Tag Archive for: President Donald J. Trump

All the Executive Orders Trump Signed on Day One

In his second inaugural speech Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump promised that a series of forthcoming executive orders would implement the 2024 election’s “revolution of common sense.” He immediately proceeded to sign an avalanche of executive orders repealing the Biden-Harris administration’s promotion of transgender ideology, ending the weaponization of government against pro-life advocates, safeguarding freedom of speech, securing the southern border, emphasizing American energy independence, and ending imperious government decrees by the federal bureaucracy.

President Trump wasted no time signing executive orders on all these subjects, and many more, after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. Trump began signing the first several executive orders in front of cheering MAGA supporters inside the Capital One Arena, throwing the pens he used to sign the orders — a cherished and sought-after collectible — into the audience.

Trump noted on Sunday that he would not wait, as he did in his first administration, to begin implementing the policies the American people voted for — and erasing the legacy of outgoing President Joe Biden. “Somebody said, ‘Sir, don’t sign so many in one day. Let’s do it over a matter of weeks.’ I said, ‘Like hell we’re gonna do it over weeks,’” said then-President-elect Trump on Sunday.

Executive Orders President Trump Signed on Day One

Flags fly full-staff on inauguration day: The first order the president signed impacted his own inauguration: President Biden had signed an executive order that all flags be flown at half-mast for 30 days following the death of former President Jimmy Carter. That would make it appear that the nation greeted the changing of the presidency in a state of mourning. President Trump issued a proclamation that, “on this and all future Inauguration Days, the flag of the United States shall be flown at full-staff” on all public buildings and grounds.

Undoing the Biden legacy: The first executive order President Trump signed publicly repealed 78 Biden executive orders. Among other things, this order:

  • Eliminated the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the White House Gender Policy Council, the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, the Climate Change Support Office, and the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime;
  • Ended policies forbidding oil drilling on the continental shelf;
  • Ended the electric vehicle mandate; and
  • Placed Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Repealing Gender Ideology, Wokeness, Censorship, and Weaponization of Government

President Trump’s executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” repeals Biden-Harris administration policies to place men in women’s intimate spaces, on the sports field, and even in women’s prisons. It begins by skewering the intellectual basis of gender ideology by officially defining a man and a woman in strictly biological terms:

“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

“‘Male’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

It defines “gender ideology” as a worldview that “replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true. Gender ideology includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex. Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.”

From a legal standpoint, it reverses the Biden administration’s citation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) that the 1964 Civil Rights Act applies to “gender identity,” eradicating sex-specific spaces in private accommodations, public facilities, and sports competitions.

It also specifies that all intimate spaces shall be designated “by sex and not identity” and that “no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.” Title IX rules and federal publications promoting transgenderism will be repealed. The EO says the federal government “shall ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers,” where women have frequently been beaten, abused, raped, or impregnated by male prisoners who identify as women.

Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told The Washington Stand she was “delighted that he kept his promise to the American people to put an end to this madness and look forward to the Department of Education putting in place policies and procedures that provide clarity to schools and families alike.”

Trump’s executive order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” demands “the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

President Trump’s executive order “Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service” seeks to repeal affirmative action programs that give preferential hiring treatment to less-qualified members of racial, sexual, or “gender identity” minorities. “Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity,’ or one’s commitment to the invented concept of ‘gender identity’ over sex,” says the order. The federal government will instead prioritize merit and the “recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.”

Trump’s executive order on “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” notes, “Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve,” under “the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’” The order states that the government will attempt to “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct.”

“Under the Biden administration, federal officials established a censorship regime that aimed to shut down so-called ‘misinformation’ and any other speech that is unacceptable to the government. It also weaponized the law against American citizens, including colluding with Big Banks to surveil Americans’ private financial data and target them as ‘threats’ based solely on their speech. President Trump’s call to dismantle these tools of repression is something every American — and every other freedom-loving person — should celebrate,” Alliance Defending Freedom CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner told The Washington Stand.

Trump’s executive order “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government” states, “The prior administration and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” including “investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions.” Late last December, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government produced a 17,019-page report stating that the Biden-Harris administration singled out “pro-life, pro-family” advocates for legal harassment, among other outrages. The attorney general will review the actions of federal agencies — specifically including the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission — over the last four years and take “appropriate remedial actions.” The director of national intelligence will review the actions of the intelligence community and prepare a report.

The executive order “Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information” removes the security clearance of dozens of former intelligence officials who issued an erroneous document branding the Hunter Biden laptop story Russian disinformation. Also stripped of security clearance, by name, is John Bolton, a former Bush-41 administration official who briefly served as national security adviser to Trump; Bolton, a neoconservative keen on intervening in foreign wars, soon clashed with Trump’s America First foreign policy and refused to endorse Trump in 2024.

Ending Crime and Securing the Southern Border

President Trump’s “Securing Our Borders” executive order reinstates the Migrant Protection Protocols, conventionally known as the Remain in Mexico policy, requiring alleged asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their trial. The majority of asylum cases never reach a hearing (and the majority that reach a judge are denied). Meanwhile, the Biden administration released illegal immigrants into the American heartland.

His order “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” would end birthright citizenship, the notion that if illegal immigrants give birth to an anchor baby on U.S. soil, that child is an American citizen. Legal scholars wrangle over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment clause “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government — a term some of the amendment’s authors explicitly limited to U.S. citizens. A legal challenge to this EO is inevitable.

Trump’s executive order “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States” takes steps to secure the border, noting the harm caused to Americans by “cartels, criminal gangs, known terrorists, human traffickers, smugglers, unvetted military-age males from foreign adversaries, and illicit narcotics.” The emergency declaration allows the president to deploy the National Guard and other military units to the border, build the border wall, and patrol the border with aerial drones.

A related executive order “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists” notes that drug cartels “functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States” and threaten “the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” The government may designate transnational criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua (TdA) and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as foreign terrorist organizations within 14 days. When a reporter asked if President Trump might consider sending Special Forces troops into Mexico to target these duly designated terrorist organizations, he answered in a coy fashion, “I might.”

Trump’s executive order “Clarifying the Military’s Role in Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States” notes, “Unchecked unlawful mass migration and the unimpeded flow of opiates across our borders continue to endanger the safety and security of the American people and encourage further lawlessness.” The Secretary of Defense has 10 days to draw up a plan for the Unified Command Plan that assigns United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) “to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States.”

The executive order “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program” notes that Biden-Harris administration refugee policies streamed thousands upon thousands of “refugees” into cities such as Charleroi, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Ohio; and Whitewater, Wisconsin. The EO pauses all mass refugee programs beginning January 27, although the government may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis.

His executive order “Protecting the American People against Invasion” rescinds numerous Biden administration executive orders, ends catch-and-release, presses criminal charges against illegal immigrants, and makes it federal policy to “faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens, particularly those aliens who threaten the safety or security of the American people.”

