There was a man who created a movement called MAGA.

And he has continued forward.

They threw everything they had at him, and when that was not enough, someone tried to take his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. That is not rhetoric. That is reality. And by the grace of God, he survived.

Most people would have stepped away after that. Most people would have chosen safety and distance.

He did not.

So the lectures from people who found a more comfortable lane when things became difficult do not carry much weight.

It is easy to pivot. It is easy to reposition. It is easy to benefit from controversy.

It is much harder to stay in place and take the pressure.

While all of this is playing out, there is another layer that cannot be ignored. Foreign actors actively amplify internal divisions. They elevate the most extreme voices. They push the most divisive narratives. They do not need to create disagreements. They only need to magnify them.

When that amplification is constant, it creates the impression that division is everywhere and that it defines everything.

But that is not the full picture.

Step outside of the online environment, and the country looks very different. Most Americans still believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, equal justice under the law, and rights that come from God rather than government.

Those beliefs have not disappeared. They simply do not trend.

What trends is conflict. What spreads is outrage.

And too many influencers understand that and lean into it because it benefits them.

You do not have to agree with everything Trump says or does. No one does.

But dismissing what has been accomplished, or pretending that this moment is ordinary, is not serious.

Some people are willing to take pressure to move the country forward.

Others are focused on protecting their position as the landscape changes.

People can see the difference.

President Trump is the president we need at this moment, and he needs support now more than ever. MAGA.”

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it “digital transformation.”

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would “10x productivity.”

That’s not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we’d measure the 10x.

I said we’d “leverage analytics dashboards.”

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a “pilot success.”

Success means the pilot didn’t visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured “AI enablement.”

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We’re “AI-enabled” now.

I don’t know what that means.

But it’s in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn’t use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed “enterprise-grade security.”

He asked what that meant.

I said “compliance.”

He asked which compliance.

I said “all of them.”

He looked skeptical.

With the Democrats’ continued refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until their woke Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demands are met, President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening in a Truth Social post that he was signing an executive order directing DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA workers.

Trump emphasized in his post that it was the Democrats’ fault, led by Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), that Transportation Security Administration workers hadn’t been paid, and that was because Democrats prioritize criminal illegal immigrants over American citizens:

The Radical Left Democrats, and their “Leader,” Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, have made it very clear where they stand, and that is, ON THE SIDE OF CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, AND NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. They are refusing to fund Immigration Enforcement unless the Republicans agree to their Open Border Policies, which will never, ever happen again. They almost destroyed our Country, allowing 25 Million People to enter from Prisons, Mental Institutions, and Insane Asylums, those that are Drug Dealers, and thousands of Murderers, many of whom killed more than one person. 

Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do! Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports. It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it! I want to thank our hardworking TSA Agents and also, ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the Airports. I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING — TRUMP SAYS HES INSTRUCTING DHS TO PAY TSA

pic.twitter.com/yvjFlUNe46— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 26, 2026

SEE ALSO: Thank a Democrat: Here Are Videos of Insanely Long Lines at Airports Across the Country

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) indicated earlier in the day that this was something Trump could do that was “perfectly legal”:

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Thursday suggested that a Trump intervention might be possible.

“I’m not going to go into the details, other than to say that there is funding that can be used perfectly legally to pay TSA, to pay the rest of the coast guard, for example,” Collins told reporters at the Capitol.

The move comes as the negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on how to end the partial government shutdown remain at a standstill, and as Trump is having ICE step in to help at airports across the country to ease some of the congestion brought on by TSA workers calling in sick. In some cases, ICE has also aided in medical emergencies for passengers waiting in long lines, as RedState previously reported.

Update: On X, DHS Sec. Mullin thanked Trump:

I want to thank @POTUS for his leadership in finding a way to pay our TSA officers to end this chaos at our airports. These hours long lines and thousands of Americans missing their flights was caused solely by the Democrats reckless @DHSgov shutdown.

