities and strangulation of their economy. Perhaps the Artesh will tire of not getting paid. Perhaps some colonel in the IRGC figures out how to gather enough other colonels to pull off a coup. There are paths forward, but hard to see how internal resistance to the crazies atop the regime congeals absent military means combined with an economic vise.

None of the paths forward should include leaving Iran as it is. Lunatics in the neighborhood shouldn’t have hand guns or rifles. Lunatics on the world stage shouldn’t have missiles, mines, drones and enriched uranium. It really is that simple. Alone or with Israel and our Gulf Allies, President Trump has to finish the job.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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JONATHAN TURLEY: AOC's war on billionaires twists America's birth into a socialist myth

Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:19 -0400

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is fast becoming the greatest fabulist since Aesop.

Recently, Ocasio-Cortez insisted that true billionaires are a capitalist myth since "you can’t earn a billion dollars." However, her greatest work of fiction may be her insistence that the Framers fought against billionaires and would have joined her and other socialists in seeking to eradicate them today.

Bertrand Russell once noted that "there is something feeble and a little contemptible" about those "who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths."

The American left has long peddled such "comfortable myths" as the wealthy "not paying their fair share" of taxes. The top 1% of income earners pay over 40% of federal taxes, and that percentage goes up to 70% for the top 10%.

AOC DOUBLES DOWN ON ‘MYTH’ OF EARNING A BILLION DOLLARS, CLAIMS FORTUNES ARE BUILT ON ‘ABUSE’

However, Ocasio-Cortez has become a liberal Homer for her reputation for spinning collectivist tales. What is impressive is her myth-within-a-myth signature style: "You can’t earn that, right? And so you have to create a myth … you have to create a myth of earning it."

In a discussion at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Ocasio-Cortez gave her revisionist account of the Founders as, surprise, budding anti-capitalists:

"I want to talk about how this is in the heritage of our country, because America was founded … you look at Thomas Jefferson writing to Madison in revolt of British aristocracy. The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time. And we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state that the voices of everyday people did not exist."

AOC TRIPLES DOWN, CLAIMS AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS AGAINST 'THE BILLIONAIRES OF THEIR TIME'

In my recent book, "Rage and the Republic," I discuss the economic philosophy of the Founders in exploring the history and future of this unique republic.

While Ocasio-Cortez references our 250th anniversary, she ignores that it is also the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s "The Wealth of Nations." Smith’s free-market theory was an instant hit with the founding generation. These men had just created the first major Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments.

Yet, they knew that true individual liberty could not be achieved without economic freedom. Smith’s economic theory was the perfect companion for their political theory.

PROTECTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN OUR 250TH YEAR

The combination of American democratic theories and free-market theories produced the world’s most successful and oldest democracy in history. In "Rage and the Republic," I discuss the threats to this republic, including from figures like Ocasio-Cortez, who spread socialist myths. The book calls for a recommitment to what I call a "liberty-enhancing economy."

That is why this particular myth told by Ocasio-Cortez was so jarring. The Founders were great believers in capitalism and the free market. They were not fighting "the billionaires of their time" over their wealth. Many of the Founders were themselves quite wealthy, including banker Robert Morris Jr., who was known as the "Financier of the Revolution."

Adjusting for inflation and current rates, Morris would be a billionaire today.

DAVID MARCUS: DON'T BE SO SURE SOCIALISTS CAN'T WIN IN THE HEARTLAND

The Founders believed in unleashing everyone’s ability to become a Morris. They fought against the taking or occupation of property by the government. At the very top of their stated purpose for the American Revolution was "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The phrase was virtually ripped from the page of John Locke’s "life, liberty, and property." Locke believed that there was a natural right to property created by what God left "in common" for humanity. Preceding any government, it was a right that belonged to human beings by divine grant. Hardly a roaring endorsement of socialist ideals or, as Zohran Mamdani put it, the "warmth of collectivism."

George Mason relied on Locke for his draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Jefferson relied on heavily. Mason wrote of "the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

THE UNWINNABLE WAR AMERICA'S FOUNDING FATHERS FOUGHT AND WON CHANGED HUMAN HISTORY FOREVER

Of course, the property reference was changed to happiness in the Declaration, which reflected the more transcendent values of these Enlightenment devotees.

While reduced to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness," the original language appeared in the Fifth Amendment and, later, in the Fourteenth Amendment, protecting citizens from being "deprived of life, liberty, or property."

In his 1792 essay "Property," Madison echoed Lockean values in declaring that good government "secures to every man whatever is his own."

WASHINGTON DEMS PASSED AN INCOME TAX THEY KNOW IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. THAT WAS THE POINT

Other early figures, like Chief Justice John Marshall, wrote, "The power to tax is the power to destroy."

The new myth-making on the left is meant to revive what I previously described as "economic factionalism," seeking political power with this type of "eat-the-rich" rhetoric. It is working, as it has throughout history. In California, many are pushing a "billionaires’ tax," while far-left figures like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are pushing for a federal variation.

In states from Washington to Virginia, Democrats are virtually chasing wealthy taxpayers out of blue states with planned millionaire taxes.

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To achieve such radical change, you must first destroy the values upon which this republic was born, convincing people that their fundamental ties to capitalism are as ephemeral as true billionaires.

The greatest irony is that Ocasio-Cortez personifies what the Founders truly wanted to combat. They feared mobocracy and the tyranny of the majority, the arbitrary power that can come from majoritarian abuse.

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Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and others are truly not new or particularly interesting additions to the political dialogue. They are the same voices of democratic despotism that Madison and others sought to quell.

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What the Founding Fathers would tell AOC about the American Revolution

Thu, 14 May 2026 05:00:03 -0400

To be sure, hubris, ignorance, and intolerance are often the coins of the realm of the far left. A chilling example of that reality was recently on display at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics where former Obama advisor David Axelrod was interviewing potential Democratic presidential candidate Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It was there that AOC proved her massive ignorance and building bias by laughable claiming: "The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state…"

If possible, our Founding Fathers would have told AOC many things. The first two being to "crack a history book" and "try to claw back your tuition money from Boston University."

Make no mistake. There is a very real chance that Rep Ocasio-Cortez could be the Democratic nominee for President come 2028. To that point, a recent headline in The Hill stated: "Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t deny 2028 speculation: ‘My ambition is to change this country.’"

AOC TRIPLES DOWN, CLAIMS AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS AGAINST 'THE BILLIONAIRES OF THEIR TIME'

Republicans and all who cherish the liberty and freedoms bestowed upon us by our Founding Fathers would be wise to take her blinding ambition seriously. As AOC stated during that same interview with Axelrod, she tailors her politics to "meet the moment." She then stressed in part: "…I make my response less to an attachment to some positional, like title or position, and working backwards from there, but I make decisions by waking up in the morning, looking out the window and observing the conditions of this country and saying, ‘What move or what decision can I make today that is going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, better than yesterday?’"