Trump’s executive order “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats” requires “stringent” vetting of all would-be refugees, requires the government to identify nations whose public records are so deficient that vetting applicants is impossible, and (if necessary) removing aliens who have entered the U.S. from such nations. Federal leaders must also “protect the American people from the actions of foreign nationals who have undermined or seek to undermine the fundamental constitutional rights of the American people, including, but not limited to, our Citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment, who preach or call for sectarian violence, the overthrow or replacement of the culture on which our constitutional Republic stands, or who provide aid, advocacy, or support for foreign terrorists.”

Trump’s executive order “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety” promotes capital punishment as a deterrent, especially since “on December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport.” He encourages federal and state prosecutors to seek the death penalty “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use” (such as killing police officers or a capital crime committed by an illegal immigrant) and “to ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”

Restoring American Sovereignty and Withdrawing from Global Governance Bodies/Agreements

Trump’s executive order “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements” orders America’s U.N. Ambassador to notify the world body America will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. “We’re going to save over $1 trillion by withdrawing from that treaty,” said President Trump at the signing ceremony.

His executive order “Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization” indicates the United States will end its membership in the global health body and “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO” with “all practicable speed.”

Trump’s memo “The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Tax Deal (Global Tax Deal)” states that the Biden administration’s plan to adopt a “Global Minimum Tax” of approximately 15% “have no force or effect within the United States absent an act by the Congress.”

Trump’s executive order “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” pauses foreign aid for 90 days. “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries,” says the order in an apparent nod to the Biden-Harris administration’s bountiful aid to Ukraine in its military struggle against Russia.

Trump’s executive order “America First Policy Directive to the Secretary of State” states curtly, “From this day forward, the foreign policy of the United States shall champion core American interests and always put America and American citizens first.”

The memo “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California” orders the secretaries of the interior and commerce “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state for use by the people there who desperately need a reliable water supply. … The recent deadly and historically destructive wildfires in Southern California underscore why the State of California needs a reliable water supply.”

Reigning in the Regulatory State

Trump’s executive order “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” orders government agencies to suspend issuing any further regulations until approved by the Trump administration and to withdraw any regulations that have been submitted but not yet published in the Federal Register. Trump also required federal workers to return to in-person work.

Trump also signed an executive order “Establishing and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’” or DOGE.

Trump’s executive order “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce” reinstates the designation of “Schedule F” to exempted federal employees, making it easier to fire them. The order — which President Trump implemented in late 2020 but which the Biden-Harris administration reversed upon taking office — could apply to as many as 50,000 federal bureaucrats. A recent poll from the Napolitan Institute found 64% of federal workers who voted for Kamala Harris would “ignore” the lawful orders and policies of President Trump and “do what they thought was best” instead. The executive order aims to assure the federal bureaucracy responds to the policies supported by the American people. A related memo “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives” empowers greater oversight and rigorous evaluations of career Senior Executive Service (SES) officials.

The president’s “Memorandum to Resolve the Backlog of Security Clearances for Executive Office of the President Personnel” immediately grants a six-month, temporary Top Secret clearance to officials caught in the Biden administration’s clearance backlog.

Lowering Prices and Supercharging U.S. Energy Independence

Trump’s outline on “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis” orders a whole-of-government response to address the cost of living crisis. The Assistant to the President for Economic Policy will report to President Trump every 30 days on what the Cabinet has done to “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.”

The executive order “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” asks all department heads to “facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources” nationwide. It would expedite the completion of infrastructure, facilitate oil pipelines across the country, and allow the sale of E-15 gasoline year-round.

Trump’s executive order “Unleashing American Energy” states the Biden administration’s “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” have “limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens.” The order encourages the exploration of abundant energy sources, including drilling on the U.S. continental shelf; eliminates the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate that half of all new U.S. vehicles must be EV by 2030 and urges them to consider rescinding EV subsidies; and safeguard Americans’ ability to purchase such goods as gas stoves, incandescent lightbulbs, and gasoline vehicles. Within 30 days, federal agencies will begin to “suspend, revise, or rescind all agency actions identified as unduly burdensome” under the EO.

An executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” encourages energy exploration on Alaskan state and federal lands, allows the building of a pipeline to transport energy, and aims to “prioritize the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG) potential, including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region.”

A related memo on the “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects” bans additional windmills from the continental shelf.

Trump’s “Application of Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act to TikTok” paused the ban on TikTok for 75 days. Trump has floated the possibility of a “joint venture,” for an American company to own at least 50% of the company. “There’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” noted Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) in a joint statement.

President Trump’s memo on his vision for an “America First Trade Policy” asks the Secretary of the Treasury to consider establishing an External Revenue Service (ERS) “to collect tariffs, duties, and other foreign trade-related revenues.” Federal officials will also seek to identify unfair trade practices, currency manipulation, and the adverse impact foreign trade policies impose on American workers and farmers.

Additional Day One Executive Orders

President Trump’s executive order “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” would restore the name of Mount McKinley and change the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

In a nod to President Trump’s background in construction, his EO “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” seeks to restore beauty in place of brutalist architecture when designing federal buildings.

Trump’s order “Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at Or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021” pardoned some 1,500 January 6 protesters and commuted the sentences of 14.

As of this writing, he has not yet pardoned peaceful pro-life advocates prosecuted by a weaponized Justice Department during the Biden-Harris administration. Pro-life advocates expect the pardon to be forthcoming soon.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

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

EDITORS NOTE: This Washigton 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.

MYSTERY DRONES: Trump promises to release information on ‘day one’

WATCH: Americans take aim at “Mystery Drones” while Biden falters

President-elect Donald Trump recently promised to release information the Biden administration is concealing regarding the drone sightings all across the East Coast “about one day into the administration.”

OAN — “I’m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration, because I think it’s ridiculous that they are not telling you about what is going on with the drones,” Trump stated at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday evening.

“They don’t want to talk about it, and nobody knows why they don’t want to talk about it. That could be us sending drones—I hope that’s the case. Us doing it and doing research. Maybe they don’t want to talk about it from that standpoint,” he continued, adding that there have been numerous drone sightings over his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The Biden administration previously faced criticism for keeping the public in the dark regarding the mass amount of drone sightings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut towards the end of 2024.

Users took to social media to share videos of the mysterious drones and speculate the possible origins, raising questions of national security concerns due to the federal government keeping the public in the dark.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) previously attempted to downplay the sightings, further fueling internet conspiracy theories.

“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the government agencies wrote in a joint statement.

Drones have also been reportedly seen flying over restricted airspace, including military facilities, nuclear reactors and airports.

Trump’s comments came during a meeting with Republican Governors Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Ron DeSantis of Florida.

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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An Open Message to President Trump from a Conservative Venezuelan

Dear President-elect Trump,

My name is Karina Ross a legal permanent resident of the United States from Venezuela living with my military veteran and patriot husband, a highly decorated Navy Senior Chief Geoff Ross, US Navy retired.

