Tag Archive for: Budget and Finance

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Thomas Massie Reveals What Would Get Him To ‘Yes’ On Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill

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Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie revealed in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller that he could vote “yes” on President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” if a “skinny” version of the legislation materializes.

Massie has said he will not support the bill in its current form because it does not cut government spending substantially enough. Massie’s opposition to the bill is one reason Trump and his political allies have threatened to primary him in the 2026 midterms. Pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is also trying to primary Massie, according to a source who spoke to the Caller.

There is a version of the bill, though, Massie said he could support. In a group text with about ten other congressmen, called “Budget Hawks,” Massie said they have floated the idea of splitting the bill in two.

“I can tell you the conservatives in the house are getting antsy with every change that happens in the Senate, and there’s a concern that maybe they need to just skinny this thing down and try to do just a few things,” he asserted, adding that they may try to do “two bills instead of one.”

“The first one should be just the absolute essentials to the president’s priorities, which would be, secure the border and extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” he explained.

Massie said he could theoretically support that bill depending on its impact on the deficit.

“It would be a lot of speculation to say that’s where we’re going to end up. But if we did end up there, and there was a repeal of the Green New Deal subsidies, I could be for that, possibly — I’d have to see the total budget impact in the House,” he told the Caller.

There have been several changes to the Senate version of the bill that have raised red flags for Massie. They stripped the REINS Act Provision — something Massie personally lobbied for in the House version — which requires congressional approval for major federal regulations before they take effect. The Senate is also mulling over a longer phaseout of renewable energy tax credits and whether to reduce the income cap for State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions. Massie said that lowering the threshold would benefit blue states more than red states.

“If they make that tweak, let’s say they limit the SALT deduction to people who make less than $400,000 a year, that means that more of the benefit of that tax provision will go to blue states instead of red states, because to be under whatever the threshold is — let’s just say $400,000 a year annual income and have $40,000 of state and local taxes or property taxes — means that you’re probably in a blue state,” he explained.

“I think the ultimate bill that the Senate passes, if they can pass one, is going to have an even worse impact on the deficit than the House bill,” he said.

Massie speculated that the president’s July 4 deadline is unlikely to be met by Congress and that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s promise to force Congress to meet over the holiday is likely an empty threat meant to appease Trump. The real deadline, Massie alleged, is sometime in August.

“I think they’ll use the threat of canceling the August recess … they’ll take a week off the August recess and say we’re in session, and then they’ll give it back to us if this bill passes,” he said.

Another sticking point for Massie is that he is using a shorter window to score the bill’s impact on the deficit. While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) typically scores bills on a ten-year timeline, Massie is only looking at the next three or four years. Trump’s plans for no tax on tips and overtime, and tax reform for seniors, for example, are set to expire after three years in the bill.

“The deficit impact is great over the next three years in the Big Bill that passed the House, and it’s only five years out when it starts to go in the other direction because they plan on having those tax cuts expire, and they plan on having that military spending expire,” he told the Caller. “But what will happen four years from now … is they’ll say, oh my gosh, that Congress four years ago and that president set up this fiscal cliff, and the impact to our military is going to be too great [if they let] the spending expire.”

“So we’ve got to use the current policy as the baseline,” he said.

Massie alleged that the House is effectively doing nothing while they wait for the Senate to deliver its version of the Big Beautiful Bill.

“The House is just sort of over here … treading water,” he asserted. “We’re just not doing much in the House. Where the speaker has the House looking like it’s busy … it’s not really that busy.”

AUTHOR

Amber Duke

Senior Editor. Follow Amber on Twitter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Massie Warns AIPAC, Trump’s War Against Him Could Backfire

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Obama-Appointed Senate Parliamentarian Blocks Major Changes in Big Beautiful Bill

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So sick of these underminers. This bill should have been passed weeks ago. Congress is useless.

We know who is telling this maidservant what to do.

“Meet the Democrat singlehandedly blocking key provisions in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Elizabeth Macdonough, a close ally to Obama serves as the Senate Parliamentarian. There is a solution to her efforts to stop the president’s agenda – JD Vance – he could overrule her as President of the Senate.”

She’s trying to require Trump to obtain 60 votes in the Senate instead of 50+1.

Senate Parliamentarian Blocks Major Medicaid Changes in Big Beautiful Bill

The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday advised the Medicaid provider tax could not be included in the Big Beautiful Bill, which could upend how the bill could offset the Trump tax cuts.

By: Sean Moran, Breitbart, 26 Jun 26, 2025:

The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday advised the Medicaid provider tax could not be included in the Big Beautiful Bill, which could upend how the bill could offset the Trump tax cuts.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled the Medicaid provider tax would require 60 votes in the Senate to be included in the Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate parliamentarian’s ruling complicates the offsets for enhancing and extending the Trump tax cuts.

The potential loss of the Medicaid provider tax would force Senate Republicans to find other potential spending cuts to pay for the Big Beautiful Bill. The parliamentarian also struck down provisions that would bar the use of Medicaid funds for transgender healthcare services and to prevent illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid or CHIP healthcare coverage.

However, it remains possible that Senate Republicans could change the language of the Medicaid provider tax to be eligible in the Big Beautiful Bill.

Senate Majority Leader Thune explained to Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle how the “Byrd Bath” process works: “We’re going through the Byrd bath, this Byrd test, which our bill has to run through that filter, and the parliamentarian is the sort of referee — determines what’s in, what’s out. But we kind of anticipated a lot of this stuff, and knew, in most cases at least what we were doing, what had a good chance of getting through, and what didn’t. And we worked closely with the House to coordinate when they were passing their bill over there, to minimize the number of things that would get knocked out under the Byrd rule. So we have been working from the very beginning on this, but that said, there are some things that are getting knocked out. What we’re intending, however, is when it’s done in the Senate, that it’ll be in a condition and a shape that can go back to the House, consistent with what the House passed, but hopefully improved upon by what we did in the Senate, and then be able to pass it on the floor there and send it to the president. So that’s the process.”

On the Wall Street Journal podcast All Things with Kim Strassel, Thune signaled that Republicans would work to find alternatives to things that may get struck down by the parliamentarian.

He said:

Well, in most of those cases, we have a plan B and a plan C… we’ve had contingency plans, we’re going back at her, and we think we’ll get a lot of that restored… And even the Democrats, when they were doing this, when they had unified control of the government, had things knocked out… But we’re still going to get a ton of what we wanted in this, and this is the president’s agenda, and so this will be the fulfillment and implementation of that. And we’re going to, we’re full speed ahead in trying to get it done.

“Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules and hurts families and workers,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement.

“Democrats are fighting back against Republicans’ plans to gut Medicaid, dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and kick kids, veterans, seniors, and folks with disabilities off of their health insurance,” the Democrat added.

Republicans are using budgetary reconciliation to pass the Big Beautiful Bill through the Senate using only a simple majority, or 51 votes. While it can avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, a reconciliation bill cannot make policy changes or things that are considered “extraneous” to spending.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani wins NYC primary election — What is his economic agenda?

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Mamdani pushes for $30 minimum wage, corporate tax hikes and government-owned grocery stores.

New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic Party’s primary for the New York City mayoral nomination has put his economic policies in the forefront as he aims to run the nation’s most populated city.

Mamdani, 33, is a Democratic member of the state assembly representing Queens who is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America as well as the Working Families Party.

Mamdani’s platform focused on a number of issues that have animated socialists in the Democratic Party, including raising the minimum wage, hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans, cracking down on delivery apps, as well as investing in affordable housing and creating city-owned grocery stores.

His campaign proposes a new minimum wage law that would raise the wage floor for jobs in the city to $30 an hour by 2030, which would then be automatically increased based on changes in the cost of living.

Mamdani has proposed raising the corporate tax rate in New York City to match the state of New Jersey’s tax rate of 11.5%, which his campaign believes will bring in $5 billion.

He also called for imposing an additional flat tax of 2% on New York households earning more than $1 million annually. To bring in additional funding for his plans, Mamdani’s campaign calls for hiring more tax auditors, collecting fines from landlords and reforms to procurement and contracting processes to raise $1 billion in revenue.

The assemblyman campaigned on building 200,000 new units of “permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes” over the next decade – as well as immediately freezing rents for all stabilized tenants.

His campaign also features a plan to “implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years,” while also providing “baby baskets” to new parents and guardians that include items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, and books,” at no cost to the new parents.

Mamdani has criticized delivery app platforms, with his campaign website stating that “deliveristas – 80,000 Black, brown and immigrant workers – are exploited by app companies who demand they complete deliveries at a dangerous pace.”

“Moreover, app companies have misclassified delivery workers as independent contractors, instead of employees, so that they can avoid providing them with the rights and benefits all workers deserve,” Mamdani’s website said. Delivery apps typically classify delivery workers as independent contractors, which gives them the flexibility to set their own hours and decide which deliveries they want to handle.

To address what he sees as the risks created by delivery apps, Mamdani’s platform calls for strengthening licensure requirements for such apps while also working to “expand capacity and resources to support deliveristas, and improve street infrastructure including expanding DOT e-bike programs and investing in deliverista hubs.”

His campaign platform has also called for eliminating fares on city buses while expanding priority lanes and bus queue jump signals with dedicated loading zones for passengers.

Mamdani also proposed creating city-owned grocery stores by redirecting funds from corporate grocery stores, claiming that the city stores would be focused on “lower prices, not price gouging.”

The grocery stores wouldn’t pay rent or property taxes, which would allow them to reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers, according to Mamdani’s website. They will also buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Universities Sit On Billion-Dollar Endowments While Jacking Up Tuition

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Several universities are hiking tuition prices and cutting jobs despite sitting on massive endowments.

Universities are largely blaming the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts for the price increases, but many schools have seen steady rises in tuition for decades and overall increased revenue all while nursing their ever-growing endowments. 

Cornell University is raising its tuition rate by over 4%, bringing the cost to $71,266 for out-of-state students and $48,010 for in-state students, while Duke University’s tuition will jump by nearly 5% to $92,042.

Duke’s price hike marks a 123% increase over the past two decades, despite its endowment steadily increasing over time to about $5 billion. The university’s 2023-2024 fiscal year financial report admitted that the school’s “growth in revenue outpaced expenses.”

At the time, Duke was charging students $83,263 in tuition and other fees and collecting a total of approximately $1 billion in gross tuition and fees even after accounting for financial aid deductions, making up 15% of its total revenue.

Duke is also working to reduce its workforce, offering voluntary buyout agreements to employees. The packages include financial incentives and healthcare in exchange for a three-year separation from the university, in which they can reapply after that period.

Duke did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Weighing similar staffing cuts, Cornell blamed the Trump administration’s federal research grant terminations, saying the university now faces “profound financial challenges.” Cornell announced it was pausing hiring as it reviewed its “programs and headcount.”

As of 2024, Cornell brings in over $900 million from tuition costs and student fees every year, according to its financial records. Cornell’s endowment is valued at approximately $10.7 billion as of 2024, returning about 10% every year.

Cornell did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Several public universities like the University of Michigan (UM) and the University of Minnesota (UMN) are also raising costs by as much as 7.5% for some students while cutting programs and student services.

UMN is raising its rates by 6.5% for in-state and 7.5% for out-of-state students, also pointing to federal cuts. The school operates on a budget of over $5 billion, with a total systemwide endowment of $6 billion.

UMN did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Tuition costs at the University of Michigan (UM) will rise by over 3% for in-state students and just under 5% for out-of-state students while sitting on a nearly $18 billion endowment. The university is blaming ” budgetary impacts of federal actions” and “economic and legislative uncertainty,” according to a June announcement.

A UM spokesman directed the DCNF to the university’s public statement.

College tuition costs have been on the rise for decades, with price increases mostly outpacing inflation. Increased federal financial aid to students has been attributed by some studies to the inflated costs.

The Trump administration has cut billions in grants and contracts to universities, targeting programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics or universities that allegedly fail to comply with federal civil rights laws.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Education Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Harvard, MIT Use Law To Limit Legal Payouts While Sitting On Endowments Worth Billions

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

USAID Official and Three Corporate Executives Plead Guilty $550 Million in Fraud, Bribery Using DEI

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USAID official and three company executives plead guilty in fraud and bribery scheme involving at least 14 contracts worth over $550 million

USAID Official Roderick Watson took bribes, was showered with lavish gifts— including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, down payments on two residential mortgages, cell phones, and jobs for relatives.

In exchange for the bribe payments, Watson influenced the award of contracts by manipulating the procurement process at USAID.

Watson faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Imagine how much more fraud there is…

USAID Official, Three Contractors Plead Guilty To Half-Billion Dollar Bribery Scheme

By  Luke Rosiak

Three government contractors and a USAID official have pleaded guilty to a scheme involving paying bribes in order to steer more than half a billion dollars in foreign aid contracts, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Roderick Watson, a USAID contracting officer, admitted to steering money to multiple companies in exchange for more than $1 million in bribes.