Some would surely translate that to read: "Who and what can I smear and tear down today that will enhance my personal powerbase for tomorrow?" Like many on the far left, AOC has made it perfectly clear time and again that the Founding Fathers of our nation must be vilified, dishonored, and cancelled to further the cause of destroying the nation they created from within in order to substitute a draconian and liberty-robbing system of socialism and communism.

During this, the 250th anniversary of the creation of our nation via the genius, courage, and great sacrifice of those men, those who believe in them and the Republic they created, must pause to ask themselves how much longer the nation envisioned by our Founding Fathers will survive if AOC and her fellow leftists force their beliefs into every level of our government? Four years ago, that very question was center-most in my mind. It was for that reason that I wrote a book titled: "The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence."

The only reason I wrote that book was to protect those men and our shared American history from the smears and cancellation of the far left. Smears meant to tear-down our nation from within.

To be sure, when AOC declared: "The American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state…" many automatically assumed that because of ignorance she had no idea that the real reason for the American Revolution was a rebellion against the British government over unfair taxation without representation and totalitarian control.

Said U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah): "No, AOC, the American Revolution was NOT ‘against the billionaires of their time. It was against a large, distant, overly intrusive government that recognized no limits over its own authority to tax, regulate, and eat out the substance of the citizens it claimed to serve." Added U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas): "If a 9th grader writes this on her history test, she gets an F. It was literally a revolution against oppressive GOVERNMENT…the very thing @aoc wants to inflict on all of us. And the Revolution was financed by American free enterprise…the billionaires’ of that time."

Cruz is correct. Many of the signers of The Declaration of Independence would have been considered "Billionaires" today. Something AOC should have known.

DAVID MARCUS: GEN X KNOWS THE ONLY FORCE THAT CAN DEFEAT VIOLENT LEFTIST PROTEST CULTURE

But then, if our Founding Fathers could have spoken to us today, they may have desperately stressed: "What if Rep. Ocasio actually knows that history but, along with her far left collaborators in the media, academia, and in the private sector is simply using yet another platform to rewrite American history to further her socialist and communist seeking agenda?"

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I have stressed often that over the course of the last five decades, the left and far left have gained a vice-like grip on what I call the "five major megaphones" of our nation. Those being the media, academia, entertainment, science and medicine.

With that control comes unrivaled power. AOC certainly knows that if you tell a lie often enough without correction from those megaphones, it can become a "reality" for tens of millions of duped Americans.

Is Rep. Ocasio-Cortez really ignorant of our American History or cleverly and incessantly trying to rewrite it? As we contemplate the answer to that critically important question, I leave you with this 1787 quote from Benjamin Franklin: "A Republic, if you can keep it."

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There is no doubt that the far left seeks to destroy that "Republic" from within. To do so, they must tear down our Founding Fathers and rewrite our history.

On this, the 250th Anniversary year of our nation, keep in mind that if they succeed, our "Republic" will not survive twenty-five more years. Let all who believe in the vision of our Founding Fathers band together to "keep it."

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Trump turns Air Force One into a boardroom — and dares China to blink

Wed, 13 May 2026 14:51:31 -0400

Few people in the world understand the power of symbols better than Donald Trump.

He doesn’t just get tough on immigration — he builds a wall. He doesn’t just cut taxes for hardworking people — he eliminates taxes on overtime and tips, putting money in the pockets of the people who punch a clock. Every policy comes packaged in a picture, a story, a gut-level image that lands before a single word is read.

So, when Donald Trump boards Air Force One bound for Beijing with a plane full of American CEOs — Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser and others — don’t be fooled into thinking that’s just a meeting. That’s a statement. That’s the president of the United States walking into the most consequential economic relationship in the world and saying American business is in the room. We came to compete. We came to win.

The U.S. and China are working toward a managed trade framework, a so-called "Board of Trade" for nonsensitive goods, with both sides potentially identifying around $30 billion in imports where tariffs could be reduced. That’s not small ball. But the number almost doesn’t matter. What matters is the optics. What matters is the message.

TRUMP HEADS TO BEIJING FOR HIGH-STAKES XI TALKS AS TAIWAN TENSIONS, TRADE DISPUTES TEST US STRENGTH

The last time a sitting U.S. president visited China was nearly a decade ago. Trump made that trip happen. He’s the one in the room.

Now, here’s what the polls say right now, and I want to be honest about them because I think they tell a more complicated story than the headlines suggest.

Trump’s economic approval has dropped to 30% in a recent CNN poll, with about two-thirds of Americans saying his policies have worsened economic conditions nationally. His overall job approval sits at 40%, a five-point drop from last quarter, with a net approval of minus-18, the lowest measured across either of his terms. The share of Americans saying the economy is "getting worse" has climbed from 25% in January 2025 to 61% today.

TRUMP POLL NUMBERS ON ECONOMY FALL DURING TRADE FIGHT, SURVEYS FIND

Those are real numbers. I won’t pretend otherwise.

But here is what I know as someone who has spent decades studying how public opinion actually moves. Sentiment is a lagging indicator. People feel the pain before they feel the relief. And, right now, they are feeling the pain — at the gas pump, at the grocery store, in their wallets. That anxiety is real, and no amount of symbolism fixes a household budget.

But symbolism matters for what comes next.

DAVID MARCUS: WHY TRUMP'S MAJOR TRIUMPHS WILL OUTLAST HIS POLLING DIP

My prediction: We are going to start to see a shift in these numbers, and this China trip is one of the reasons why. When people see the president of the United States commanding a room in Beijing, flanked by the CEOs of America’s biggest companies, fighting for American jobs and American business on the world stage, something shifts. It may not move overnight. But it moves.

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Donald Trump is also the head of central casting. He knows how to fill a room to send a message. When Trump visited China during his first term in 2017, nearly 30 CEOs accompanied him, signing 37 major deals worth more than $250 billion. The imagery of that trip — and the deals that followed — is seared in the memory of anyone who watched it. He’s trying to recreate that energy now.

The White House put it plainly: "Americans can expect the president to deliver more good deals for the United States while in China." That’s the bet. And Trump has made that bet before and won.

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The question is whether the American people are watching — and whether they’re ready to update what they believe. Public opinion doesn’t move in a straight line. It moves in moments. And this week, the moment is Beijing.

Message sent. Message received.

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TANVI RATNA: Europe says Trump made America unreliable. The truth is tougher

Wed, 13 May 2026 10:45:55 -0400

The most important line in the transatlantic debate is not coming from Brussels, Ottawa, Paris or Berlin.