 Many of DHS’ frontline workers are still not being paid including @FEMA, @USCG, and @CISAgov.

 The Democrats must stop playing political games with our national security, quit punishing our employees, and re-open DHS.

Sister Toldjah, Red State

A little more than two months ago, when Zohran Mamdani was still in his first days as New York City’s boy mayor, we suggested that he should be driven from office. It was that bad. Has the situation improved since then? No, it’s only become worse.

Let’s start off with the mayor hosting a Ramadan iftar dinner on March 11 at City Hall, where he was joined by Muslim city workers.

Well, isn’t that the prerogative of the mayor? After all, Christian elected officials have used government buildings for prayers and faith-based observances since the beginning of the republic.

But was this just devout Muslims practicing their religion? Or something more? Such as a public embrace of Islamism, which Center for Renewing America fellow Nathan Pinkoski describes “is best understood as a political ideology, a global project that aims to subordinate all aspects of government and civil society to Islam.”

Somali-born author and one-time Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, herself a former Muslim, has noted that “political Islam implies a constitutional order fundamentally incompatible with the U.S. Constitution and with the ‘constitution of liberty’ that is the foundation of the American way of life.”

With that as background, understand that one of Mamdani’s “guests” apparently flashed an ISIS one-finger salute. In case you’ve been in a state of suspended animation for the last 25 years, ISIS is a terrorist group and a sworn enemy of the U.S.

As Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville posted, “The enemy is inside the gates.”

The iftar dinner was followed by a counter-protest, dubbed “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City,” which is constitutionally protected, and during which a couple of terrorist-inspired young Muslim men allegedly tossed homemade explosives at the demonstrators.

Both men were arrested. One “defiantly” flashed his own ISIS salute after the pair had been busted, the New York Post said.

Yet, despite the danger to life posed by the bombs, Mamdani came “out harder over peaceful protest than he is at guys throwing incendiary devices outside his house,” says podcaster Stephen L. Miller.

But that level of cultural hatred of America and the eliminationist rhetoric is only part of what Mamdani has brought to New York. Because just like Los Angeles’ inept far-left Mayor Karen Bass (a loud and proud supporter of Cuba’s late communist leader, Fidel Castro), you vote for the smile and the big promises, but then find out what you really got: rank socialism, which has never worked anywhere it’s been tried.

Socialism and Islamism in the Big Apple. What a concept.

Readers might recall that in early January, we wrote that Mamdani plainly wants “to seize the means of production, that his clearly implied wish as an Islamist is to globalize the intifada against the Jews, that defunding the police is close to his heart.”

During his inauguration, Mamdani pledged that his administration would “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Again, no surprise. Mamdani is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America. And he has surrounded himself with like-minded people. That includes Mamdani’s hand-picked director of New York’s “housing justice” office, Cea Weaver.

Haven’t heard of her? You will. Like Mamdani, she’s a self-proclaimed socialist and collectivist. She claims that “for centuries we have treated property as an individualized good and not as a collective good”; describes homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy”; and wants government to “seize private property.”

She’s serious. Weaver unabashedly says she wants to “impoverish the white middle class” and would be delighted for voters to “elect more Communists.” And of course, tax the rich.

So why not tax the rich? Well, for one thing, they’re already leaving New York for red states as fast as they can. They know what’s coming. And they’re taking New York’s tax base with them. No surprise that desperate Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is imploring those who have moved to come back.

She knows that those who voted for the “tax the rich” nonsense have a big surprise coming.

As the New York Post reports:

Their ‘Tax the Rich’ campaign targets millionaires, but Democratic Socialists of America lefties are now pushing for a slew of tax hikes that would slam middle-class New Yorkers.

The party’s NYC chapter is asking potential candidates seeking its endorsement if they will back hiking income taxes for individuals making more than $300,000 — three times less than the $1 million threshold socialist Mayor Mamdani campaigned on.

