Parents can’t solve America’s social media crisis alone
Far Right
Social media is an odd thing. The vast majority of Americans use it, but most think it has a negative effect on our society. As a Reagan conservative, my initial […]
If California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made anything clear thus far, it’s that he will say pretty much anything to advance his presidential aspirations. But his latest […]
California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on America's billionaires — while remaining in steadfast opposition to the very same levy on the wealthiest in his state.
I have been adamant throughout our months of Iran coverage that President Trump needs to turn his attention back home and start using his domestic political leverage to address our problems here.So watching him threaten not to sign the housing bill Congress just passed unless lawmakers also pass the SAVE America Act is music to my ears.We live in an era of survival. The enemy is an unrelenting demonic construct, and my conscience tells me without ambiguity that it must be defeated before we are.Demanding election integrity is exactly the sort of fight Trump should pick. The housing bill is already divisive within the MAGA base, so the president risks little political capital by holding it up. If anything, he is postponing an internal coalition fight he will eventually need to have while using his leverage to improve his overall bargaining position.This maneuver should not be necessary. Trump’s own party controls Congress for the time being. But we have to live in the world as it is. And in the world as it is, John Thune (R-S.D.) still sucks.If Trump vetoes a housing bill that does not include the SAVE Act, I would wager the odds are roughly 50-50 that Congress overrides him. In a strange way, that might not be the worst outcome. An override could provoke Trump to get Hulk-mad on the domestic front, which is exactly where we need his attention from now through the midterms and beyond.I do not see a real loss here for the president unless he caves.He cannot pick this fight now and fail to follow through. This is a game of chicken. As “The Hunt for Red October” taught us, the hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch.It is also almost America’s 250th birthday. Asking Congress to protect one of the people’s birthrights — free and fair elections — seems modest enough. It is one of the main reasons we are celebrating at all.Good thing, then, that “The Art of the Deal” has always been Trump’s favorite hill to die on. He is a subject-matter expert in leverage-based negotiation. This is his game.Get busy living or get busy dying.The meter is running not only on Trump’s presidency but on the fate of the entire nation. New York, for example, continues to be handed over to Islamic socialists.Three Democratic congressional district primaries just went exactly the way socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) wanted them to go as he turns the Big Apple into his own private Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, too many of the Republicans we regularly vote for have no interest in reading the signs of the times, assuming they are capable of reading them at all.That is why voters turned to Trump in the first place. It is also why he is almost all they have to rely on right now.What kind of political party needs to be leveraged into passing legislation that would make it easier for that party to win elections — and that an overwhelming majority of the people want passed?RELATED: America turns 250 with a broken heart Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty ImagesHow politically brain-dead does that sound when you say it out loud?But that is the GOP for you.Decades of such institutional stupidity have made our politics more existentially binary than ever. We are out of options other than making the best use of what we have. It is Team GOP or bust.I desperately dislike being in that position. In fact, I have spent much of my career trying to avoid such a fate. But again, we have to live in the world as it is.You may have deep theological or philosophical disagreements with members of your government that, in another era, would not be reconcilable. But that is not the era we inhabit.We live in an era of survival. The enemy is an unrelenting demonic construct, and my conscience tells me without ambiguity that it must be defeated before we are.Two worldviews enter. One must leave. That is the only playbook before the GOP, whether the party understands it or not. Our team is on the field.One way or another, I plan to win.
A British content creator is trending on social media after a viral clip shows him meeting President Donald Trump during his visit to the United States. Content […]
The Great American State Fair kicked off on Wednesday night, June 24 with a speech by President Donald Trump on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Trump administration is touting the Fair, which continues through July 10, as a celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary. But Trump's critics are arguing that the opening felt more like a partisan MAGA rally than an actual celebration of America's achievements as a democratic republic. One of those critics is Media Matters' Matt Gertz. During a late June appearance on The New Republic's podcast "The Daily Blast," Gertz stressed that turnout at the Great American State Fair's opening was a major disappointment — citing the MAGA themes as a key factor and attacking Fox News' glowing coverage as painfully awkward.Fox News, according to Gertz, went out of its way to "carry water" for Trump with its Fair coverage.Gertz told podcast host Sargent, "It's been a tough few months for people who have to carry water for Donald Trump every night…. And basically, they're trying to use what should be a celebration of the Declaration of Independence, of America’s 250th birthday, as a partisan wedge issue, as a cudgel against the Democratic Party, while simultaneously talking up Donald Trump and his ability to pull a huge crowd and get them together for a big rally. So, the failure, I think, of the kickoff event is a pretty big problem for them in the medium term as they try to keep that message going over the next 10, 12 days."Gertz described attendance on Wednesday night as a major disappointment.The Media Matters report told Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, "Originally, this was supposed to be a big concert with a bunch of different artists who were scheduled to play. But as it became more and more clear that these Freedom 250 events are extremely partisan, the artists decided to drop out. And eventually Trump kind of threw up his hands and said, instead of having this concert, we’re going to launch the state fair with what he called the greatest rally ever. It doesn’t seem to have worked out that way."Sargent pointed out that Trump "seems very sensitive" about the "low turnout" on June 24, lamenting that he "tried to turn a celebration of America's 250th birthday into a Trump rally." When the "Daily Blast" host described Trump's Great American State Fair speech as an "imperial, dictatorial display of self-glorification," he got no argument from Gertz.The Media Matters reporter told Sargent, "I mean, I think what we have here is a president who does not respect any sort of separation between himself and the country at large. And so, he views the idea of celebrating the nation's birthday as one and the same with celebrating himself. I think there's no clearer way to see that than how he decided to kick off the festivities with what he personally described as a rally speech — a partisan speech in which he sort of ran down what he claims are his accomplishments and talked about himself, rather than the nation, rather than what brings us together. And that becomes more and more fraught as he becomes more and more unpopular."