“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts,” Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation said in a statement. “While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts.”

The scheme was possible because of the federal government’s racial “set-aside” laws known as 8(a) contracting, which allow contracting officers to give contracts to companies owned by minorities, women, or veterans without the usual competitive process.

Walter Barnes III, the founder of a Baltimore-area company predicated on taking advantage of those laws, admitted to paying bribes, including a country-club wedding, cash, and a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

Barnes’s company is called Vistant, previously known as PM Consulting Group. It was awarded contracts on the pretense that it was “disadvantaged” because Barnes is black, even as it took in tens of millions of dollars. Barnes used a public defender in his court case, drawing a rebuke from the judge that he presumably had ample resources to pay for his own lawyer.

Also pleading guilty was Darryl Britt, the founder of 8(a) contracting firm Apprio Inc., which is received $271 million in federal contracts since 2004. Both companies also admitted criminal liability.

Beginning in 2013, Britt — a member of Carnegie Mellon University’s Business Board of Advisers — bribed Watson to award contracts to Apprio. When an 8(a) firm becomes too large, it “graduates” from its “disadvantaged” status. But minority contracting laws are notoriously exploited, with minority-owned firms existing simply to win contracts, then subcontracting out the work to other firms. That is often done openly, and above board, with “joint ventures.”

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

President Trump: China Trade, Tariff Deal ‘DONE’

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President Trump confirmed early Wednesday that the US reached a “deal” with China following intense, marathon trade negotiations in London.

“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump announced on Truth Social Wednesday in full capitalization. “Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.”

“Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. The relationship is excellent! Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

How are we vetting these students?

Trump says China trade, tariff deal ‘done,’ awaits his and Xi Jinping’s approval

“FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS, WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA,” President Trump said.

By Natalia Mittelstadt, Just The News, June 11, 2025:

President Trump on Wednesday announced that the deal with China “is done,” and is awaiting his and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s approval.

“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS, WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA. LIKEWISE, WE WILL PROVIDE TO CHINA WHAT WAS AGREED TO, INCLUDING CHINESE STUDENTS USING OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!). WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”

The U.S. and China reached a framework for a looming trade deal on Tuesday, which came on the second day of negotiations in London.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: AEI Housing Market Indicators, May 2025

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AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

You don’t want to miss this update! This month, we highlighted the following hot housing topics:

  • Recent movements in rates, demand, and supply: Mortgage rates remained elevated at 6.75%, while purchase rate lock volume dropped to a multi-year low—down 24% from the same week in 2019 and 5% year-over-year.
  • Home price appreciation (HPA) and months’ supply trends through March 2025: HPA slowed to 3.0%—its second lowest April rate in the series—while months’ supply declined to 3.2 months, just below pre-pandemic levels as inventory grows faster than seasonal trends
  • FHA appears not to be properly tracking its partial claims, costing taxpayers: FHA is not and collecting partial claims in about a quarter of cases, and taxpayers will be providing free money to certain FHA borrowers. Assuming an average partial claim amount of $23,000-$27,000 and 1.3 million unique claims since 2020, the taxpayer could lose $6.75 billion—not including partial claims completed before 2020.
  • An update on Bureau of Land Management sales to build starter homes: Making just 250 sq. miles of developable BLM land available for sale in 12 Western states would enable the private sector to add 1.75 million homes, a much of which would be family-sized starter homes for the working class. The 2025 Budget Reconciliation process provides an opportunity to address the Western region’s housing and development needs by expediting the disposal of target Federal lands for competitive sale at market prices.
  • Preview: The AEI Housing Success Playbook: The AEI Housing Center’s Housing Success Playbook provides five straightforward, proven policies to build an additional 1.6 million homes annually, and without subsidies. These include allowing smaller lots in new subdivisions, legalizing conversions of single-family homes, permitting backyard cottages and ADUs, enabling residential overlays in commercial zones, and developing starter homes on BLM land.
  • The surprising role of large developers in solving the housing crunch: The nation’s largest home builders have engineered a dramatic shift toward serving first-time homebuyers, with 51.2% of their new construction sales going to FTBs in 2024, up from 38.6% in 2014. This transformation has been driven by building smaller homes and offering financial tools like rate buydowns, while median lot sizes declined by 1,050 sq. ft., enabling greater affordability and access to starter homes.

The AEI Housing Market Indicators (HMI) provide accurate and timely metrics for the housing market. These include mortgage risk/leverage (with a particular focus on agency first-time buyer volume and risk), house prices and appreciation trends, housing sales (new and existing sales whether institutionally financed, cash, or other-financed), and inventory levels. Since the housing market is influenced by many different factors, all need to be considered together to better understand market trends.

WATCH: AEI Housing Market Indicators May 2025 Briefing

Monthly Update of the AEI Housing Market Indicators: Download this month’s slides

©2025 . All rights reserved.

White House Sends Congress $9.4 Billion Rescissions Package

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The White House sent a $9.4 billion rescissions package partly aimed at codifying work done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to Congress late Tuesday.

The House Oversight Committee confirmed that Congress had received the package in a post to X.

“The White House just sent Congress a $9.4B rescissions package—including $1.1B in CUTS to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS. These outlets ATTACK the America First agenda on the taxpayers’ dime. We’re ready to STOP this propaganda machine,” the post read.

The news comes after Russell Vought, Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), announced May 28 that the White House would be sending a rescissions package to Congress this week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said May 28 in an X post that he is “eager and ready to act” on the measure. “When the White House sends its rescission package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts,” he wrote.

The upcoming rescissions package is set to include $1.1 billion in funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). It also proposes an $8.3 billion reduction in funding for foreign aid, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NBC News reported.

The package can be approved in both the House and Senate with a simple majority, enabling Republican lawmakers to move it forward without Democratic backing.

Lawmakers will have 45 days to act on the proposal to rescind previously appropriated funding.

Although Elon Musk has departed DOGE and turned his attention to his various business ventures, the agency is expected to remain active through July 4, 2026.

Editor’s note: A quote has been altered to better reflect the original statement.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Social Security Fraud Just Tip Of The Iceberg, Trump’s New Commissioner Says

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Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano said Social Security numbers are vulnerable to exploitation and fraud across multiple government agencies, from the DMV to Medicare.