The DSA-NYC is also drumming up support from pols to tax New Yorkers with inheritances larger than $250,000, according to a copy of recent DSA candidate questionnaires obtained by The Post.

Here it comes, New York! There have been 22 major nations that have declared themselves as “socialist,” or “Marxist,” or “communist” in modern history. All of them have failed. Those that struggle on have adopted some version of capitalism to keep their socialist hells alive.

This is the future New York chose when it elected Mamdani. Domestic intifada and socialism.

Dear New Yorkers: Just as happened in once-bountiful and beautiful California, you picked your fate when you went to the ballot box and voted for socialism anndd Islamism. And now, as the late H.L. Mencken might say, you’ll get it “good and hard.”

Issues and Insights Editorial Board

The civil war we are living in is becoming more and more apparent. The left needs criminal aliens to vote for Democrats, to skew legislative seats away from Republicans through gerrymandered districts that only Democrats are allowed to gerrymander and no public issue can be agreed upon.

The only issue that the overwhelming majority of US citizens agree upon is the SAVE Act and the highly-partisan congress cannot pass it. That tells you all there is to know about the civil war within congress and if Republicans were not half communists themselves, this would be passed.

The long TSA lines at airports around the country is derived from the left’s unwillingness to allow ICE to operate. In other words, half of congress refuses to let lawful agents operate to enforce laws against criminal aliens and are willing to hold funding for TSA in order to accomplish their goal of denying a legal agency to enforce the laws. If it gets any more traitorous than that, I’d like to know what that would be.

Why TSA? Because it inconveniences the majority of the people and makes for great optics for a party incapable of enforcing the laws when it threatens their voter base, criminal aliens. The odd part is that ICE is already funded and this whole dog and pony show is to force changes to ICE procedures, something otherwise outside the purview of the congress. That’s an Executive branch responsibility, but the left has never been concerned about separation of powers where it interferes with political expedience.

I wish more of the average citizen were capable of recognizing what benefits them and what benefits congress. They are rarely the same thing, but on the left you have extremist Marxist ideology at work, it’s the same with fascist ideology as well, what damages the state must be obliterated and what damages the state is always the freedom and sovereignty of the people.

The Marxists call patriots “fascists” simply because it appeals to the communist rhetoric which frames all enemies as “reactionaries” or “fascists.” Definitions don’t matter in such cases as the one powerful weapon of the communists is rhetoric, it’s what has brought them to power every time.

If one wants to get to the heart of my political ideology, it’s not conservativism, or republicanism, it’s individual rights above the state. Not that the state can’t provide some services, but we’re moving into a whole new realm of technological control that cannot be battled through anything other than a demand for individual rights, already encoded in our system, but largely ignored to the benefit of those relied upon to enforce it. Many of whom are subsidized by those determined to deny individual rights in favor of corporate progressivism.

I saw at the Dollar General store, a sign that said: “We will scan ID or the purchase will be denied.” No, you will not scan my driver’s license. There’s information there that goes way beyond what is needed to figure out whether I’m old enough to purchase alcohol or tobacco, laws that are themselves suspect on constitutional grounds. All the information needed is on the front of the driver’s license, something racist Democrats claim no minority possesses.

The battle to secure individual privacy rights is the fight that should be waged across the US. If I were to recognize a war that should be fought, that is the war I would choose, not Iran, not Ukraine, not Gaza. The very idea that after first using a service, that the providers can then simply amend their contract, claiming further use signals acceptance should be outlawed. Based on the first contract, individuals and businesses have built promotional and advertising campaigns, real costs to the person or business, and simply taking advantage of that relationship to further erode individual privacy becomes a taking of the costs of those campaigns and refusal to use the service would cause financial damages in the billions of dollars. No other contractual relationship is treated in this way, but when it comes to accumulating private information, the government has already sided with their corporate donors.

And slowly we descend. Stores now demand to acquire that same level of information or refuse the purchase.