My message to President Trump is simple and also very important in my humble opinion. First congratulations on your third win to the White House in the constitutional republic of the United States.

Second, my degree is in tax accounting earned with struggle, sweat equity and hard work when I lived in Caracas Venezuela. I am very intelligent and I bring exemplary skills to my new country the USA.

My political position is conservative and anti Communist which resulted in my protective status of asylum in the Republic of Colombia from 2017 until 2024 which is when I legally entered the USA and relocated to Florida.

President Trump has a superior Intellect and is a great leader of people as indicated by his recent landslide election. We respect him immensely. He took a bullet for the American people.

He has chosen excellent cabinet members like Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) whom my husband likes very much and who helped him significantly over the years (politically).

Third, I agree that Greenland and the Panama Canal built with US tax dollars and sweat for the US military is critical to the national security of the United States.

I (we) my husband and I ask that you do not forget Venezuela President Trump which is a nation filled with people that despise Communism and despise Maduro the former taxi driver installed into the Presidency by massive corruption and fraud.

Venezuela is a nation of millions of conservative patriots that were displaced all over South America to countries like Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and the United States by Maduro and his cartels.

Maduro also has recently arrested Americans visiting family members in Venezuela and Colombians and family members of the elected and honorable President of Venezuela Edmundo Gonzàlez.

Fourthly, in my view Venezuela must be a priority besides Greenland and Panama with a directive to remove Nicolàs Maduro from office with all economic political and or military means necessary.

“Maduro is the greatest threat to freedom in the America’s.”

Removing Maduro will secure South America from the Communist Chinese influence in Venezuela, it will block the cartels using Venezuela as free passage for drug and human trafficking and it will restore normal relations with the United States.

My former country is an economic power house waiting to reconnect and share its prosperity with the people of the United States with President Trump’s help. Millions of Venezuelans just want to return home but cannot.

Maduro is weak and has zero political support in South and Central America other than perhaps Nicaragua. He will run and hide and perhaps relocate to Moscow with Assad. Maximize the publicity in Venezuela with the bounty on Maduro’s head.

The Venezuelan military will overthrow this tyrannical dictator if they are given protective status from US prosecution and can collect the reward money. Also – It just takes a strong push from the Trump administration and US Congress.

President Trump, Vice President Vance and Elon Musk should meet the real and constitutionally elected President of Venezuela the honorable Edmundo Gonzàlez and discuss the way forward. Give him an opportunity to address the Congress also.

My mother and sister still live in Venezuela but my 5 brothers and all my nephews and nieces live in Colombia and Brazil. Give them back their country Mr. President Trump. You can do it.

As for myself I am grateful for my husband and the security arm of protection he put around me for over three years. I am working, hard here in Florida, I am paying taxes and look forward enjoying the rest of my life in the great state of Florida with my husband. God Bless the United States.

Karina Ross

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Biden Permanently Bans New Oil and Gas Drilling Along Most U.S. Coasts, 625 Million Acres — Trump vows to undo it

VOTER SUPPRESSION: Biden’s permanent ban on offshore drilling is an attempt to deny Trump his mandate. Make no mistake it will take 2-4 years for the courts to decide whether Biden’s decisions are final. Regardless Biden will have won – suppressing the will of the voters.


America voted for more energy not less. These lands belong to the people not the Democrat totalitarians. We need this energy. And we need the revenue these energy enterprises would genrate for the country. This is a deliberate act of war against the American people.

Banning our most efficient and productive energy sources but allowing useless wind turbines in the ocean that are decimating the whale population (and other sea-life) is subsidized and encouraged. These people hate you, hate life, hate America.

Trump was elected and won on his vow to unleash American energy. This is Biden regime shitting all over the American people.

Biden issues ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in most federal waters. Trump vows to undo it

By  MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.

“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement Monday.

“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Biden’s orders would not affect large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, where most U.S. offshore drilling occurs, but it would protect coastlines along California, Florida and other states from future drilling.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: New Biden Water Heater BAN Will Drive Up Energy Prices for The Poor, Seniors: Expert

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

Trump trolls Biden: ‘There will be no Don’t – there will be HELL!’

Trump when asked about the threat that “there will be hell to pay if the hostages are not released by the time he is inaugurated.”

WATCH: Trump warns there will be all hell to pay if hostages aren’t released soon

President-elect Donald Trump, when asked about his warning that “there will be hell if the hostages aren’t released by his inauguration,” responded, “That is exactly what I meant. If the hostages are not released by the time I take office, there will be hell—no ‘don’t,’ there will be hell. They need to be released now.”

The President-elect made the statements on the Hugh Hewitt Podcast on Monday.

Trump added, “I am Israel’s best friend. I moved the embassy to Jerusalem—everything was good, including the Abraham Accords, and every major positive event in Israel recently was because of me. I must also note that I support peace—now is the time.”

Trump’s “don’t” comment appears to be a jab at US President Joe Biden, who warned other actors in the region who were thinking of attacking Israel shortly after October 7. “To anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: ‘Don’t,'” Biden said from Israel on October 10, 2023.

Trump initially made his “hell to pay’ comment in a post on Truth Social on December 2, 2024. He made the statement after the IDF’s confirmation that Hamas killed American-Israeli Omer Neutra on October 7 and has held his body hostage since.

AUTHOR

AMICHAI STEIN

Amichai Stein is an Israeli journalist currently working as a diplomatic reporter for The Jerusalem Post and i24 News. From 2017-2024, he worked as a foreign affairs and diplomatic correspondent for KAN News.

RELATED ARTICLE: Israel considers opening the gates of hell to bring hostages home

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Mexico Concerned Trump May Order Military Strikes On Cartels

As tensions continue to rise between the United States and Mexico over drug trafficking and cartel violence, Mexican officials have expressed deep concerns regarding the potential of a military strike ordered by former President Donald Trump against drug cartels operating within their borders.  

This apprehension reflects both the ongoing security crisis in Mexico and the complex relationship between the two neighboring countries.

BACKGROUND

Mexico has long struggled with the influence and power of drug cartels, which have become deeply entrenched in various aspects of society. These criminal organizations are responsible for significant violence, including turf wars, kidnappings, and the trafficking of illegal drugs into the United States. The situation has deteriorated in recent years, with record levels of homicides attributed to cartel-related activities.

Trump has made combating drug trafficking a cornerstone for his future administration, often using strong rhetoric that included the possibility of using military force against cartels. His approach to border security and drug enforcement was characterized by a willingness to take aggressive measures, which has left Mexican officials wary of the implications such policies could have on their sovereignty and public safety.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Since Trump began to plan his run for the presidency in 2024, his statements regarding drug cartels have reignited fears in Mexico. The prospect of a military strike is particularly alarming for Mexican leaders, who worry that such actions could escalate violence and undermine efforts to stabilize the country. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has emphasized the need for cooperation and dialogue rather than unilateral military interventions.