The former Wall Street executive, confirmed earlier this month after the agency cycled through five leadership changes in five months, said the problem extends far beyond Social Security benefit fraud to encompass the entire federal system where the numbers are used for identification.

“Fraud can happen in many ways. It doesn’t just have to be through Social Security,” Bisignano said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It could be on the many ways people use a Social Security number to get access …  the Social Security number needs to be a lockdown number.”

Bisignano also warned that because social security numbers are used by multiple federal agencies, fraud risks can balloon beyond the social security system. He said he would be trying to find coordinated solutions to head off fraud.

“The job is about building the largest level of integrity, the highest accuracy rate,” he said.

The commissioner said he is implementing artificial intelligence systems and operational overhauls to address these vulnerabilities across the agency’s 500 million annual interactions with Americans. He said current systems fall short of acceptable security standards.

The agency currently operates with a 1% error rate, he said, but Bisignano aims for “five nines” accuracy — 99.999% — comparable to private sector standards.

“If you’re running at something below that, it will give way to mediocrity at best, and will give way to failure and opportunity for bad things to happen,” he said.

Bisignano has been visiting field offices nationwide to assess operations firsthand, including recent trips to New Jersey locations. He emphasized the importance of understanding ground-level operations before implementing changes.

“I always believed that I need to go see the word to understand the work,” he said. “My job is to help them do their job better and bring the tools.”

In addition, Bisignano rejected Democratic criticism that the Trump administration seeks to cut Social Security benefits, citing his personal background as the son of a World War II veteran and federal agent.

“The idea that I’d be doing anything other than trying to bolster it up is just crazy,” he said.

The commissioner also announced the agency expects to complete Fairness Act payments by the end of June, delivering benefits to 3.2 million Americans ahead of the initially projected timeline of one year.

“This organization will learn how to execute with excellence,” Bisignano told the DCNF.

AUTHOR

Thomas English

DCNF Technology Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

YOUR TRUST IS BEING WEAPONIZED: The New Wave of Scams Preying on the Elderly, the Innocent, and the Faithful

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When Ryan Last took his own life, it broke something inside me.

Ryan was a 17-year-old straight-A student. A kind soul. Preparing for college. A young man full of promise. But all it took was a single online scam to unravel his world. Someone pretending to be a girl convinced him to send a private photo. Then came the blackmail: Pay up, or we show everyone.

He panicked. He paid what he could from his college fund.

But they wanted more.

Humiliated. Terrified. Alone.

Ryan took his life and left behind a note apologizing for “not being smarter.”

No teenager should feel that kind of shame. And no parent should ever have to bury their child because of a scam.

But this nightmare isn’t a one-off. It’s a rising national epidemic.

This hit close to home for us. Our granddaughter’s boyfriend, a Liberty University student, fell for the same scam. Praise God, he didn’t take his own life—but the emotional toll was real and lasting.

Every day, more and more scams flood this nation, including dozens of Social Security scams, check scams, billing scams, and too many more to mention here!

And it’s hitting those we love the most: our children… and our elderly.

🎯 The New Targets of Evil: Christians, Grandparents, Children and the Kindhearted

Scammers are no longer just sleazy roofers or shady mechanics. Those old-school con games have evolved into something far more dangerous—and far more evil.

Now, scammers use artificial intelligence to clone the voice of your grandchild begging for help.

They impersonate your pastor.

They pose as federal agents, Social Security reps, or even your bank.

They come in emails, pop-ups, text messages, and robocalls.

They don’t just want your money.

They want to weaponize your trust.

They want to exploit your compassion—especially if you’re a Bible-believing Christian.

Why? Because they know our hearts.

We’re generous. We believe the best in people.

We love. We give. We help.

They see that as weakness. But it’s not weakness—it’s righteousness. And it’s time we defend it.

🧭 What We’re Doing About It — And How You Can Help

At Christian Action Network, we’re launching a national initiative to demand the creation of a Federal Anti-Scam Bureau — a dedicated agency focused solely on ending this epidemic of deception.

This campaign includes:

✅ A national “Stop Lethal Scam Attacks NOW!” survey

✅ A call for mandatory sentencing for repeat scammers

✅ A free educational tool: our Top 15 Targeting Scams, full-color flyer

✅ A push for state governors to issue regular scam alerts to all households

We’re not asking the FBI to stop doing its job. In fact, even FBI Director Kash Patel recently said:

“We want to work at the FBI because we want to fight violent crime and be sent out into the country to do it.”

Exactly. Let FBI agents track down murderers and terrorists—not spend their days chasing phone, email, and text scammers. We need a dedicated team focused on fraud—and we need it now.

📬 How You Can Take a Stand

You can help fight back today by:

📝 Filling out the “Stop Lethal Scam Attacks NOW!” survey

Share

I’m sending this survey to our nationwide network of supporters, and I would like to include your answers when I submit the results to Congress.

Your voice matters.

Your life matters.

Your money matters.

And your compassion doesn’t deserve to be turned into a weapon.

Let’s make sure no more Ryans fall.

Let’s protect our seniors, our families, and our churches.

Together, we can stop the scams—and strike back against this rising wave of digital evil.

📎 Click here to fill out the survey ➤

Why America Needs a Federal Anti-Scam Bureau

FBI agents, trained to handle violent criminals, are increasingly burdened by investigating widespread scams that drain their resources and focus.

This diversion leaves violent crimes less thoroughly addressed and scam victims inadequately protected.

A dedicated Federal Anti-Scam Bureau would change that.

With specialized agents solely focused on stopping scams, educating the public, and swiftly bringing scammers to justice, we could significantly reduce scam-related losses and tragedies.

Protecting our families, seniors, and communities from ruthless predators demands specialized attention.

Without immediate and focused intervention, scammers will continue to thrive, causing devastating emotional and financial harm across our nation.

Your completed survey sends a strong message to Congress and government leaders:

Americans demand action.

We must demonstrate widespread public support to ensure lawmakers prioritize creating this critical agency.

Now is the time for collective action and a united voice.

Please complete and return your survey today—your participation is crucial in this fight for justice and safety.

📎 Click here to fill out the survey. ➤

AUTHOR

MARTIN MAWYER

Martin Mawyer is the President of Christian Action Network and host of the “Shout Out Patriots” podcast. Follow him for more action alerts, cultural commentary, and real-world campaigns defending faith, family, and freedom.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Please visit the Majority Report substack.