It is coming from the Pentagon.

The 2026 National Defense Strategy says the quiet part out loud: America is changing the bargain with its allies. The United States will still remain engaged abroad, but it will no longer treat every theater as America’s first responsibility. The new hierarchy is clear: defend the homeland, deter China in the Indo-Pacific, increase allied burden-sharing, and rebuild the defense industrial base.

That is the real story behind Europe’s sudden defense awakening.

PENTAGON WARNS FUTURE WARS MAY HIT US SOIL AS 'DIRECT MILITARY THREATS' GROW

European leaders would rather describe this as a response to an unpredictable President Donald Trump. Recent reporting from Europe captured the mood after Trump announced plans to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, reporting that European lawmakers feared Washington was moving toward a more "unpredictable and transactional" approach to alliances amid tensions over the Iran war.

That story is not entirely false. It is just too flattering to Europe.

Trump has been signaling this shift since his first term, and with renewed force since returning to office in 2025. Now the administration has turned it into doctrine. The Pentagon’s 2026 National Defense Strategy makes clear that the old transatlantic bargain is being rewritten. Its four priorities are defending the American homeland, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, increasing allied burden-sharing, and rebuilding the U.S. defense industrial base. Its treatment of Europe is even more direct: Russia is described as a serious but manageable threat, and European allies are expected to assume primary responsibility for their conventional defense with "critical but more limited" U.S. support.

TRUMP ADMIN LABELS ISRAEL 'MODEL US ALLY' AHEAD OF MAJOR MILITARY AID TALKS

The Pentagon strategy says it will strengthen incentives for allies to take "primary responsibility for their own defense" in Europe, the Middle East and Korea, with "critical but limited support" from U.S. forces. It also says Washington will prioritize cooperation with "model allies," meaning those spending what they need to and doing visibly more against threats in their own regions.

This is not unpredictability. It is prioritization, written into strategy. Perhaps "unpredictable" is simply the word Europe uses when Washington becomes predictable in a way it dislikes. And Iran has made that prioritization visible faster than Europe expected.

The Iran war is not only a Middle East crisis. As I have stated from the start of the Iran war, it is in fact acting as a catalyst for the reordering Washington is forcing across the globe, and Europe is where that reordering is now most visible. Pressure applied through Iran moves outward through energy markets, shipping lanes, NATO cohesion, European defense planning, and the old question Europe has long avoided: what can Europe actually do when America is busy elsewhere?

STOP CALLING THIS BRINKMANSHIP. TRUMP'S HORMUZ MOVE IS THE REAL PRESSURE

The Strait of Hormuz crisis was the first live demonstration.

Europe was not the main battlefield, but it was directly exposed. Hormuz affects oil, LNG, shipping insurance, inflation, industrial costs, and political stability. It also forced Washington to ask how much U.S. capacity it could commit to the Middle East while still preserving forces and attention for the homeland and the Indo-Pacific.

So when Trump called on other nations to help police the strait, it was not simply Trump being Trump. It was the National Defense Strategy in practice: allies directly affected by a crisis should not expect the United States to provide the first and last answer.

MORE KEY US ALLIES BLOCK MILITARY FLIGHTS AS IRAN WAR RIFT WIDENS WITH TRUMP

Europe’s answer showed the gap.

After Iran responded to U.S.-Israeli attacks with drones, missiles and mines that effectively closed the channel for tankers carrying about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, EU foreign ministers discussed whether to expand the bloc’s Aspides naval mission toward Hormuz. Kaja Kallas said there was a "clear wish" to strengthen Aspides because it did not have enough naval assets, but "no appetite" to change the mandate.

It was the European dilemma in miniature.

EUROPE STEPS UP TO FUND ITS OWN DEFENSE, PROVIDE SECURITY FOR UKRAINE AFTER TRUMP THREATS

Europe is exposed enough to need security, but not yet organized or willing enough to supply it at scale. It wants more autonomy, but autonomy requires ships, mandates, stockpiles, command structures and political willingness to accept risk. Europe is too exposed to remain strategically underbuilt. While it may have spoken for years about an anchor of the global order, institutions alone cannot create a global order. The military and industrial backing for it, is what needs to be a shared burden. Soemthign that Trump has been pushing through as a message relentlessly.

After Iran, it appears that Europe is finally getting the memo.

Kallas’ own language shows the shift. In 2025, European leaders still spoke of strategic autonomy as an aspiration. Europe had to become more geopolitical, more sovereign, more capable. By January 2026, after Washington had made its defense priorities unmistakable, Kallas’ wording had hardened. Europe, she said, was no longer Washington’s primary center of gravity. After Iran, she admitted that the shift was "structural, not temporary." NATO, she added, needed to become "more European" to stay strong.

SEN MCCORMICK: SECRETARY RUBIO SETS THE COURSE FOR NATO’S FUTURE. WILL EUROPE LISTEN?

The only serious path is a heavier European pillar inside NATO. That does not mean fantasy independence from the United States. It means Europe must assume far more conventional military responsibility in its own theater, while the U.S. preserves the strategic backing and irreplaceable capabilities that allies cannot easily replicate. NATO Secretary Rutte has been blunt about the limit. If anyone thinks Europe can defend itself without the United States, he told European lawmakers, they should "keep on dreaming." Europe and America still need each other.

That is a serious statement. It is also an admission.

In February, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby told NATO defense ministers that "NATO 3.0" requires allies to "step up and assume primary responsibility for the conventional defence of Europe." He added that Europe should field the preponderance of the forces needed to deter, and if necessary defeat, conventional aggression in Europe. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called the meeting pivotal, pointing to a "real shift in mindset" and a stronger European defense within NATO.

TRUMP’S NATO WARNING PUSHES EUROPE TO FACE THE COST OF DEFENDING ITSELF

That is the practical direction of travel.

Not Europe leaving America or America abandoning NATO, but Europe carrying more weight because Washington has made clear it will not carry the old load on the old terms.

European officials are beginning to translate that into capability language. EU defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius told European lawmakers that Europe depends on America for strategic enablers such as space intelligence data and air-to-air refueling. Europe, he said, must be ready to replace American enablers with European ones, making that a strategic priority. He also stressed that European responsibility means strengthening Europe’s posture inside NATO.

MORNING GLORY: CANADA IS A SMALL POWER BITING THE HAND THAT PROTECTS IT

This matters because it moves the debate from speeches to machinery.

For decades, Europe enjoyed a bargain that was politically convenient and strategically indulgent. European governments could talk about autonomy, criticize American power, regulate American technology, underinvest in defense, and still rely on U.S. nuclear deterrence, intelligence, logistics, airlift, missile defense, command systems and high-end capabilities when the moment became serious.

