Robby Soave and Amber Duke discuss Joy Reid's recent remarks about July Fourth.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on Monday. It is now headed to the House, where it is also expected to receive broad support.
The Trump administration this week signaled progress in its negotiations with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz and reforming its nuclear program by rolling back longstanding sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Under a 60-day license issued by the Treasury Department on Monday, Iran can now sell oil in U.S. dollars, allowing dollar-denominated trade on…
Let us answer your questions about a slightly serious—but deeply amusing—medical mystery.
Despite notable criticism from European media and politicians regarding the United States’ hosting much of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one German fan is cutting through the noise.An X account by the name of Freddy has racked up millions of likes and views for posting his route through the U.S., enthusiastically praising friendly locals, American culture, and everyday spots like Waffle House, Buc-ee’s, Taco Bell, and Bass Pro Shops, among others. Freddy’s posts have been wildly popular because they debunk the left-wing narrative that America is an unwelcoming, culturally empty place that is unsafe for foreign fans due to immigration enforcement.On a recent episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” Deace and the team speak with conservative commentator and friend of the show Jill Savage about how the joy of one European fan is uniting America. “Freddy is the feel-good story of the summer,” says Jill.“I am obsessed with Freddy. He is bringing people together left and right. The war is over. We have Freddy traveling America. … He’s the joy of the summer,” she laughs, noting that she feels this way despite having zero interest in soccer or the World Cup.What Freddy has accidentally done, she explains, is silence the narrative that “America sucks; [Americans] are the terrible people; [America] should be more like Europe.”In return for his infectious enthusiasm, Americans are showering Freddy with love. From shout-outs by celebrities like J.J. Watt and an invitation to tour the White House to emergency flight help from American Airlines to get him to games on time, an invite from country star Ella Langley to attend her show and meet her backstage, and countless other gestures of hospitality, Freddy has quickly become America’s new hero. “Jill just admitted live on air that the sport of soccer and a German national are bringing the country together more than college football and baseball,” says co-host Todd Erzen.“Listen, we thought we were going to have white-boy summer. It's Euro summer,” Deace quips.To hear more, watch the episode above.Want more from Steve Deace?To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman gave a shocking revelation while speaking on MS NOW Monday evening. According to the two writers of a forthcoming book, there is an entirely different group of people in charge of major national policy than the experts. Speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell late Monday, Haberman and Swan were promoting their forthcoming book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, which comes out Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported. “The thing that was really notable about this White House, compared to the first one, is they keep talking about how they’re the most transparent White House in history,” Swan explained. “It’s a canard. They’re actually incredibly good at keeping secrets.”According to Swan, “You have a tiny group of people that are running this country, five or six people and Donald Trump.”“The war-planning group had been kept so tight that the two key officials who would need to manage the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright — were still not in the loop, one day before the launch of the war,” Haberman and Swan note. “Nor was the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.”It isn't unusual to keep war-planning meetings small, but those in attendance generally have military experience. That wasn't the case in the Iran planning, which likely speaks to why so many important consequences weren't gamed out ahead of time. The authors say that those in the room plotting the war were Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Counsel David Warrington, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, State Secretary Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine. Not on hand were Bessent and Wright, who likely would have lent some comments about what would ultimately happen to global oil markets if the Strait of Hormuz were closed. Reducing costs on food and fuel were key pieces of Trump's 2024 promises.Another detail O'Donnell read from the book is that in the middle of the disastrous Iran war, Trump welcomed the two authors into the Oval Office, where he was picking out trees for the White House grounds. "I know how to pick out good trees," he told them. He then bragged about his views on TikTok and began showing off his "grand ballroom" designs. Behind the scenes, aides told the authors they wish Trump was more concerned about his plunging poll numbers and "the dangers he was courting." According to the staff, Trump isn't "receptive" to polling or to bad news in general. So, they simply don't tell him."He [is] willing to take breathtaking risks, risks that could throw not only his presidency but the Republican Party and the entire world into chaos and carnage. More than ever before as President, he was operating on pure gut instinct. It would take a combination of mind reader and psychologist to explain fully why Trump was willing to gamble so much more recklessly now," the book continues. His confidence in himself and his instincts had ballooned, and more often than not, he feels "vindicated." "Then there was the fact that he was a walking moral hazard, rarely saddled for long with the costs or consequences of his risk-taking and rule-breaking. Now was his moment to try things, like military adventures and overthrowing the global trade system," the authors cautioned.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s overhaul of an immigration verification system to check voter eligibility across the nation, striking down a central pillar of the government’s efforts to exercise more federal control over elections.This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.The judge cited Texas’ use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, which flagged several voters who were actually citizens as noncitizens, as evidence that it threatened both privacy and voting rights less than five months before the November midterm election.“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said in her 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”Sooknanan’s decision does not eliminate SAVE, a decades-old immigration-status verification program. But it blocks the Trump administration’s 2025 overhaul of the system, which made it easier for states to check their voter rolls against the federal database, which includes individuals’ citizenship status and Social Security numbers. Election officials have found that the modified database, however, is prone to error, something Sooknanan referenced in her decision. Federal officials, she wrote, “haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”The ruling could strengthen challenges by voters who were removed, flagged, or placed under review by the system.