20 Reasons Why Congress Must Unite Behind the One, Big, Beautiful Bill

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Congressional Republicans MUST unite to pass President Donald J. Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill and take advantage of the once-in-a-generation opportunity they were given by voters.

Here are 20 reasons why Congress must unite behind the One, Big, Beautiful Bill:

  1. It delivers the largest tax cut in American history. This means an extra $5,000 in Americans’ pockets with a DOUBLE-DIGIT percent DECREASE to their tax bills. Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 will pay around 15% less in taxes.

  2. It includes NO TAX ON TIPS and NO TAX ON OVERTIME. This makes good on two of President Trump’s cornerstone campaign promises and will benefit hardworking Americans where they need it the most — their paychecks.

  3. It delivers Big, Beautiful Deportations. The bill permanently secures our borders by making the largest border security investment in history, funding at least one million annual removals of illegal immigrants and ramping up “mass deportation operations to a level never before seen in American history.”

  4. It finishes President Trump’s border wall. As a result, 701 miles of primary wall, 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers will be constructed — stopping deadly fentanyl from flowing into our communities and securing the border from dangerous illegal immigrant murderers and rapists.

  5. It boosts Border Patrol and ICE agents on the frontlines. It empowers immigration authorities to carry out their mission by hiring 10,000 new ICE personnel, 5,000 new customs officers, and 3,000 new Border Patrol agents — and gives $10,000 bonuses in each of the next four years to agents on the frontlines.

  6. It protects Medicaid for Americans by kicking 1.4 million illegals off the benefits. This bill eliminates waste, fraud, and abuse by ending benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are gaming the system.

  7. It requires able-bodied Americans to work if they receive benefits. With 4.8 million able-bodied adults choosing not to work, The One, Big, Beautiful Bill puts work requirements in place and supports them as they find dignity through employment.

  8. It reverses the spending curse plaguing Washington, D.C. The legislation delivers the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years, with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings.

  9. It ends taxpayer-funded sex change for minors. It reverses the Biden-era mandate that Medicaid cover so-called “gender transition” procedures for minors — ending the taxpayer-funded chemical castration and mutilation of American children.

  10. It provides historic tax relief to Social Security recipients. It slashes taxes on seniors’ Social Security benefits.

  11. It will give Americans PERMANENT tax relief through the Trump Tax Cuts. If the bill doesn’t pass, Americans will see the largest tax increase in history.

  12. It finally modernizes air traffic control, fulfilling President Trump’s plan to completely overhaul the systems that keep Americans flying safely and efficiently. This will allow President Trump to update our air traffic control systems and act where the Biden Administration failed (despite repeated warnings).

  13. It ends the taxpayer-funded Green New Scam. The legislation repeals or phases out every “green” corporate welfare subsidy in Democrats’ so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” immediately stops credits from flowing to China and saves taxpayers $500+ billion every year, and reverses electric vehicle mandates that let radical climate activists set the standards for American energy.

  14. It incentivizes MADE IN AMERICA. It rewards companies that build their products in America with lower taxes — and allows Americans who buy an American-made vehicle to fully deduct their auto loan interest.

  15. It is pro-family. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill increases the child tax credit, establishes MAGA Accounts for newborns to start saving, and strengthens paid family leave.

  16. It repeals Democrats’ insane attack on the gig economy. It repeals the requirement that Venmo, PayPal, and other gig transactions over $600 be reported to the IRS.

  17. It protects family farmers. The bill prevents the greedy death tax from hitting two million family-owned farms who would otherwise see their exemptions cut in half and cuts taxes on farmers by over $10 billion.

  18. It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to revolutionize our nation’s defense capabilities and protect the homeland against new threats. It funds President Trump’s Golden Dome, invests in American shipbuilding, and modernizes our military.

  19. It unleashes American energy dominance. The legislation increases onshore and offshore oil and gas leases, which provides certainty for energy producers, spurs job growth, and makes energy more affordable for American consumers.

  20. It boosts American mineral development. This bill increases mining of domestic minerals and makes America less dependent on foreign adversaries for critical minerals.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Trump 2.0 Takes Chainsaw To The Deep State With Historic Cuts Of Staff, Budgets

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The intelligence community is quietly undergoing structural changes as agencies tackle government bloat, reorganize departments and dismantle the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

One of Trump’s first directives targeted weaponization in the federal government, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) — which oversees the IC — is focused on uprooting the politicization of the agency.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard launched the Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) in April to end government weaponization and increase transparency, and she recently announced that the agency is now 25% leaner.

“The 25% reduction in the staff includes both permanent ODNI cadre officers and detailees from other IC elements, who will be returned to their home agencies as ODNI streamlines its mission space,” a source familiar told the Daily Caller.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe is also eying politicization and potential waste in his agency.

“Director Ratcliffe has made it clear that the CIA will pursue President Trump’s national security priorities with laser-like focus,” CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons told the Daily Caller. “The Agency is determined to provide the President with an unparalleled intelligence advantage and, under Director Ratcliffe, we are aggressively doing just that.”

Ratcliffe vowed to restructure the CIA to “eliminate” politicization during a recent cabinet meeting with the president.

Similarly, Deputy Director Michael Ellis warned against politicization in a February message to CIA staff, noting their work needs “to be free from politics, bias, or any other distraction.”

Conservatives have accused the IC of politicization for years.

The FBI relied on the since since-debunked Steele dossier to accuse former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, of being a Russian agent. The bureau also reportedly surveilled school board parents and raided the homes of pro-life protesters.

Fifty-one former officials signed a letter casting doubt on the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s emails, falsely claiming it had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation, even though when Ratcliffe served as DNI during Trump’s first term, he determined there was no evidence Hunter Biden’s laptop was a “Russian disinformation campaign.”

Now, the IC is dealing with “deep state actors” leaking classified information to the press. Sources leaked to the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in May about the IC’s plans to surveille Greenland.

Gabbard slammed the leakers as “deep state actors” who are “politicizing and leaking classified information” in a statement to WSJ.

The CIA is being revamped, but Ratcliffe has not made the “kind of broad cuts” required of other agencies, a Thursday report from CNN claimed.

Although Trump’s federal workforce directives can include national security exemptions, Lyons told the Caller that Ratcliffe is zeroing-in on ways the agency can be more efficient.

“Under Director Ratcliffe, the CIA is implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders to ensure that the workforce is responsive to the Trump Administration’s national security priorities,” she stated. “Even if exemptions are available for national security reasons, the Director believes that CIA can improve efficiency, which is why he invited Mr. Musk to headquarters earlier this year for his insight.”

Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), visited the CIA and met with Ratcliffe in April to discuss DOGE’s efforts to improve government efficiency.

While the agency’s operations are often shrouded in secrecy, Ratcliffe fired officers involved in DEI and dismissed a CIA official who played a key role in Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military.

The Trump administration plans to reduce the CIA’s workforce by about 1,200 people over multiple years, The Washington Post reported, citing a source familiar.

Ratcliffe emphasized “meritocracy” in an unclassified March 31 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.

“Moving forward, you will be part of a smaller, more elite and efficient workforce,” he wrote. “We will need everyone at CIA to prioritize efforts that add the greatest value and reduce those we can no longer afford to do.”

He added that “the years of growing budgets and resources are behind [CIA].”

The CIA is also reorienting its focus toward Latin America, specifically the drug cartels. This is a shift from the past two decades, where the CIA has been primarily concerned with Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the New York Times (NYT) reported in 2021.

Trump designated the cartels “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” in one of his first executive orders.

The CIA merged the Western Hemisphere Mission Center (WHMC) and the Counternarcotics Center (CNC) into one unit — the Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center (ACMC), according to an unclassified April 14 CIA memo obtained by the Caller.

Trump expects the agency to “play a prominent role” in targeting transnational cartels, the memo noted.

The CIA has reportedly been operating a covert drone program to identify fentanyl laboratories in Mexico, anonymous officials told the NYT.

The agency is considering using “lethal force” against Mexican drug cartels, a U.S. official and three people familiar told CNN in April. The CIA is reviewing its authorities and assessing the potential risks of targeting the cartels, according to the outlet.

The agency has also recently made efforts to improve intelligence collection on Russia and China.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is reportedly also facing cuts under Trump’s new vision for the IC. The agency has been ordered to slash “up to 2,000 civilian roles,” three people familiar told Recorded Future News.

The NSA is a signals intelligence (SIGNT) agency within the Department of Defense (DOD). Trump fired Biden-appointed NSA Director Timothy Haugh in April.

The NSA referred the Daily Caller to DOD for questions about restructuring.

“NSA is focused on carrying out the priorities of the President, Secretary of Defense, and Director of National Intelligence, which include evaluating and making strategic adjustments to its civilian workforce,” a DOD spokesperson told the Caller.

“As a combat support agency, NSA is working with the Department to meet [DOD’s] goals and ensure that workforce adjustments are conducted while we continue to execute NSA’s SIGINT and Cybersecurity missions,” the statement continued.

The DOD intends to target its “bloated headquarters,” Hegseth announced in early May.

He introduced the General and Flag Officer Reductions Policy, or the “Less Generals More GIs” directive in a video.

Hegseth ordered at least a 20% reduction of 4-star positions in the Active Component, 20% reduction of the National Guard’s general officers and a minimum 10% reduction in general and flag officers, according to a DOD memo.

“We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters’ elements to our warfighters,” Hegseth stated in the video.

He also directed $5.1 billion in “wasteful spending” cuts in accordance with DOGE’s findings in April.

However, the Trump administration has proposed a record $1 trillion defense budget — even though the Pentagon has yet to pass an audit.

The law enforcement arm of the IC is also not immune to restructuring.

Trump’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget includes a $545 million cut to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), citing a reduction in “DEI programs, pet projects of the [Biden] administration, and duplicative intelligence activities,” according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The proposal’s recommendations concern discretionary funding.

The Caller reached out to the FBI for comment on the budget proposal and examples of any waste, fraud or abuse the bureau has eliminated. The bureau referred the Caller to Patel’s comments during committee hearings.

FBI Director Kash Patel testified in May before the House Appropriations Committee and said the bureau was “trying to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”

Patel is reorganizing the agency to “streamline operations,” according to his May 8 opening statement. The FBI is “ensuring that the Bureau is a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” his statement added.

However, Patel pushed back against the OMB’s proposal to slash funding during his hearing. He told congressmembers the budget cuts were not what the FBI had requested.

“The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion which would not have us cut any positions … we need more than what has been proposed,” he told Democrat Connecticut Rep. Rose DeLauro.

Patel appeared to reverse his comments the following day, and he expressed support for OMB’s budget when testifying before the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee.

“We will make and agree with this budget as it stands and make it work,” he told Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen during the senate hearing.

“I was simply asking for more funds because I can do more with more money,” Patel added.

Rep. DeLauro asked what positions would be cut due to the funding reduction, and Patel said he is not looking to cut positions.

“Ma’am, at this time, we have not looked at who to cut,” he answered. “We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut.”

In addition to restructuring the intelligence community’s workforce, Trump has sought to eliminate DEI from federal agencies.

The CIA, ODNI, FBI and NSA have made efforts to comply with Trump’s executive orders, including by removing DEI language from government websites.

Notably, the FBI closed its DEI office in December 2024.

DNI Gabbard told Trump during a cabinet meeting that she closed the IC Human Capital Office, deeming it a “DEI slush fund.”

Additionally, Gabbard fired over 100 intelligence staffers who were in sexually explicit NSA chats.

Former President Biden’s CIA Director William J. Burns prioritized DEI, a CIA official told the Caller.

Under the Trump administration, however, the agency has scrapped its DEI office.

“Director Burns made it clear that strengthening diversity and inclusion at CIA was one of his highest priorities,” the official said. “Under Director Ratcliffe, there has been a significant change — the DEI office has been shut down and mission objectives are prioritized instead.”

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

Associate Editor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘It’s A Big Deal’ — John Ratcliffe For CIA Director Could Be One Of Trump’s Most Important Picks

‘Steal Secrets’: CIA Releases Videos In Mandarin To Recruit Chinese Officials

Trump Admin Wants A Record $1,000,000,000,000 Pentagon Budget — But Does America Need It?

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Plurality Of Swing Voters Support Trump’s China Tariffs, New Poll Reveals

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A new survey from the Protecting America Initiative (PAI) shows a plurality of voters in 19 key swing districts back Trump’s tariffs and trust him more than major retailers to stand up for American workers.

The respondents generally place the blame for trade issues on corporate retailers and believe the companies, not consumers, should bear the cost of any price hikes, according to the poll, first reported Wednesday by the Daily Caller. Many swing district voters blame retailers for the outsourcing that likely fueled U.S. dependence on China and believe retailers should bring jobs back home.

The survey, conducted from May 1–6, polled 1,000 likely voters across 19 battleground districts identified by the Cook Political Report, with a margin of error of ±2%. It included 636 live phone interviews and 364 text-to-web surveys, with the data weighted to reflect demographics and voter registration trends.