Canada has had its own version of the same comfort: geography, NORAD, access to U.S. procurement, and the strategic depth of living next door to the world’s dominant power. Prime Minister Mark Carney has tried to frame the allied adjustment in moral terms, warning against a more transactional and brutal world and presenting Canada and Europe as defenders of a rules-based order. That language is useful politically. But it avoids the harder question: who pays for that order, who arms it, and who takes the first risk when America has other priorities?

The new U.S. strategy is not about ending alliances but ending the subsidy model underneath them.

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Europe has gotten the memo. While most American attention has been focused on Iran as a theater, a multi-theater reordering of Europe is getting fortified with real policy and projects now across military, industrial and other spheres, as I will discuss in upcoming pieces. European officials may try describing the result as a response to American unreliability. But the reorganization was not something Europe simply discovered on its own. It was pushed, structured, and accelerated by Washington’s new strategy. The Pentagon put it in writing. Iran made it impossible to ignore. The reset is now moving from theater to reality.

This article is a Fox News Digital exclusive from the author’s Substack series on different theaters President Trump is realigning with the Iran War.

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DAVID MARCUS: Why the government must protect our neighborhoods from violent protests

Wed, 13 May 2026 10:16:14 -0400

The scenes in Brooklyn this week of anti-Israel agitators flooding into a Jewish residential neighborhood to decry the Jewish state need to be a wake-up call to all of us, and we must plainly say, "Don’t make trouble where our families live."

The images of terrified Orthodox Jews on their porches watching as their tree-lined streets were taken over by radical progressives, several of whom were arrested for acts of violence, requires a firm response from the government, which must protect our residential areas from mayhem.

While the Constitution protects protest, even in residential areas, such as outside the home of a Supreme Court justice, there are measures the government can take to prevent violence and intimidation in such areas.

Here is how Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, put it:

NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS ISN'T GAGGING SPEECH – HIS MASK BAN PROTECTS NEW YORKERS

"The Constitution protects the right to protest, but as with speech protections more broadly, there can be time, place, and manner restrictions," he told me. "Someone can properly be charged for disturbing the peace for using a megaphone at 2am to express his views about political leaders. More pointedly, a state or municipality can define ‘disturbing the peace’ in a way that protects residential areas as it does for schools, houses of worship, and other sensitive areas."

So, for example, local, state and federal governments can and should provide far stiffer penalties for protest-related crimes committed in a residential area, where the clear goal is not speech, but intimidation.

Agitation in residential areas has a long and fraught history in our culture, from medieval anti-Jewish pogroms to the ransacking of Catholic neighborhoods in Elizabethan London, to the KKK of the Jim Crow South, and the Crown Heights riots of the 1990s. It rarely ends well.

DAVID MARCUS: ANTI-ICE AGITATORS ADOPT PALESTINIAN TACTICS, INCLUDING MARTYRDOM

I’m not sure that there is even one historical example of protest in residential enclaves bringing about positive, peaceful change, but examples of chaos and violence abound, written in blood.

Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti would be alive today had they been protesting in a traditional manner in a public square instead of physically impeding federal agents in residential neighborhoods.

Since the dawn of civilization, towns and cities have been built with large public spaces that grant egress and exits, that allow a safe place for throngs of thousands to celebrate or protest. But that is not what residential areas are for.

THE GREAT BETRAYAL: HOW RADICAL PROGRESSIVES ARE DYNAMITING THE BLACK-JEWISH ALLIANCE

What purpose could there be in marching past the homes of innocent Jews to protest the Jewish homeland, other than pure intimidation?

These are the same deranged leftists who think there should be no buffer zones for their protests outside of synagogues. But why? Why do they need to be in arm's reach of their Jewish targets, if not to intimidate or assault them?

This is why federal legislation to enhance penalties for protest-related crimes in residential areas is essential, and we know that such measures work because, ever since Don Lemon and his band of idiots invaded a Minnesota church and were arrested, no other churches have been overrun.

MIKE DAVIS: DON LEMON AND HIS CHURCH-STORMING MOB MUST FACE KU KLUX KLAN, FACE ACT CHARGES

Likewise, as soon as the Trump administration made clear in 2020 that destroying federal statues would get you 10 years in jail, the statues magically stopped falling.

In a sane world, protest organizers themselves, or their leaders like New York City Mayor Zohran "Madman" Mamdani, would insist that demonstrations never occur in residential areas, that people’s homes be respected. But don’t hold your breath.

For whatever maniacal reason, these leftists think it is not only their right, but their responsibility to inflict chaos and fear on Jews until everyone comes around to their pro-Hamas politics of terror, a cabal of cowards frightening children.

As idiotic and reprehensible as the behavior is, we cannot stop progressive loonies from setting up camp outside the house of a conservative judge or a member of the Trump administration. Sometimes, in fact, with some regularity, freedom of speech becomes freedom to be a moron.

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But we can make clear that, if in so doing, you break the law, it’s not just a ticket and a summons but real jail time for terrorizing people on the streets where they and their children live.

Brooklyn is known as the city of homes and churches, and we are very lucky that, so far, the targeting of those homes and places of worship by lefty protesters has not left anyone dead. But before that luck runs out, Congress should act, and protect our residences and our families from political violence.

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Why Americans should be worried about President Trump’s China summit

Wed, 13 May 2026 10:00:22 -0400

Americans should be worried about President Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Recent musings out of the White House sound like President Trump may be willing to allow Chinese manufacturers to produce in the U.S. This is a serious threat to both our economic and national security, and something many of us in the Congress – in a rare bipartisan effort – will fight with all our might. These days, when you can get both sides of the aisle to agree on anything, it’s usually a sign that something should be done.

That is true for the new bipartisan legislation I am leading alongside Congressman John Moolenaar to ban Chinese car companies from doing business here to disrupt our manufacturing economy, put American auto workers out of a job, and put our national security at risk.

For decades, the United States embraced globalization under the assumption that deeper economic integration would be mutually beneficial and create American jobs. Free trade was the cry of billionaires, economists, and corporate leaders. The reality is far from what was predicted. America has witnessed entire industries be destroyed and hollowed out. Steel mills closed, semiconductor production moved overseas, suppliers built in Asia, Mexico and around the world and manufacturing communities from Michigan to Pennsylvania lost jobs that once supported middle-class families.

PROTECTING AMERICANS’ DATA FROM CHINA IS CENTRAL TO AN AMERICA FIRST AGENDA

China does not play under the same free-market rules that America does. Their global dominance rose because no one competing with them is playing on a level playing field and the global marketplace is at a significant disadvantage. Chinese companies receive massive subsidies from their government (the Chinese Communist Party), preferential financing, intellectual property advantages, manipulated currency, and strategic direction from Beijing. Allowing those same firms to produce inside the United States will give a geopolitical adversary leverage over America’s economy from within.