I know its a war that we’ve already lost. I’m not thinking about fixing this system. What I am proposing is that this system is subject to imminent failure, probably for all of the reasons above. That in the ultimate failure is an opportunity to correct this flawed presumption that individual rights are secondary to public good. That in the new system that follows, we are prepared first to secure these individual rights over the state, to build something that more closely recognizes the individual as supreme before the law. This is largely how the US grew and innovated to become the industrial power that it is and as those rights have been eroded either through pernicious banking laws or fiat currency or communist insurgency, we have declined in both economic strength and military capability.

We have allowed rhetoric and moral bullying to consume the discourse between citizens. Instead of looking at the government with equal distaste, one side has joined with the state to force others to comply with irrational and personally detrimental policies. The favorite communist phrase “for the greater good” has seeped into the individual psyche and destroyed it. That the individual doesn’t instantly reject that proposal is the degree to which the society has lost its way. If there is an alternate phrase it should be “for the mutual good” and where there is no mutual good, there is no good at all.

If one cannot see, through logic, how they will also benefit from a communal venture, they should not be forced to supply funds to accomplish it. That takes power from the state and forces it to design things that benefit all or a means of financing it that comes only from those who benefit from it, leaving those who do not to spend their funds on an alternative. That’s how great things are built and alternatives are devised.

Yes, the whole system is fraudulent and corrupt. There is no salvation and it will not continue. We go to war with people with whom we do not generally interact while we suffer at home from the viciousness of our own elected representatives. We are victimized by offices that have already extracted our funds before we have any say in their activities. It’s a system built on theft, driven by fraud and maintained by extortion.

Since we have not fought for these values, we have lost and will continue to lose until we realize the fight we are in and start to punch back.

T. L. Davis

“Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime — and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime.” (Ayn Rand)

So obviously yet profoundly true. Islam and Democrats beg to differ. Islam says anyone who disagrees with their ideology is an infidel, and should be put to death. Democrats say anyone who disagrees with them on anything stands guilty of “hate speech,” despite our First Amendment.

Only hateful, irrational and incredibly thin-skinned people feel any desire to silence dissenters. Only people who are WRONG can benefit from jailing or murdering their opponents. Democrats share this attitude with Muslims, and like Muslims they seek control of the apparatus of State to enforce their will on us all.–Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment … is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule.”

— Ayn Ran

The British Empire was the largest in history. With colonies on every continent, it covered more than a quarter of the earth’s land and governed over a fifth of the world’s population.

Besides dominating military, economic, diplomatic, and political affairs, it transformed the world by spreading Western values, customs, and culture, as well as ideas such as individualism, rationalism, capitalism, and modern scientific thought. That influence continues in the educational, legal, and parliamentary systems of many countries.

But Britain is now a shadow of its former self, having allowed its institutions, the media, academia, and the public to be heavily influenced by Islam, which the late Christopher Hitchens described as “the most toxic form that religion can take.” Fashionable deference to Islam—the government, for example, treats even the most innocuous criticism of Islam as “hate speech”—has caused a noticeable shift in power, identity, and influence, and it may not be long before Britain becomes an Islamic state.

The Muslim population is projected to exceed 8% by 2030. There are over 2,000 mosques, more than 85 sharia courts challenge British common law, sharia finance is growing in popularity, halal food is widespread, and the government recognizes Islamic holidays with an enthusiasm that would shame many Muslim countries.

Examples are plentiful of Britain’s decline into submission to Islam and the replacement of its Western culture by sharia. Guidance documents for schools from Labor-run city councils in northern England warn educators that drawing and music lessons could be considered blasphemous to Islam. The Green Party of England and Wales plans to change school curricula to teach children that it is their moral duty to welcome immigrants. In the name of raising awareness about a religion from another culture, children too young to question their teachers are being brainwashed.

While the authorities go out of their way to accommodate Islam, they have no hesitation about attacking Christianity or being lenient with those who criticize it.