DIPLOMATIC CONCERNS

The potential for military action raises significant diplomatic concerns. Mexico has long valued its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and any unilateral action by the U.S. would be viewed as an infringement on these principles. This could strain relations between the two nations, which have historically relied on cooperation to address shared challenges, including drug trafficking and immigration.

Moreover, the Mexican government has been working to strengthen its law enforcement capabilities and address corruption within its own ranks. A military strike from the U.S. could undermine these efforts and damage the trust that is necessary for effective collaboration in tackling organized crime.

PUBLIC SENTIMENT

Public sentiment in Mexico regarding U.S. intervention is mixed. While many citizens are frustrated with the ongoing violence and the perceived inability of the government to control the situation, there is also a strong desire for solutions that respect the country’s sovereignty. The idea of U.S. military action is often met with skepticism and fears of further violence and instability.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Mexico Developing ‘Alert Button’ App For Migrants Getting Arrested By ICE

Biden Admin Partially Blames Immigration Surge For Massive Spike In Homelessness

Florida Homeowner Shoots, Kills Alleged Burglar, K9 Sniffs Out Migrant Accomplice, Police Say

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump Wins the Lawfare War

The Left hasn’t caught on yet that Donald Trump is a fighter who doesn’t fold easily. As our chief investigative reporter, Micah Morrison, reports, Trump’s win at the polls helped lead to wins in the courts.

Pundits and historians will be a long time sorting out the magnitude of Donald Trump’s electoral victory but one thing already is clear: Trump not only triumphed in the presidential contest, he also won the lawfare war. The latter—a victory for the constitutional foundation of the country —may prove as consequential as the former.

“Lawfare” is a political war fought by other means: partisan warfare conducted in the courts and the media. Trump spent the entire Biden presidency battling lawfare cases brought by  Democrat-allied prosecutors and judges—by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, New York judges Juan Merchan and Arthur Engoron, and others.

Trump fought back in the courts and in the court of public opinion. His election win not only deals death blows to the Democrat-aligned lawfare cases, but possibly to the practice of lawfare itself. Let’s take a moment to survey the legal landscape:

Jack Smith Goes Down

In November 2022, President Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel for two Justice Department investigations: the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol, and separately, alleged Trump mishandling of classified documents. It was a particularly brazen lawfare move because by that time, the outline of the 2024 presidential contest was clear: Donald Trump was the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination and Joe Biden was signaling that he would run for re-election. The Biden Justice Department investigating the GOP presidential candidate seemed an outlandish and illegal proposition, but Garland and Smith pressed on. In July, Judge Aileen Cannon had seen enough and dismissed the classified documents case on the grounds that the special counsel was unlawfully appointed. In November, after the election, the Justice Department threw in the towel, moving to drop all January 6 charges against Trump on the grounds that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. Trump rightfully claimed victory. “I persevered, against all odds, and WON,” he wrote on Truth Social. He added, “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought,”

Bragg’s New York Criminal Case in Death Spiral 

Deep blue New York produced a cadre of lawfare warriors in pursuit of the once and future Republican president. One of its chief combatants was Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who campaigned for office on an anti-Trump platform, reminding voters that he had “sued Trump more than a hundred times.” Before charging Trump in April 2023 with thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records—generally a low-level misdemeanor—Bragg had led a civil lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and criminal cases against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer. Trump was convicted in May on the business records charges, but his lawyers are asking that the case be thrown out on numerous grounds, including that any sentencing would unconstitutionally interfere with Trump’s conduct of a second term in the presidency. Bragg recently petitioned the court to put the case on ice for the entirety of Trump’s second presidential term—a move the Trump team ridiculed as “a total failure of the prosecution” signaling that the case is “effectively over.”

Lawfare Judges Under Pressure

Presiding over the flurry of appeals in the business-records case is Justice Juan Merchan, another New Yorker with a lawfare pedigree. Earlier this month, Merchan threw out Trump’s appeal to dismiss the case on the basis of presidential immunity. Like most New York judges, Merchan rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party’s political machine, which plays a significant role in state judicial appointments. Before becoming a judge, Merchan served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office and worked for the New York attorney general. In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to a family court judgeship, and he was elevated to criminal court in 2009. In July, Merchan received a “caution letter” from the New York Commission of Judicial Conduct warning him about donations to Joe Biden and other Democratic causes. Merchan’s daughter, Loren, is president of the left-wing digital advertising firm, Authentic Campaigns. Juan Merchan will have plenty of power over the Trump appeals in the coming months, but he will not have the final word. Trump can appeal to higher New York courts and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump also faced a high-stakes legal assault from New York State Attorney General Letitia James in a civil fraud case presided over by Justice Arthur Engoron. James and Engoron both came up through the progressive ranks of the New York Democratic Party. Like Alvin Bragg, James used Trump as a punching bag in her campaign for political office. She denounced Trump as an “illegitimate president” and vowed to “shine a bright light into every corner of his real estate dealings.” Engoron, a longtime Democrat, protested the Vietnam War at Columbia University and has been a member of the ACLU for three decades. Engoron presided over a non-jury civil fraud trial related to real-estate valuations by the Trump Organization and stunned legal observers on both sides of the political aisle in February with a guilty verdict ordering Trump to pay a staggering $335 million penalty—plus rapidly growing interest and additional fines. Trump immediately vowed an appeal and at a September hearing, New York appellate judges signaled skepticism about the Engoron ruling.

The Georgia Case Collapses

Meanwhile, in Georgia, Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s case against Trump for allegedly conspiring to change the outcome of the 2020 election has collapsed. A state appeals court removed Willis and her entire office from the Trump prosecution over a conflict of interest involving a romantic relationship between Willis and another member of her team. The Georgia Court of Appeals panel said the “appearance of impropriety” was so powerful that “this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” Willis, a longtime Democrat, can appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, but the legal tides are running against her. Trump’s Georgia lawyer issued a statement saying that the decision “puts an end to a politically motivated persecution of the next President of the United States.”

Judicial Watch has been investigating the lawfare against Trump for years. Our own Tom Fitton was dragged into a Jack Smith grand jury for, as he noted on X, “four hours of harassing questions about First Amendment-protected activity and debates about electors, tweets, what I ate for lunch at the White House, and whether I watched Trump’s election night speech. It was all about politics.”

At Judicial Watch, we continue to closely track lawfare developments, push for more accountability, and report to the public. Among our recent moves, we’re seeking a special master in our lawsuit for Fani Willis’s communication with lawfare warriors Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee; earlier this month, Willis admitted communicating with the January 6 Committee, but released only one already public letter.  In February, we protested a Biden Administration move to keep secret the names of top Jack Smith staff. In 2023, we sued the Justice Department for records of funding and assistance between Smith’s office and Willis’s office, and we obtained information showing Manhattan DA Bragg hiring high-priced lawyers to beat back Congressional inquiries into his Trump prosecutions.