The findings highlight a divide in trust when it comes to defending American workers as 43% of voters trust Trump while 39% trust retail CEOs.

Seventy-eight percent say retailers should absorb price increases tied to outsourcing and tariffs. This view cuts across political, age, and demographic lines, reflecting broad frustration with corporations appearing to offload the consequences of their decisions onto consumers.

Swing voters expressed deep skepticism toward major retailers.

Seventy-five percent of voters agree retailers exploited COVID-19 by using the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices, post record profits, and never bring costs back down, with 50% strongly agreeing, according to the PAI poll.

Now, that same 75% worry these companies will exploit tariff-related price hikes to keep overcharging consumers.

Eighty-three percent support investigations into corporate price gouging, and 78% back tough penalties for companies that used the pandemic or trade tensions to inflate prices, according to the PAI poll.

That concern may already be playing out. A viral TikTok video appears to show Hallmark hiking prices on its Kansas-made Christmas ornaments while blaming the increase on tariffs.

Many voters say they’re still paying pandemic-era prices even though the crisis is over. A full 84% agree it is time to investigate who’s profiting and why prices haven’t come down, including 64% who strongly agree.

PAI polling also shows that 81% of voters are more likely to support candidates who call for investigations, while 79% favor those who back legislation to rein in corporate price gouging.

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

‘Never Bet Against America’: Charles Payne Says Price Increases Have Nothing To Do With Trump’s Tariffs

American Manufacturers Overwhelmed With Orders After Trump’s Tariff Crackdown On China

Does Team Trump Have The ‘Winning Hand’ It Needs To Break China’s Back In Looming Trade Talks?

Grant Newsham: Dissecting Trump’s China tariffs

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

IG Reports Give Fuller Accounting of Biden Military Lowlights

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“The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later” (1 Timothy 5:24). This principle of biblical wisdom is just as valid in politics. Not every fault is instantly known and judged; others only “appear later” — but, rest assured, they “cannot remain hidden” (1 Timothy 5:25). In November 2024, voters knew enough about President Biden’s failure to reject his party’s successor, but the full accounting of Biden’s blunders will only come to light with time.

That accounting has now begun. Congressional committees and inspectors general had already begun investigations into the most egregious failings of the previous administration, but stonewalling tactics threw sand in the gears. As the Trump administration feels no compunction about exposing the missteps of its predecessor, those investigations will now move forward much more smoothly.

Gaza Pier

One such accounting concerns the infamous floating pier that Biden ordered the U.S. military to assemble along the coast of Gaza. The whole exercise was political — a subtle dig at Israel for insisting on screening aid that entered Gaza overland, a transparent concession to the pro-Hamas rabble that Biden sought to placate, and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that Hamas would promptly loot aid humanitarian aid that arrived in Gaza (even off the pier!)

Operation Neptune Solace, as the pier project was dubbed, required the labor of 1,000 U.S. servicemembers over several months, as well as $320 million in equipment, yet it disintegrated almost instantly. As it turns out the pier was not designed to withstand even a “gentle breeze,” which is average weather on the Gaza coast. After only 20 days of partial operation, including multiple repairs, the pier operation was abandoned.

Of course, the Biden administration tried to spin this not as a total failure, but as a partial success. The pier did deliver some aid — about a third of the aid it hoped to land — and the operation’s total casualties amounted to three soldiers with non-combat injuries, the Pentagon said.

According a new report released this month by the DOD Inspector General (IG), this casualty estimate was just plain wrong. “In response to our request and a review of records, USCENTCOM reported that 62 U.S. personnel suffered injuries during Operation Neptune Solace,” the report stated. “Based on the information provided, we were not able to determine which of these 62 injuries occurred during the performance of duties or resulted off duty or from pre-existing medical conditions.” One soldier, who was medevacked from the pier in May with critical injuries, died in October.

The loss in material was also substantial. “The Navy reported damage to 27 watercraft and INLS equipment pieces totaling approximately $31 million,” the IG recorded, while the Army’s total damage report was classified. Much of the damage was due to equipment that was punctured or bent after colliding in the rolling seas; the Army and Navy’s separate equipment was never designed to be used together. But what do 60 soldiers and $30 million matter in pursuit of political brownie points?

The Biden Pentagon could keep the Gaza pier’s devastating toll under wraps for a while, but the true impact did “appear later.”

Afghanistan Equipment

Only days earlier, another inspector general report slammed another critical failure of the Biden administration. In an ill-advised decision to withdraw from Afghanistan by a pre-determined, arbitrary deadline, President Biden ordered American forces to evacuate the country in haste, leaving behind equipment, allies, and even American citizens. More specifically, the U.S. left behind 78 aircraft, 40,000 military vehicles, and over 300,000 weapons.

Even worse, Biden’s hasty retreat kneecapped the friendly, democratic government of Afghanistan, causing it to collapse rapidly before an advancing Taliban, the very group America defenestrated from power more than two decades earlier. Even worse, it now appears that the Taliban has reverted to its old ways, allowing more than two dozen terrorist organizations to train on its soil, including at least four offshoots of al-Qaeda.

In an April 30 report, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) succinctly compiled this information as follows:

“A February UN sanctions monitoring team report said that al Qaeda affiliates in Afghanistan … ‘continued to have access to weapons seized from the former Afghan National Army, transferred to them by the de facto authorities/Taliban or purchased from the black market.’ The Taliban army chief of staff said the regime planned to provide the army with more advanced weapons and equipment, but did not specify from where or whom it could come. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) reported that out of $18.6 billion worth of equipment that was transferred to the ANDSF between 2005 and August 2021, $7.12 billion remained in Afghanistan.”

From this summary, it’s not hard to infer that Biden’s disastrous withdrawal left high-tech American military equipment to the very terrorist organizations that we entered Afghanistan to destroy more than two decades ago.

Some of this came to light during the Biden administration — but it only came to light piecemeal and gradually, despite the administration’s refusal to accept (or assign) responsibility.

Conclusion

These are not the first reports exposing previous governmental misdeeds, nor will they be last. Congress this week also exposed the FBI’s deceptive mishandling of the 2017 assassination attempt of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and other Republican lawmakers. Last month, the DOJ “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” assembled the first tranche of grievances to be redressed.