Nowhere is this concern more urgent than in the auto industry. Modern vehicles are no longer simply cars and trucks — they are rolling computers. Autonomous and connected vehicles continuously collect enormous amounts of information, including location data, driving patterns, camera footage, mapping information, and personal information tied to drivers and passengers. Vehicles are equipped with advanced sensors and software that track where Americans live, work, worship, seek medical care, and send their children to school. While these metrics are essential for improving safety and innovation, we must also protect this information from our adversaries.

I led more than 70 Democrats in the House in warning the administration that Chinese-connected vehicles engage in extensive data collection and transmission, including GPS locations, driving behaviors, and in-car conversations. I warned that this data, if routed to servers controlled by Chinese entities, will ultimately be accessed by the Chinese government under its national security laws.

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That possibility alarmed not only my Democratic colleagues who signed my letter to the president, but the over 50 Republican colleagues in the House who signed a similar letter. We are all warning that any effort to lower barriers for Chinese automobiles or otherwise facilitate their entry into the U.S. market would pose a direct threat to American manufacturing, workers, and national security. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are also urging President Trump to maintain existing bans and close loopholes that could allow Chinese vehicles assembled in Mexico or Canada to enter the United States through USMCA trade provisions.

Industry leaders themselves are sounding the alarm. Ford CEO Jim Farley recently warned that allowing Chinese automakers into the U.S. market would be "devastating" for domestic manufacturing and raised concerns about the enormous amount of data collected through cameras and connected vehicle technologies.

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This is ultimately about resilience and sovereignty. A nation that cannot produce its own critical goods — or protect the data generated by its citizens — cannot fully control its own future. The United States should welcome fair competition and international investment from partners who share democratic values and market principles. But when it comes to strategic industries central to national security, economic stability, and personal privacy, America must ensure the next generation of manufacturing and mobility is built by companies committed to America’s interests — not controlled by an authoritarian rival.

The president must keep his word to the American people and not allow China to manufacture in the U.S. This is not about hostility toward the Chinese people or opposition to trade. It is about protecting American workers, safeguarding supply chains, defending privacy, and preserving America’s long-term economic independence. Sometimes the strongest dealmaking strategy is knowing when to walk away — because a bad deal with China that undercuts American workers, manufacturers, farmers, and communities would cost the United States far more than it would gain.

JASON CHAFFETZ: America needs a drone defense plan before disaster strikes

Wed, 13 May 2026 09:00:15 -0400

In the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones.

As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025.

Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed.

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As recently as March 2026, multiple waves of drones were detected over Barksdale Air Force Base – home of the B-52 bomber and other nuclear assets. These drones had jamming resistance technology and long-range control links. Similar probes have hit other sensitive sites.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the FAA deserve credit for taking a critical step forward this past week. They introduced a proposed new rule to protect critical infrastructure sites, including energy facilities, water treatment plants, and more.

Despite this promising development, Congress seems to demonstrate little urgency to address the problem. Democrats have kept the Department of Homeland Security defunded for months at a time – a strategy they seem committed to repeat.

We need a unified national response that includes clearer rules, stronger funding and civil-military integration. We don’t have the luxury of moving at the speed of government where drones are concerned.

SCHUMER SEEKS LEGISLATION GIVING LOCAL OFFICIALS AUTHORITY TO ‘SWIFTLY’ RESPOND TO DRONE SIGHTINGS

Who is responsible for coordinating this defense? The Feds? The states? Who writes the rules?

If a drone is a threat, who are you supposed to call? 911? The Highway Patrol? The FAA? Is there an agency in charge? A 1-800 number? Is it the county sheriff? The rules need to be clear, coordinated, and understood. For some of us, we’d like to use a shotgun, but that is most likely not safe nor legal.

We need clear airspace rules. Who is in charge of the airspace at what height?

But we also need strong enforcement. Good guys will play by the rules. But what is the enforcement mechanism for the bad guys? Who is guarding against foreign actors heavily invested in this inexpensive technology? What is our strategy? Are we investing in the right technology? What are we going to do if critical infrastructure such as a nuclear power plant or a dam was hit by a drone swarm?

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Our airspace is going to be more heavily trafficked than ever before with legitimate drone shipments, air taxis, and emergency responders using drones to immediately respond to vehicle accidents, wildfires, and dangerous situations.

There does not seem to be sufficient coordination between civil and military authorities on this issue to keep up with the pace. There are more registered drones in this country than there are aircraft. How do you defend yourself when there are more drones than planes?

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This Fourth of July, all across the country, there will be air shows featuring hundreds if not thousands of drones in formation lighting up our skies. But I worry not everyone will use this technology simply for fun.

Let’s not wait until there’s an event with casualties before we address this critical security threat. This issue needs definition and leadership – not just from the administration, but from Congress. The imperative is way past due.

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President Trump must put American hostages first in high-stakes Beijing summit

Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:59 -0400

When President Trump traveled to China in 2017, he handed Xi Jinping a list of names he wanted freed. My parents were on it.

That moment mattered. As China’s internment campaign in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was beginning, my parents were vulnerable because I had spoken out in the United States about the Chinese Communist Party’s abuses. Their names, placed directly before Xi by the President of the United States, sent a signal that they were not invisible.

But a name on a list matters only if a president keeps pressing. My mother remained trapped by Beijing for nearly two decades — leverage against my human rights advocacy, a hostage to the assumption that I would eventually go quiet. Cabinet secretaries raised her case. Diplomats pressed it repeatedly. None of it moved Beijing. She came home on Thanksgiving Eve 2024 only after President Biden raised her case directly with Xi.

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My father did not make it. He died in April 2022 at eighty-three, after years of enforced isolation. Because Beijing had sanctioned me personally for my advocacy, I could not attend his funeral. He never met his American grandchildren. That is the cost of inaction — not in a single dramatic moment, but over years quietly taken away.

Now President Trump is preparing to meet Xi again, in Beijing on May 14 and 15. He should carry another list.

This is not a side issue to trade, tariffs, critical minerals, or sanctions. American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and the relatives of Americans are being detained, imprisoned, or trapped under exit bans by the CCP to coerce silence, extract concessions, and censor people inside the United States. This is hostage-taking. It is an unacceptable instrument of state coercion directed at the United States — and it is a direct challenge to American sovereignty. When a foreign government coerces Americans on American soil, it has moved well beyond a human rights issue. It is a test of American will.