There’s more to come. Stay tuned.

©2024 . All rights reserved.

Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won In 2020

Never forget what the Democrat party of treason did.

Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won In 2020

By Tom Ozimek, via The Epoch Times,

A new study examining the likely impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots had in the 2020 election concludes that the outcome would “almost certainly” have been different without the massive expansion of voting by mail.

The Heartland Institute study tried to gauge the probable impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots cast for both then-candidate Joe Biden and his opponent, President Donald Trump, would have had on the overall 2020 election results.

The study was based on data obtained from a Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December that revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.

After the researchers carried out additional analyses of the data, they concluded that mail-in ballot fraud “significantly” impacted the 2020 presidential election.

They also found that, absent the huge expansion of mail-in ballots during the pandemic, which was often done without legislative approval, President Trump would most likely have won.

“Had the 2020 election been conducted like every national election has been over the past two centuries, wherein the vast majority of voters cast ballots in-person rather than by mail, Donald Trump would have almost certainly been re-elected,” the report’s authors wrote.

Over 43 percent of 2020 votes were cast by mail, the highest percentage in U.S. history.

‘Biggest Story of the Year’

The new study examined raw data from the December survey carried out jointly between Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, which tried to assess the level of fraudulent voting that took place in 2020.

The December survey, which President Trump called “the biggest story of the year,” suggested that roughly 20 percent of mail-in voters engaged in at least one potentially fraudulent action in the 2020 election, such as voting in a state where they’re no longer permanent residents.

In the new study, Heartland analysts say that, after reviewing the raw survey data, subjecting it to additional statistical treatment and more thorough analysis, they now believe they can conclude that 28.2 percent of respondents who voted by mail committed at least one type of behavior that is “under most circumstances, illegal” and so potentially amounts to voter fraud.

This means that more than one-in-four ballots cast by mail in 2020 were likely cast fraudulently, and thus should not have been counted,” the researchers wrote.

A Heartland Institute research editor and research fellow who was involved in the study explained to The Epoch Times in a telephone interview that there are narrow exceptions where a surveyed behavior may be legal, like filling out a mail-in ballot on behalf of another voter if that person is blind, illiterate, or disabled, and requests assistance.

However, the research fellow, Jack McPherrin, said such cases were within the margin of error and not statistically significant.

What Are the Implications?

In addition to reassessing the likely overall degree of fraudulent mail-in ballots in the 2020 election, Heartland analysts calculated the potential impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots might have produced in the six key swing states that President Trump officially lost.

This, then, was used to determine the impact of potentially fraudulent mail-in ballots on the overall 2020 election result.

First, the researchers analyzed the electoral results for the six swing states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—under the 28.2 percent fraudulent mail-in ballot scenario that they estimated based on the raw survey data.

Then they calculated the electoral results in the six states under the different scenarios, each with a lower assumed percentage of fraudulent ballots, ranging from 28.2 percent all the way down to 1 percent.

For each of the 29 scenarios that they assesses, the researchers calculated the estimated number of fraudulent ballots, which were then subtracted from overall 2020 vote totals to generate a new estimate for vote totals.

Overall, of the 29 different scenarios presented in the study, the researchers concluded that President Trump would have won the 2020 election in all but three.

Specifically, they calculated that the only scenarios that would affirm the official 2020 election result, namely that candidate Biden won, were mail-in ballot fraud levels between 1 and 3 percent of ballots cast.

Mail-in ballot fraud rates higher than 3 percent would, according to the study, mean more fraudulent Biden votes that should be subtracted from the total, putting President Trump ahead.

For example, the adjustment to the vote tallies under fraud percentage rates between 13 and 6 percent would mean President Trump would have won Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, though he would have still lost in Michigan and Nevada.

Under such a scenario, President Trump would have won 289 Electoral College votes compared to candidate Biden’s 249.

In scenarios of 5–4 percent fraud, each candidate would have received 269 Electoral College votes, but President Trump would likely still have won because Republicans controlled more state delegations and, under a tie scenario, Congress would have voted based on the number of delegates.

However, the researchers expressed confidence in their overall assessment that the level of mail-in ballot fraud was over 25 percent, indicative of an actual Trump win.

“We have no reason to believe that our survey overstated voter fraud by more than 25 percentage points, and thus, we must conclude that the best available evidence suggests that mail-in ballot fraud significantly impacted the 2020 presidential election, in favor of Joe Biden,” the paper’s authors wrote.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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POSTS ON X:

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

Turbocharge the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board to take control of the intelligence community

POLICY RECOMMENDATION: Appoint transformational, action-oriented people to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), a strategic planning and oversight mechanism for the president to take control of the intelligence community. Hybridize PIAB along the lines of DOGE, so that board members, as private citizens, can work PIAB full-time. Include lesser-known specialists in addition to well-known figures.

REASON: As part of the Executive Office of the President (EOP), PIAB is the only element of the intelligence community under 100 percent presidential control. Part of PIAB’s purpose is to serve as a presidential tool to ensure that the IC faithfully executes the president’s orders and intentions, and to advise the president on intelligence policies and strategies. PIAB is also a presidential troubleshooting tool.

The IC is as inefficient and wasteful as the rest of government. It needs the DOGE treatment by presidential loyalists who know intelligence and counterintelligence but are not part of the machine; who have a future-oriented vision of the IC and what it can, should, and should not do; and who report directly and only to the president.

The DNI, CIA director, FBI director, other agency chiefs, and NSC staff will be bogged down with daily decisions and crisis management. This fact makes a turbocharged PIAB an imperative to ensure that the president’s orders, policies, and intentions are faithfully executed.

BACKGROUND: PIAB’s board members, currently capped at 16, are direct presidential appointees in the EOP. They are not subject to Senate confirmation. They are not federal employees and receive no compensation. They are volunteers. They may use their own resources. They are beholden to no one except the president. Through its chairman, PIAB reports directly and only to the president.

PIAB staff are federal employees on the White House EOP staff.

PIAB contains a standing committee called the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), comprised of five PIAB members to conduct presidential oversight. IOB is a feedback loop to let the president know who is and who is not doing their job in the IC.

President Eisenhower in 1956 established what today is PIAB to ensure presidential control over, and to protect the presidency from, the IC. The board went through many iterations over the years. In 2008, President George W. Bush turned it into today’s PIAB.

PIAB has been seen as a dumping ground for campaign donors and former officials who want prestigious-sounding presidential appointments without doing much work. Turbocharged with transformational visionaries and a DOGE outlook, PIAB can become a full-time powerhouse.

PIAB has the standing authority, or shall be directed by the president, to assess all aspects of the intelligence community, including collection, analysis, and estimates; to evaluate intelligence policy execution; to evaluate management, personnel, and bureaucratic organization; and to propose solutions.