The point is, grievous mistakes have a way of becoming known eventually. Sin can only hide in the shadows for so long. It is therefore wise to take the advice of Proverbs, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

American governments would be well served to frankly own up to their own shortcomings. Attempts to cover up the truth only lead to more political fallout in the long run. As Moses once warned a faction of Israelites who sought to avoid accountability, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Trans Is Out’: DOD Begins Removing Trans-Identifying Military Members

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘Our Revenue Hit a Cliff’: Radical LGBT Groups See Mass Layoffs in Trump Era

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As the legacy media highlight questionable polls and short-term economic dislocations to portray President Donald Trump as uniquely unpopular with the American people, some of the main financial and political movements of the Democratic Party have engaged in a series of mass layoffs — especially groups focused on promoting LGBT ideology.

GLSEN — founded by Kevin Jennings in 1990 as the “Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network” to promote extreme transgender ideology in public schools — announced in February it would lay off 60% of its workforce. The announcement came one day before the nation’s leading LGBTQIA+ pressure group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), announced it would cut 20% of its staff in February, laying off about 50 people.

GLSEN’s leader “says that the business decision was painful and necessary in response to mounting financial pressures and coordinated right-wing attacks,” which the LGBT lobby is apparently losing, reported The Advocate. GLSEN Executive Director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, whom the outlet describes as “the first [b]lack and nonbinary person to lead the organization,” announced the LGBT pressure group fired 18 employees on February 3. “We are not an injured version of the GLSEN we were before Monday. We are a new organization,” the director insisted.

But Willingham-Jaggers admitted the lack of corporate support blew a hole in the organization’s bottom line. “We hit a ceiling — and then our revenue hit a cliff because of right-wing attacks … [T]otal revenue is down,” said Willingham-Jaggers. “They saw Target back off, and then they came for us even harder.” Willingham-Jaggers chided donors that they “need to fund us like they want us to win.” In the same vein, HRC President Kelley Robinson said “the last several years” have presented “historic challenges to our progress,” specifically from “historical softening’ of HRC’s support “in institutions, out of fear.”

These moves underline “the broader financial strain facing LGBTQ+ advocacy groups amid a shifting political and philanthropic landscape,” reported The Advocate.

According to the Human Rights Campaign’s most recent financial disclosures, HRC raised $75 million in its 2024 fiscal year — a $10 million decrease from the previous year — but spent $88.9 million, cutting its total assets by $12.6 million. (HRC still had robust total net assets totaling $45.7 million as of March 31, 2024.) With HRC, too, the largest funding decreases came from “Corporate & foundation grants & contracts” (down $5 million year over year) and “planned giving” ($1.9 million).

GLSEN’s ‘Rainbow Library’ and HRC’s ‘Gender Snowperson’ Meet the DNC

Both GLSEN and HRC have long sought to indoctrinate public school students with extreme LGBT ideology. The nation’s largest public schools union, the National Education Association (NEA), instructed teachers in 33 states how they can obtain a free “Rainbow Library” from which GLSEN describes as “an initiative that provides LGBTQ+ affirming text sets to schools free of charge. We have already sent Rainbow Library sets to 8,100 schools and libraries.”

GLSEN encouraged teachers to insert transgender ideology into math problems. For instance, in one of GLSEN’s suggested word problems, teachers would ask math students to calculate how long it will take to “spread the use of the singular they/them/their pronoun” used by individuals who identify as “nonbinary.” Since “any encounter will lead to a percent of the population adopting the they/them/their pronouns as part of regular use, the students can determine how long it will take for the entire population to adopt the use.”

GLSEN also suggested inserting multiple gender identities into student surveys that traditionally ask for a student’s sex. “[T]eachers need to be sure they include both intersex and other as choices,” and if “the students want to include data for gender, a variety of choices need to be included, such as agender, genderfluid, female, male, nonbinary, transman, transwoman, and other,” insisted GLSEN.

As this author has detailed at The Washington Stand:

“HRC’s ‘Welcoming Schools” program instructs teachers to read the book ‘They, She, He, Easy as ABC’ to children in preschool or kindergarten. Its pre-Klesson plan defines ‘gender identity’ as ‘How you feel. Girl, boy, both or neither. Everyone has a gender identity,’ conducts school trainings, and creates lesson plans for teachers beginning in ‘pre-K.’ By third grade, it encourages students to use the ‘Gender Snowperson’ exercise to ‘understand the differences between gender identity, sexual orientation and sex assigned at birth.’

“The HRC … opposes laws protecting minors from transgender procedures and has denounced laws ‘allowing misgendering of transgender students’ or regulating ‘drag performances.’”

Ironically, Robinson has accused conservatives who resist the forced insertion of LGBT ideology into their children’s curriculum of “launching a culture war against our kids.”

Both also have ties to the Democratic Party. HRC has crossed into the partisan sphere, hosting Jill Biden and dedicating $15 million to the 2024 presidential election. Shortly before election day, Robinson reassured her followers Republican ads highlighting Democrats’ extremism on the transgender issue “would fall flat again in 2024.”

GLSEN, too, has enjoyed ties to the Democratic Party since President Barack Obama nominated its controversial founder, Kevin Jennings, to serve as his “Safe Schools Czar.”

Yet corporations which accurately forecasted President Trump’s victory in 2024 have backed off support for his ideological, and political, foes in the LGBT movement. The president has taken swift action to defund, and at times prosecute, those who impose transgenderism in the schools. In his first 100 days in office, Trump has signed executive orders defining sex as a biological reality, protecting women’s sports, and prosecuting states that force girls to change in front of trans-identifying males for Title IX violations.

GLSEN, HRC to Focus on Schools, Workplace Policies, and Redefining Religion

Yet both groups insist they will double-down on propagandizing our nation’s youth in the schools — and changing their views of what the Bible teaches about sexual morality issues.

GLSEN’s plans for the future include a focus on young people and teachers, described as “supporting educators and students in local communities, amplifying youth voices” by The Advocate. Similarly, going forward, The Advocate reported, “HRC officials said schools and workplaces will be a primary area of emphasis.”

HRC will also attempt to redefine the position of the Christian religion on LGBTQ ideology. The Advocate reports that HRC plans to launch new “storytelling initiatives,” one of which will ask Mariann Edgar Budde — the cleric whom The Episcopal Church considers a bishop, who confronted President Trump in a service at the National Cathedral shortly after his inauguration — to provide “moral clarity on LGBTQ+ rights from a religious vantage point.”

In the future, both groups will have to implement their agenda with decimated workforces, thanks to the cultural winds ushered in by last November’s election.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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