“States have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,” the judge wrote.Voting rights groups, Trump administration react to rulingThe case was filed by the League of Women Voters and other groups who argued that the SAVE system was inaccurate and that using it to check voter rolls violated citizen privacy rights. “Today’s decision is a resounding victory for voters,” said Marcia Johnson, chief of activation and justice for the League of Women Voters. “Efforts to create a federal voter database to facilitate voter purges threaten the fundamental right at the heart of our democracy.” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who worked in the White House on democracy and voting rights issues under President Joe Biden, agreed that voters would benefit from the ruling.“This provides incremental reassurance that they won’t be inaccurately singled out and have to jump through even more hoops to vote,” he said. “It stops the use of a deeply flawed process to cause trouble for real eligible citizens.”However, James Percival, the general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains the SAVE database, criticized the ruling as a misguided effort to block the Trump administration from trying to address voter fraud.“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” Percival said in a statement. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Michael Morley, a professor at the Florida State University College of Law and faculty director of the FSU Election Law Center, said the ruling prevents the federal government from using all the information at its disposal to ensure that only eligible voters take part in elections.“It seems to leave the government in a somewhat tenuous position of being able to provide citizenship data to states for voting purposes that is less accurate than it otherwise would be,” he said. “It restricts the government’s ability to take advantage of all of the most accurate sources of information it has in order, in most cases, to confirm people’s citizenship status.” Judge cites Texas’ use of SAVE database in rulingTexas intervened as a defendant in the case since it had been actively using SAVE to verify the citizenship status of its more than 18 million registered voters. The state gained access to the database in March 2025 after signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. In October, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced SAVE had flagged 2,724 people as “potential noncitizens” and sent the list to county election officials to investigate. That process involved mailing letters to each person flagged, requesting additional information to verify their citizenship. If county officials received no response after 30 days, the person’s registration was canceled. Some voters who responded to the notices turned out to be U.S. citizens after all; others had their registrations canceled, although a specific number hasn’t been released.
President Trump on Monday blasted UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation earlier, saying he failed on immigration and energy, and that he was not a strong leader. Trump has previously slammed Starmer for bowing to the green energy lunatics and refusing to drill oil in what Trump called “one of the greatest fields in the World.” Trump said in April, “Aberdeen should be booming. The post Trump Blasts Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Says He “Really Hurt Himself” on Immigration and Energy -“This Was Not Winston Churchill We’re Dealing With” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
President Donald Trump's makeover campaign for Washington D.C. hit a major snag when the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — which has been a part of the U.S. capital since the early 1920s — suffered from algae and cracking, peeling liner. Trump was hoping that the Reflecting Pool would be fully repaired in time for celebrations of the United States' 250th anniversary. But according to Politico's E&E News, Trump is now conceding that the repairs may not be finished before then.In Politico/E&E, reporters Kinnia Cheuk and Heather Richards explain, "President Donald Trump's beloved Reflecting Pool liner — now peeling and cracked — won't be fixed before Independence Day celebrations, according to the California company that supplied the waterproof coating. That news will sink Trump's wish to have the pool looking pristine for celebrations of the nation's 250th birthday."Trump on Tuesday, posted, "Six people have been arrested, and seven people have been cited, for the damage they did to our Country’s now beautiful Reflecting Pool. The 350 foot gash, made by a very sharp knife or razors, is actually numerous slashes over a very long 350 foot length. It was purposefully and criminally done, and somebody had to work very hard, probably in the dark of night, to create such a condition. Likewise, the small area at the bottom of the Pool was cut and powerfully lifted off the surface leaving very jagged, uneven edges.""The large areas of grass are being replaced. In any event, even prior to fixing those areas, the Reflecting Pool is as beautiful as it can be. We will drain some of the water, either immediately before or after the Fourth of July, to do the permanent repair," he added.It was almost 250 years ago, on July 4, 1776, that the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed at Independence Hall (then the Pennsylvania State House) in Philadelphia. Major America 250 celebrations are planned for Philly, Washington and other U.S. cities, but it appears doubtful that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool will be fully repaired in time.Franco.is Rivard, vice president of the California-based contractor Rhino Linings, told Politico, "It will not be before the celebrations, that's for sure. It would be up to (the National Park Service) to tell you exactly when they plan ... but it's in a matter of weeks, not years."In a Sunday post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, that "work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool" — repeating his unproven claim that the Pool was the target of vandalism.Trump added, "I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, wow, who would do such a thing? SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE! We will fix it[.]"When Politico asked the Trump White House for a timeline on Reflecting Pool repairs, the official said the White House is "working to assess the extent of the damaged areas and will make the repairs as quickly as possible." Rivard told Politico that the National Park Service and Atlantic Industrial Coatings are working to get the algae in the Reflecting Pool under control but said that larger repairs to the Pool's coating likely won't happen until after July 4 celebrations in D.C.In 1922, when Republican Warren G. Harding was president, the Lincoln Memorial was opened on Washington D.C.'s National Mall in honor of President Abraham Lincoln (who had been assassinated in 1865). And for over 100 years, the Reflecting Pool has been among the attractions that tourists made a point of seeing when they're visiting the U.S. capital.Cheuk and Heather Richards note, "Trump launched the pool's latest overhaul with a boast in April that he would install a commercial-grade swimming pool liner as a bargain solution to clean it up. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which received the $14.7 million contract, employed Rhino Linings to apply the liner last month. Shortly after, an algae bloom spread across the massive, 340,000-square-foot pool's surface, leaving it a sickly green. After federal park managers began addressing the algae by vacuuming, scraping and treating the water with hydrogen peroxide, the liner itself began peeling away."