Cases like these are not resolved through normal diplomatic channels. In China’s political system, they reach only one level: Xi Jinping. Prosecutors, security agencies, ministries, and provincial officials all wait for permission from above. Lawyers working on detention cases involving foreign leverage have told me directly: permission to free a hostage can only come from Xi. Ambassadors can raise names. Cabinet officials can press counterparts. Diplomats can knock on doors. Only a president can open them.

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President Trump has made the return of unjustly detained Americans a defining foreign-policy priority. His message to Xi should be unambiguous: American families are not bargaining chips, and the United States will not accept hostage-taking or exit bans as a normal feature of bilateral relations. He should demand releases, humanitarian transfers, the lifting of exit bans, and regular access for U.S. officials and families.

He should also direct his administration to maintain a standing, confidential list of Americans, lawful permanent residents, and U.S.-linked relatives detained or trapped in China — to be raised in every future engagement with Chinese officials. That task should be assigned to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio understands the realities in China better than most. As a senator, he helped build the legal architecture that now gives this administration its leverage: the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which President Trump signed in 2020; the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, signed by President Biden in 2021. Across administrations, leaders of both parties built this framework — Speaker Nancy Pelosi helped move key protections through the House; Secretary Mike Pompeo determined that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people, a finding Secretary Antony Blinken affirmed. Beijing recognized what that meant before Washington fully did. In retaliation, it sanctioned Rubio — and sanctioned me. A foreign government does not sanction its ineffective critics. It sanctioned him because he was effective.

Many who admired Rubio’s Senate record have been genuinely unsettled by his first months as secretary of state — the silences where they expected statements, the accommodation where they expected pressure. I understand why. I have had my own moments of it. But I am not prepared to conclude that the man who built this framework has abandoned it. He is right there — with more institutional power than he has ever had, and an adversary he has studied for a long time.

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Rubio’s opposition to the Chinese Communist Party is rooted in something deeper than policy calculation — just as mine is. His family fled Cuba. My mother gave birth to me in a reeducation camp in Kashgar. We came to this fight by different paths but reached the same conclusion: authoritarian governments use families as instruments of coercion. The answer is not accommodation. It is pressure.

The list President Trump carries to Beijing should include Gulshan Abbas, imprisoned in retaliation for her sister’s advocacy in the United States; the artist Gao Shen, a U.S. resident detained without transparent legal process; Pastor Ezra Jin, held on opaque charges; and the relatives of Uyghur-American journalists at Radio Free Asia — Kurban Mamut, Abdukadir and Ahamatjan Juma, and Hasanjan Niyaz — detained as leverage against American reporters working for a U.S.-funded media organization. For these families, freedom often begins with a name spoken in the right room.

And under Xi Jinping, there is only one room that matters.

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My mother’s journey to America began when President Trump carried a list to China in 2017. She waited years for her name to reach the right room. My father died before freedom came.

Tonight, other families are still waiting.

The great betrayal: How radical progressives are dynamiting the Black-Jewish alliance

Wed, 13 May 2026 07:00:55 -0400

For nearly a century, the alliance between the Black and Jewish communities was the bedrock of America’s moral center — a "covenant" forged in the fires of the Civil Rights Movement and cemented with shared blood on the roads of the Jim Crow South. But today, that historic bond is being systematically dynamited by a new wave of radical progressives who prefer toxic tropes and "us-versus-them" identity politics over actual history.

The first detonator was pulled by "Squad" member Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., shortly after the October 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. Rather than offering a standard policy critique of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Lee, according to Politico, used a private Facebook post to deploy one of the most inflammatory weapons in the progressive arsenal, accusing the non-partisan advocacy group of practicing "textbook anti-blackness."

She did not stop there. According to Politico, Lee further labeled the organization — and by extension, its mission of strengthening the U.S.-Israel bond — an "existential threat to the Black community and its right to self-determination."

THE GLOBAL INTIFADA IS HERE. HAMAS-ALIGNED NETWORKS BROUGHT TERROR TO US SOIL AND WE NEED TO STOP IT

In August, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., in remarks to the People’s Conference for Palestine gave her support to its new campaign to kick AIPAC out of U.S. politics. The campaign’s website says, "AIPAC threatens free speech, devastates workers' economic interests, advocates for endless wars and sabotages international diplomacy — all at the cost, and against the will, of the American people."

Let’s call this what it is: a political hit job disguised as social justice.

When the "Squad" and their allies target AIPAC, they aren't just debating foreign policy; they are reviving the oldest, ugliest "dark money" smears in the antisemitic book. They paint Jewish political participation as a "foreign intrusion" or a "nefarious force" designed to subvert Black and American interests. This narrative doesn’t just ignore the facts; it spits on a century of shared struggle.

The intellectual heart of this alliance wasn't found in some smoke-filled D.C. boardroom. It was found on the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the 1930s. When America’s elite, "White" Ivy League institutions slammed their doors shut on Jewish scholars fleeing Nazi Germany, HBCUs opened theirs. These Jewish professors didn't arrive as "colonizers" or "outsiders"; they stood side-by-side with Black students to dismantle the ugliness of racial segregation.

Indeed, Dana's parents witnessed this firsthand at Howard University in the 1960s. They didn't see a zero-sum contest for influence. They saw Jewish and Black leaders as brothers-in-arms in a shared pursuit of the American promise. To hear modern politicians frame Jewish advocacy as inherently antagonistic to Black communities is an insult to every freedom rider who sat on those buses.

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But the rot is spreading beyond the fringes. Even mainstream political heavyweights like Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have reportedly begun "distancing" themselves from AIPAC-bundled funds. When leaders of that stature show fear and start running for the hills, it signals that the fringe’s "dark money" smear campaign’s stench has reached the top. It suggests that support for Israel — once a pillar of bipartisan American consensus — is being rebranded by the radical left as a "problematic" liability, almost illegitimate.

By framing AIPAC and Jewish political engagement as an "existential threat," Rep. Lee and her colleagues aren't "standing up" for the marginalized. They are actively hindering the very coalition-building that moved this country from the back of the bus to the Civil Rights Act. They are trading a hundred years of hard-won progress for a "sensational" 24-hour news cycle and a few more "likes" from the anti-Israel extreme and delusional fringe.

This is a dangerous game. When we allow political leaders to suggest that one group’s advocacy is a threat to another group’s existence, we don't just lose a lobby — we lose our moral center. We invite suspicion to replace solidarity.

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Only a few weeks ago, Israel commemorated Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, for the millions of Jews who were murdered by the Nazi regime’s evil. Those undermining Israel’s very legitimacy (not political criticism) and the Jewish community’s right to fight for what they believe in, assisted by media pundits and propagandists bent on telling lies and darkening people’s hearts, are facilitating another war of elimination.