In other words, PIAB has authority to inspect, troubleshoot, and assess any and all aspects of the intelligence community and to recommend actions and policies to the president. See appendix for the operative text of the governing executive order.

Additionally, the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) within PIAB serves as a separate presidential oversight feedback mechanism to assess the ODNI and each intelligence department. It also has authority to “inform the President of intelligence activities that the IOB believes … are not being adequately addressed by the Attorney General, the DNI, or the head of the department concerned.” See appendix for the operative text of the governing executive order.

PUSHBACK: A DOGE-oriented, MAGA PIAB with full presidential authority will create major pushback from the IC and its acolytes. This is good. That pushback will expose problems in need of solutions, and perpetrators in need of removal. Pushback will expose incompetence, fraud, and corruption. It will also assist the president’s IC department appointees in doing their jobs. As with the rest of the EOP, Congress has no authority to limit PIAB, or to confirm or not confirm its members.

GOVERNING LAWS & REGULATIONS: PIAB is governed by Executive Order 13462, signed by President George W. Bush on February 29, 2008. Its predecessors were governed by executive orders dating to 1956.

THE BOTTOM LINE: PIAB is an established, but underestimated, presidential tool to take control of the intelligence community. The President should turbocharge the PIAB to serve as his intelligence-specific DOGE tool under his personal control within the Executive Office of the President, with the all the creativity and resources that PIAB’s individual members have at their disposal, including members with the personal means or the employment flexibility to devote their work to PIAB full-time.

Appendix

Authorities and duties of PIAB, according to the operative text of the governing executive order:[1]

“assess the quality, quantity, and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, and of counterintelligence and other intelligence activities, assess the adequacy of management, personnel and organization in the intelligence community, and review the performance of all agencies of the Federal Government that are engaged in the collection, evaluation, or production of intelligence or the execution of intelligence policy and report the results of such assessments or reviews:

“(i) to the President, as necessary but not less than twice each year; and

(ii) to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the heads of departments concerned when the PIAB determines appropriate; and

(b) consider and make appropriate recommendations to the President, the DNI, or the head of the department concerned with respect to matters identified to the PIAB by the DNI or the head of a department concerned.”

Authorities and duties of PIAB’s Intelligence Oversight Board, according to the operative text of the governing executive order:

IOB shall:

“(a) issue criteria on the thresholds for reporting matters to the IOB…;

(b) inform the President of intelligence activities that the IOB believes:

(i)(A) may be unlawful or contrary to Executive Order or presidential directive; and

(B) are not being adequately addressed by the Attorney General, the DNI, or the head of the department concerned; or

(ii) should be immediately reported to the President.

(c) review and assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and sufficiency of the processes by which the DNI and the heads of departments concerned perform their respective functions under this order and report thereon as necessary, together with any recommendations, to the President and, as appropriate, the DNI and the head of the department concerned;

(d) receive and review information submitted by the DNI under … this order and make recommendations thereon, including for any needed corrective action, with respect to such information, and the intelligence activities to which the information relates, as necessary, but not less than twice each year, to the President, the DNI, and the head of the department concerned; and

(e) conduct, or request that the DNI or the head of the department concerned, as appropriate, carry out and report to the IOB the results of, investigations of intelligence activities that the IOB determines are necessary to enable the IOB to carry out its functions under this order.”

[1] Executive Order 13462 – President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and Intelligence Oversight Board, signed by President George W. Bush, February 29, 2008.

NOTE: This decision brief was first written in November, 2024, before Devin Nunes was named PIAB Chairman.

AUTHOR

J. Michael Waller

Senior Analyst for Strategy

J. Michael Waller is Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy.

His academic and professional areas of concentration are foreign propaganda, political warfare, psychological warfare, and subversion.

He is the former Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of International Communication at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school in Washington, DC.

He has been an instructor with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg. He has guest lectured at the FBI Academy, George C. Marshall Center, Marine Corps University, National Defense University, National Intelligence University, and other military schools and combatant commands.

Dr. Waller holds a Ph.D. in international security affairs from the University Professors Program at Boston University. His award-winning doctoral dissertation, written in 1993 and published as Secret Empire: The KGB In Russia Today (Westview, 1994), foresaw the rise of a KGB officer to seize political control of Russia. He received his military training as an insurgent with the Nicaraguan contras.

He is author or editor of books relating to intelligence, political warfare, public diplomacy, terrorism, subversion, and strategy. See his page on Academia.edu. His latest book is Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains (Regnery, 2024).

He has written for American Greatness, the American Mind, the Daily Beast, Daily Caller, The Federalist, Forbes, Insight, Investor’s Business Daily, Kyiv Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Real Clear Politics, USA Today, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal. See his page on Authory.

Dr. Waller is on Twitter/X at @JMichaelWaller.

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Yep….Still the Smartest Guy in the Room

How did President-elect Trump become a billionaire?

How did Donald J. Trump, billionaire businessman, bestselling author, mega-successful TV star, become President of the United States in 2016?

How did President-elect Trump defy, confront, and prevail over a malevolent Deep State cabal, an American government steeped in collusion, a craven leftwing media, and a mountain of lawfare attacks to win––overwhelmingly––his second bid for POTUS?

I always called him the smartest guy in the room. And I suspect that most people would answer those questions––either proudly or grudgingly––by agreeing that his intelligence and also his drive, instincts, charisma, and sheer bravado are the magic ingredients of his blazing success.

BUT…UH OH!

So, why are some sophisticated, knowledgeable and longtime devoted Trump supporters, including seasoned conservative journalists, now suspecting that Mr. Trump is either:

  • A closet Democrat.
  • Controlled Opposition, essentially playing on the same team as his globalist opponents.
  • A guy who values loyalty to a fault… overlooking clear conflicts-of-interest and potential moles and saboteurs in his midst.

Why these questions? Because of the great number of people he has appointed to high positions in his upcoming administration who have longtime leftist connections, have themselves played for the other team, and have eye-raising suspicions about their backgrounds or associations.

Journalist Kelleigh Nelson, a rock-ribbed conservative, questions most of President-Elect Trump’s appointee choices, starting with Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff.

Wiles, Nelson says, funded Trump antagonists Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and John McCain; was co-chair at Mercury LLC, a global leader that promotes the Deep State narrative; has spoken openly about being in favor of open borders, and was a source of information for Jack Smith’s special counsel investigation of Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th “insurrection” and his alleged mishandling of government records.

In a follow-up article, Nelson documents highly incriminating information about Pres. Trump’s co-appointee for DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) Vivek Ramaswamy, who went to Yale Law School on a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, as well as Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, Doug Burgum (Governor of North Dakota) for Interior Secretary, Kristi Noem (Governor of South Dakota) for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and Congressman Michael Waltz for National Security Adviser, among others.