Daniel Goldhagen’s "Hitler’s Willing Executioners — Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" shows that the Holocaust wasn’t just the work of a few monsters, but of ‘ordinary’ people conditioned by a culture of hate. Today, that same conditioning is being mass-produced in digital echo chambers, turning political discourse into a new ‘industry of lies’ that dehumanizes before it annihilates. It is antisemitism cloaked in politics and diplomacy, which nevertheless results in the massacre of Jews in Hebron, Gaza, Pittsburgh and Australia.

It is the production line of the next generation of those same willing executioners.

Over the past year and a half, the Trump Administration has done much to address antisemitism, especially in higher education, where, since Oct. 2023, Jewish students have been targeted and even physically assaulted. Leo Terrell, the Chair of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, has made it clear — through actions, not just words — that there will be consequences for allowing a poisonous environment of antisemitism on college campuses and expanded the Task Force’s focus to include elementary and high schools.

But it’s not only up to the government to fight this disease. More needs and must be done by us, the "ordinary people." Not just by passive remembrance, but by taking action. It is time to stop the smears. It is time to reject the "woke" wedge being driven between Blacks and Jews, and between America and its Jewish community. It is time for the silent majority to cry out and make a stand — politically and publicly. If we allow these suspicion-laden tropes to win, the only victors will be the extremists who want to see America divided.

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Let’s remember the history that actually built this country, and do this not for Israel, not for the Jewish community, but for America and us all.

Trump must force Xi to answer for China's cruel war on Jimmy Lai

Wed, 13 May 2026 05:45:00 -0400

President Trump is heading to China this week, and one person watching closely is Claire Lai, the daughter of Jimmy Lai. Her father is a Hong Kong businessman, media mogul and faithful Catholic who has been imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years by the Communist regime for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.

More than 100 U.S. lawmakers have sent President Trump a letter urging him to address Lai’s case with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he meets with China’s leader. Claire, on the other hand, has a few words for Xi herself.

"If my father dies behind bars, he will die a martyr. And that is not something that China wants."

That her father may die in prison is a possibility Claire has come to terms with. Her father, the 78-year-old billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, a faithful Catholic and political prisoner, was sentenced by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong court in February, consigned to spend what will be the rest of his natural life behind bars.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY: RELEASE MY FATHER JIMMY LAI, WHO PUBLISHED WHAT CHINA'S LEADERS DID NOT WANT TO HEAR

He was found guilty in December of sedition and conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces. His sentence is the longest handed down under China's new national security law. It’s a statute many experts believe was created for the sole purpose of silencing Lai, one of the communist country's most ardent critics.

Claire was not able to attend the sentencing. "I was heartbroken," she says. "It was the first time that he had been sentenced where I wasn't in Hong Kong with him. ... It was a hard pill to swallow." But she was strengthened by the letter she received from him, in which "he expressed that he was in our Lord's good hands and regardless of the outcome, that doesn't change."

The court's ruling ignited an outpouring of negative reactions from across the globe from those deeply concerned with religious freedom and freedom of speech. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentencing "an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case."

RUBIO BLASTS CHINA OVER 'UNJUST AND TRAGIC' 20-YEAR SENTENCE FOR HONG KONG DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST JIMMY LAI

The United Kingdom's government also condemned the sentence of its British citizen, calling it "a death sentence" for the frail Lai, who suffers from diabetes and a host of other medical conditions as he's kept in solitary confinement.

Canada's foreign affairs minister called the sentencing a "politically motivated prosecution" and demanded Lai's release on humanitarian grounds.

But it is Lai's faith in Jesus Christ, in a God whose power is made perfect in weakness, that keeps his frail body going, says Claire, 29, an attorney and now her father's outspoken advocate, pleading for his release. One of those she is pleading with is President Donald Trump.

MORNING GLORY: WILL XI FREE LAI?

This week, Trump will head to China and meet with Xi. Claire, who was invited by House Speaker Mike Johnson to the State of the Union address in February, is hoping the president will raise her father's plight with Xi. Says Claire, "We're so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration. ... We do hope that a solution will be a bit closer to a diplomatic solution."

In a subtle yet decisive warning, Claire Lai, speaking on my "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, said, "It is absolutely in China's interest to release my father. I mean, they are at risk of having a martyr behind bars."

What she means is that, by keeping her father in prison until he dies, China may accomplish the exact opposite of what it intends. Instead of silencing critics, Beijing may embolden them through Lai's example of faith in the midst of dire persecution.

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: THE WAR ON CHRISTIANS IS REAL AND THE WORLD CAN NO LONGER STAY SILENT

Christianity has grown exponentially for centuries, founded on the blood of the martyrs. For 2,000 years, those who follow Jesus, the suffering servant who died unjustly at the hands of Roman rulers, have learned to obey God rather than earthly leaders. Their eyes are fixed on eternity and a God who is Lord over history.

Leaders throughout the centuries who thought, like China, that they could stop Christianity's spread by killing its followers have learned the hard way that, as Jesus told the apostle Peter, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church."

Jimmy Lai's story is one of amazing success. He escaped China on a fishing boat and arrived in Hong Kong, still under British rule, at the age of 12. He worked his way up to becoming a media mogul and billionaire businessman. When Claire was born, he converted to Catholicism and never wavered in his faith.

JIMMY LAI IS RISKING EVERYTHING FOR DEMOCRACY. WE CAN'T IGNORE WHAT CHINA IS DOING

Says Claire, "At the time of him converting, it was a time when, during the handover, many people in Hong Kong had hearts filled with fear and doubt. I think he learned then that the only thing that could conquer it was God's love."

For more than 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony. It became a prosperous, cosmopolitan and democratic dynamo, with 7.5 million people living in a little less than 700 square miles. But in 1997, the handover gave Hong Kong back to China. At the time, its leaders vowed that things in the former colony wouldn't change. But they lied.

Things did change. Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China. Freedom of speech, religious expression and democracy were all whittled away. But Jimmy Lai kept speaking out against the communist regime, using his media empire, his Apple Daily newspaper and other outlets to do so. Then, in 2020, the government countered with the national security law, a vague, undefined law used to crack down on anyone deemed to be a dissident and to arrest, charge and convict people like Jimmy Lai and others with similar views.

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Just a few months ago, in March, it was reported that the owner and three employees of one of Hong Kong's last independent bookshops were arrested. Books were seized, including all copies of Jimmy Lai's biography. The bookstore closed. They were arrested, reportedly, for "knowingly selling seditious publications."

Ultimately, Jimmy Lai's fate is in the hands of God, despite the political maneuvers of secular regimes and power brokers. That is why Jimmy Lai prays. He prays for the prison guards, for people who are sick, for those who are imprisoned, for those who are not in prison and for those who are praying for him. And despite his weakened condition, he fasts.

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Says Claire, "He fasts every Friday, and fasting is not easy on a man like him. He shivers when he does, and the guards put the food in front of him and ... he just sits. So, he just sits with his hunger, and he looks at the crucifix that he draws, and he tells himself that his shivering and his suffering is nothing compared to what our Savior suffered for us sinners."

China, take note. What power do you really have over a man like that?

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America’s child care crisis needs more parental freedom — not more Washington control

Wed, 13 May 2026 05:00:35 -0400

For millions of American families, child care has become one of the defining affordability challenges of modern life. In communities across the country, the cost of care now rivals a mortgage payment or in-state college tuition. Parents are delaying having children or cobbling together unreliable arrangements simply because they cannot find affordable care that fits their family’s needs.

Yet for years, Washington has responded to this challenge with the same failed formula: more mandates, more bureaucracy, and more federal micromanagement — paired with calls for ever-larger taxpayer subsidies to offset the cost of these failed policies.

The results speak for themselves. Costs continue to rise. Child care slots continue to disappear. Waitlists grow longer. And small providers are being buried under layers of bureaucracy from both federal and state governments.

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American families deserve a different approach.

At the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), we believe child care policy should empower families, not dictate choices to them. Parents should be free to choose the care arrangement that works best for their children and not be limited to government-preferred options.

That support should include the full suite of options including child care centers, home-based providers, faith-based programs, care from relatives, or having one parent stay home with young children. Flexibility matters because America is a large country. What works for families in rural Idaho may not work for families in Philadelphia.

That is why ACF is advancing reforms that give states greater flexibility to improve affordability, expand access, and make existing federal child care dollars work better for more families. We are restoring flexibility to states and reducing federal pressure to prioritize rigid contract models over vouchers that allow parents to choose the provider that best meets their needs.

We are also giving states greater latitude to design cost-sharing systems and workforce policies that reflect local economic realities instead of forcing one-size-fits-all federal formulas onto every community in America.

And we are reaffirming that faith-based providers, neighborhood programs, family-run child care businesses, grandparents, relatives, neighbors, and stay-at-home parents all can play a vital role in caring for America’s children. For too long, many of these caregivers have faced unnecessary barriers to participating in federally supported programs. They deserve equal treatment and should not be sidelined by ideological or regulatory preferences coming out of either Washington or state capitols.

But while our reforms restore state flexibility, the choices states make will matter enormously.

Too many states have saddled providers with rising compliance costs, mounting paperwork, and endless regulatory uncertainty. The result is predictable: fewer providers participate, fewer child care slots become available, and families face fewer choices and higher prices.

None of this means abandoning standards or accountability. Health and safety protections and fraud prevention matter. But there is a profound difference between maintaining reasonable safeguards and imposing rigid federal mandates that ignore local realities, reduce supply, and drive up costs.

The current regulatory environment is unsustainable. In one example often cited by providers, regulations were interpreted so rigidly that a child care worker allegedly could not peel a banana for a child because of food preparation rules. Anecdotes like this illustrate why providers consistently cite cumulative regulatory burdens as a major factor in deciding whether to remain open.

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At the same time, too many states have adopted lax oversight practices that make fraud easier to commit and harder to detect. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar taken away from families who need child care assistance. State policies and practices are critical to ensuring federal child care subsidies are used prudently and effectively. Families are exhausted by years of rising costs, shrinking options, and federal micromanagement.

Our approach is more practical and more durable. The federal government should establish broad guardrails that protect taxpayer dollars and protect against fraud while trusting parents to make the decisions that best fit their families’ needs. If states implement these reforms effectively, existing federal child care resources will serve hundreds of thousands more families.

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And when paired with broader pro-family policies — including an expanded child tax credit and stronger incentives for employer-supported child care — we can begin to reverse the affordability crisis confronting working parents.

That is what a pro-family agenda looks like.

Texas paid for Biden’s border crisis. Republicans must make sure it never happens again

Wed, 13 May 2026 05:00:33 -0400

Under President Trump’s leadership, illegal border crossings have plummeted to historic lows and the rule of law has been restored to communities across the country. This is much-needed relief from the open-border chaos and lawlessness we endured under the Biden administration, but Congress would be foolish to think this problem is solved for good.

We’ve seen the consequences of a federal government that abdicates its first and most important responsibility – providing for the common defense – and, if the past is prologue, we know exactly what we can expect from future Democrat administrations that want to take us back.

For four years under Biden, millions of illegal aliens flooded our borders, drug and human trafficking surged, and our communities were overwhelmed. And when Texas stepped up to protect its citizens, the federal government didn’t just fail to help – it actively obstructed. When Texas deployed buoy barriers, the administration sued. When the state installed razor wire, federal agents cut it. When Texas passed laws to enforce immigration policy and restore order, the Department of Justice challenged those efforts in court. The Biden White House used every tool at its disposal to keep the border open and leave states defenseless.

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That raised a fundamental question – one that, despite the current successes of President Trump, promises to return under future administrations: Can a state defend its border, protect its citizens, and enforce the law when the federal government fails to do so?

Fortunately, the Constitution answers that question.

Article IV, Section 4 guarantees the federal government "shall protect each [state] against Invasion." But the Founders also understood that this duty might not always be fulfilled, which is why Article I, Section 10 preserves the authority of states to act in self-defense when they are "actually invaded" or "in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay."

The right of a state to defend its people is not a novel theory – it is one the Framers explicitly provided for in the Constitution. That is why I introduced H.Res.50, a resolution endorsed by every Texas Republican in Congress and supported by a broad coalition of policy leaders, legal scholars, and law enforcement officials across the country. It affirms the constitutional authority of states to defend themselves and clarifies Congress’s understanding of when that authority applies.

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This resolution does not expand state power or diminish federal authority. It reinforces the constitutional balance and provides the clarity that has been missing when it matters most.

Biden-era legal battles between Texas and the federal government exposed how ambiguity can be used to block states from acting, even in the face of clear and imminent danger. Should these issues arise again under a future administration – and they will – the Supreme Court will look to Congress for guidance on what constitutes an "invasion" or "imminent danger."

H.Res.50 provides such guidance by establishing congressional intent and ensuring we do not leave states defenseless when their federal government abandons them.

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This is not a theoretical exercise. It is about what happens the next time Washington fails. We cannot assume that future Democrat administrations will maintain the same commitment to border enforcement that we enjoy today under President Trump.

We have a responsibility to act now. The American people gave Republicans unified control of Washington, and Congress has the opportunity to ensure that states like Texas are never again forced to be passive victims of a failed federal government. We must meet this moment with the urgency it demands.