And yet in a third article, Nelson clearly objects to the nomination of Pam Bondi for Attorney General, and Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary… a guy who was a partner at Soros Fund Management for decades, as well as Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General, a woman involved in a massive Medicare scandal, who described the COVID vaccine as a “gift from God” and who also served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council.

In addition, Nelson questions the appointment of Dr. Mehmet Oz, who holds dual citizenship in Turkey and the United States, to be the administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nelson calls him a “Big Pharma shill” and adds: “Many of Trump’s choices are questionable, but Dr. Oz takes the cake.”

Clearly, writer Janet Levy agrees, adding her own shocking laundry list of objections to the Oz appointment, including conflicts of interest and this damning quote from the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics, which called Dr. Oz “a dangerous rogue unfit for the office of America’s doctor.”

Then there is journalist Yudi Sherman, who practically eviscerates the President-elect’s choice for Surgeon General, emergency room physician Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.

And that is not to omit journalist Cherie Zaslawsky who asks: Who will vet the vetters?

“Ultimately,” Zaslawsky writes, “it may hardly matter whether the spate of questionable appointments President-elect Trump has recently announced is due to Wiles and/or other members of Trump’s retinue attempting to undermine the MAGA agenda or is largely the result of putting a number of well-meaning novices in the position of suggesting candidates they are ill-equipped to properly vet. Yet some choices reek of intentional trickery.”

WHEELING & DEALING

It is probably true that businessman Trump’s decades in dealing with the cut-throat unions in New York City and all the Dons who run the Mafia in New York and throughout the country did not prepare him for the malevolent treachery of the liberal Democrats in Washington, D.C., but he does strike me as a “lessons-learned” kind of guy.

Meanwhile, the President-elect, with his signature ebullience, has de facto begun his tenure, jet-setting to Paris to meet with President Macron to visit the refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral and also to receive a floridly flirtatious look from First Lady Jill Biden…I bet she voted for him!

And there he is again, speaking on the phone to Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, about the border; hosting the feckless Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, at Mar-a-Lago; threatening the mass-murdering terrorists from Hamas to free the hostages before he is sworn in or there will be “Hell to Pay” and describing the tariffs and border wall and end-of-war actions he’ll be taking in about 36 days.

That includes not only the raging wars in Israel and Ukraine, but also Yemen, Darfur, and Myanmar, all of which did not exist four years ago when he was president!

IMAGINATION TIME

Can’t you just picture the conversation he had with Joe Biden on his visit to the White House a few weeks ago.

DJT: Joe, you’ve been talking about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas/Hezbollah for about a year, but no luck there.

JRB: Well, what are you gonna do…. you’re dealing with Arabs. You’re dealing with Jews.

DJT: Listen, Joe, I can talk to Bibi. We get along. I can get that ceasefire, and you’ll get all the credit. How does that sound?

JRB: Sounds great! Ya think it will work?

DJT: It’ll work. And it will give me leverage with Putin when I tell him to stop that crazy war…I’ll give him a slice of Ukraine and he’ll be happy.

Well, whadaya know? A day later, or was it two or three? Poof!…a ceasefire is announced in the Middle East!

STILL THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM

My take is that President-elect Trump has attracted all these potential saboteurs––many of them lifelong Democrats like the formidable RFK Jr.––to his side, his thinking, his vision, his mission, his goal, which is simply to Make America Great Again!

Not one of these appointees has forgotten Mr. Trump’s most prominent and visible role before he became POTUS in 2016, which was as the star of the wildly successful, long-running TV show, “The Apprentice,” or his world-famous pronouncement: YOU’RE FIRED!

His appointees are well aware of that non-negotiable dictate and know to follow his vision or receive that order, while millions of leftists worldwide are now on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, in long-term therapy, or on suicide watch.

As they say, all good.

©2024 . All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: DNC Official Says Democrats Carry The ‘Stench Of Loser’ After Election Defeat

VIDEO: ‘Mystery drones’ in New Jersey—Sent by Iran to Kill President-Elect Trump?

SHOCKING! Iran sent a swarm of large drones into New Jersey, which were seen hovering over Trump’s mansion in the city.

The UAVs were launched from a ship that has been near the east coast of the USA for over a month, According to Senator Van Drew.

This is crazy, and when it comes from Congressman Van Drew (from New Jersey by the way), a longtime and respected congressman, who was exposed to classified information, it’s something creepy!

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EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column with video is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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PODCAST: What To Expect — Trump Admin First 100 Days

Host Joseph Backholm is joined by FRC Action’s Matt Carpenter as they discuss what we can expect to see from the Trump administration’s first 100 days in office.

Everyone knows that Trump is a man with a plan, but what does that plan entail?

Joseph and Matt discuss Trump’s priorities, his recent admin and cabinet picks, and the role Congress will play throughout his presidency.

Make America Great Again and give this episode a listen!

HOSTS:

Joseph Backholm

Matt Carpenter

Resource: Trump Administration Accomplishments

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand podcast is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 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.

Mexican President Announces She’s Stopping All Migrant Caravans After Trump’s Tariff Threat

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announces she is stopping the migrant caravans from arriving at the U.S. southern border after Trump’s tariff threat.

The announcement came only 12 hours after President-Elect Trump’s announcing a 25% tariff on Mexican imports.

Migrant Caravans Not Reaching Border, Claudia Sheinbaum Says After Trump Threats

By  · Politics Reporter

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s renewed threats of steep tariffs this week, asserting that migrant caravans are no longer reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.

Her remarks underscored growing tensions as Trump plans to tighten immigration policies and impose a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports. Trump declared that the tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

“Caravans of migrants no longer reach the border,” Sheinbaum said on Tuesday while presenting a letter she plans to send to Trump in the coming days. She also emphasized Mexico’s efforts to curb the flow of drugs, including the synthetic opioid fentanyl, while noting that it remains “a public health and consumption problem within your country’s society.”

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment on Tuesday.

As Trump prepares for his second inauguration, his harsh rhetoric on migration has resurfaced, coinciding with a caravan of approximately 1,500 migrants from Central and South America heading toward the U.S. border before his proposed policies take effect.

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

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An honest Muslim on Islam is as valuable as the dishonest enemy propaganda media in the west is evil for hiding it

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

Study: Christian Voters Responsible for Trump Victory

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s historic electoral victory earlier this month, media pundits and talking heads have focused on his significant gains among traditionally-Democratic voting blocs, such as young voters and both black and Hispanic men; but a new study is suggesting that it was Christian voters who were the decisive factor in Trump’s win. George Barna, senior research fellow for the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council and director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, published his post-election report last week, demonstrating that Christian voters “made the difference in the race.”

Prior to the election, Barna had anticipated that voter turnout among Christians would be low, with as many as 40 million Christians simply choosing not to vote. While Christians did vote in fewer numbers than they did in 2020, Barna noted that the “potentially devastating impact for the Trump campaign was blunted by the even lower levels of turnout among the Harris campaign’s target segments.” Overall, 56% of self-identified Christians voted in 2024, which Barna pointed out “was barely higher than the involvement among people aligned with non-Christian faiths (53%), but significantly higher than among voting-age Americans who have no religious faith (48%).” Interestingly, Catholic voters and Christians with a biblical worldview both outperformed their 2020 turnout by three points.

“Trump was a heavy favorite among most of the three dozen Christian segments studied by the Cultural Research Center survey. The former president received a landslide 56% to 43% margin of victory among all self-identified Christians,” Barna observed. He added, “Among the approximately 75 million votes Trump garnered in the election, more than three-quarters of them — 78% — came from the Christian community.” Barna also noted that Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, scored low among almost all Christian denominations and demographics, with the exception of “mainline and traditionally black Protestant congregations.” Overall, less than two thirds of Harris’s votes came from Christians.

The majority of Christian voters also identified their religious beliefs, the differing party platforms, and the insight of their family as the biggest impacts on their choice of candidates. “Consistent with the patterns established, Trump voters were twice as likely as Harris voters to identify their religious faith as a major influence on their candidate of choice (30% vs. 14%, respectively),” Barna noted.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at FRC, explained, “Religion gives people a worldview which, among other things, gives people a way to understand what’s wrong with the world and what the solution is. Elections are one way people indicate their understanding of what’s wrong and what we need to do to fix it.” Pointing to Barna’s study, he continued, “This survey is evidence that Christians think about these questions differently than people of other faiths or no religion at all, which really shouldn’t be surprising. If anything, it might be surprising that Christians aren’t more different, but elections never offer perfect choices, and this election was more complicated than others.” Backholm added, “Christians were always going to be a significant part of this election either through what we did or did not do. In this case, tens of millions of Christians evaluated an admittedly tricky choice and reached the same conclusion, and as Robert Frost would say, that has made all the difference.”

Appearing on Monday night’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Adam Rasmussen, who worked on the post-election report with Barna, explained just how decisive a role Christians played. “What we saw is that 72% of those who came out to vote were Christians, and they have values,” Rasmussen said. He continued, “And we saw that — probably because of the platform of the Republicans and Donald Trump — Christians gave a 17 million vote advantage or cushion to Donald Trump, and because the margin between the two of them was less than that, it was insurmountable.”

Inflation and immigration were consistently ranked as top concerns among the general population heading into the election, and Barna’s post-election study found that Christian voters also placed the greatest emphasis on those issues. Overall, nearly 40% of Christian voters identified inflation as a major concern that determined who they voted for, and 34% rated immigration and border control as the same. Evangelical voters, however, placed a higher premium on immigration, with 40% identifying it as a major concern. Rasmussen said that this was likely linked to a concern over the breakdown of law. “That’s one of the major responsibilities of the federal government, is to have safe borders. How could it not? And that was a decisive factor for certain,” he said.

Addressing the issue of the 44% of Christians who chose not to vote, Rasmussen recommended that pastors and church leaders should encourage their congregations to vote in accord with Cristian principles. “We found that perhaps if there was a last-minute push, pastors and family members and churches could encourage those 32 million Christians we were calling to come out and vote,” he said. Rasmussen added, “And maybe that might push another five million into the voting polls. And we need to be more engaged in those things.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 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.

Trump Is Not An Isolationist

Before I get to Trump and his cabinet nominees, let me share the good news: the olive harvest is in!  Just over 100 kilograms, four days work, the olives good quality, mostly black, but one crate of “caillons” that look like cherries.

Took them to the press today, will know the quality of the oil next week. You can read more about the process in my book, Raising Olives in Provence.


Ok, so now onto “serious” issues (although my neighbors and I take our olives very seriously!)

First, note who Donald Trump did not appoint: Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. He was sending a clear message: no neo-cons need apply.

Second: Trump’s nomination of Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state clearly demonstrates that he is not an isolationist, as many of his critics claim.

The Europeans – like liberals everywhere — can’t believe that Trump was actually re-elected by the American people. Didn’t they do everything in their power to prevent that? What’s the problem with these American rubes? Don’t they recognize our superiority?

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte pow-wowed with French president Emmanuel Macron this week, hoping to warn Trump that the Ukraine war could become a national security threat to the US, just as it is to Europe.

Their reasoning? Because of the war, Russia was now aligning itself with Communist China and Iran. When I heard that, I burst out laughing.

The French and other NATO allies have been bending over backwards to sell the Chinese their very best dual-use technologies, enabling the Chinese to build better weapons systems and better AI platforms.

And now they want to lecture us about the dangers of the Russia-China-Iran axis – something I have been warning about for the past three years? Please.

I loved Rubio’s response to a question about Iran from NBC News, who were hoping to drive a wedge between him and Trump.

During the campaign, Trump said off-hand that he was inclined to see if he could make a deal with the Iranian regime. The media Karens took that to mean that Trump was walking back his rejection of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump previously called “the worst deal ever made” by an American president, and was now ready to talk to the mullahs.

Rubio cut them dead.

“If the Iranian regime tomorrow said, ‘We’re going to stop trying to become the regional power, we’re going to stop our nuclear weapons, we’re going to stop sponsoring terrorism, we’re going to stop trying to kill you — which is what they’re trying to do with Donald Trump — we’re going to stop all of these things — theoretically, yes. Of course, you could work on something like that.”

But Rubio added that making a real deal with the Iranian regime — and not just a make-believe deal like Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement — was “unlikely,” because the policies the United States is asking Iran to abandon are “the very driving mission and purpose of the regime.”

If the next Trump administration really wants to gain leverage over the Islamic regime in Tehran, they should begin by reinstating the Maximum Pressure sanctions against Iranian oil exports.

Those US sanctions are already on the books, but Biden stopped enforcing them on day one of his administration, allowing Iranian oil sales to skyrocket form 400,000 b/d in January 2021, to over 2.5 million b/d today.

But the US can and must do more. As I argue in a paper for the America First Policy Institute, we should couple Maximum Pressure on the regime with Maximum Support for the Iranian people.

It is in America’s national security interest to help the people of Iran to replace the Islamic regime — not through a replay of old neo-con fantasies of imposing regime change from the outside — but by enabling the Iranian people to take those steps themselves.

Stay tuned as I talk more about this in the coming weeks.

I discuss the Trump cabinet, the European response, and the latest from China, Turkey and the CIA traitor who leaked US secrets about Israel’s attack plans against Iran on this week’s edition of Prophecy Today Weekend.

As always, you can listen live at 1:05 PM on Saturday in the Jacksonville, Florida, area on 104.9 FM or 550 AM, and elsewhere in the world by downloading the Jacksonville Way Radio app.

Yours in freedom

©2024 Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.


PS: If you have been enjoying my latest book, The Iran Houseplease leave a five-star review at Amazon. Your opinions make a difference to prospective readers!