• Hatun Tash, a Turkish-born British citizen and former Muslim, was arrested twice for preaching Christianity and criticizing the Quran at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner, a stronghold of free speech. Ironically, she was the victim in these incidents and has been stabbed and beaten by Muslims more than once.
• Daniel Ayettey, a pastor, was pulled off a ladder and threatened with a knife by a Muslim asylum seeker from Sudan who had 29 previous convictions for 67 offenses. The attacker was spared jail by a judge.
• A police officer instructed a group of gospel-sharing Christians to stop their activities.
• A preacher was detained for questioning a Muslim woman about Quranic verses related to domestic violence.
• Christmas markets across the UK were canceled in 2025, with city councils claiming they lacked funds, while money was allocated for Ramadan and Eid celebrations nationwide.

Perhaps the most powerful symbolic statement by Muslims was a recent Iftar gathering in London’s Trafalgar Square. Over 3,000 Muslims assembled for evening prayers, which started with the adhan; London Mayor Sadiq Khan attended and distributed dinner packages. When senior conservative Nick Timothy objected to the event, describing a public call of Allahu akbar as “a declaration of domination,” Starmer called for his removal as shadow justice secretary.

Islamist influence is already evident in self-proclaimed “Muslim areas” of London, where the vigilante Muslim London Patrol confronts passersby and advises them not to drink alcohol or wear short dresses. A 2013 report details how its volunteers scold non-Muslims and tell them to stay away from mosques. Gay men are called “dirty” and asked to leave.

Muslims are heard saying that England is not a Christian country and that Islam is on the rise. Anjem Choudary, a prominent radical preacher and Sharia court judge now serving a life sentence for terrorist activities, once led the Islamic Emirates Project, aiming to turn 12 British cities into independent Islamic states outside of British law.

Meanwhile, ignoring widespread expressions of Jew-hatred by Muslims, the British government has taken steps to define anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia. Currently, hate crimes against Muslims are twice as likely to result in prosecution as hate crimes against Jews. Antisemitism is blatant and rampant: Muslim mobs chant “Death to Israel” and call for the murder of Jews; at anti-Israel rallies, protesters mention a historic 7th-century battle against Jewish tribes, shouting Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Mohammad will return; and Muslim clerics promote Jew hatred and support terrorist groups like Hamas. Significant efforts are made—by the government as well as the liberal media—to downplay such antisemitism.

But even perceived offenses to Muslim sensibilities invoke the wrath of the law, as West London restaurateur Harnam Singh Kapoor learned. Kapoor, a Sikh, has a sign at his restaurant Rangrez that says, “Proudly Non Halal Restaurant.” For this, he faced threats and confrontations from Muslim groups, while he and his wife received phone calls warning that their daughter would be raped by grooming gangs. To protect himself and his family, he began carrying a kirpan, a Sikh ceremonial dagger. On March 14, after Kapoor called for a non-halal meet-up at his restaurant, over 100 people gathered around the premises, chanting slogans. When he contacted the police, they arrested him instead.

The extent to which the British government is willing to accommodate Muslim practices is clear in its choice to normalize cousin marriage, ignoring scientific evidence that shows it increases the risk of inheriting recessive disorders. According to a Bradford study, the rate of cousin or relative marriage among immigrant Muslims reaches as high as 46%. This practice is banned in Norway and most American states and is set to be banned in Sweden. Last year, Conservative MP Richard Holden proposed a bill for a similar ban in the U.K.

But the National Health Service (NHS) has directed its doctors and nurses to stop issuing blanket discouragements against the practice to Muslim families. They were informed that giving such advice is “unacceptable.” It even published a report—now withdrawn—praising the “benefits” of cousin marriage, and advertised for nurses to support families choosing close-relative marriages. Holden was outraged that public funds were being used to address a custom that should be banned outright.

As conservative commentator Patrick West writes in The Spectator: Should British culture be allowed to be diluted by a “self-abasing and cowardly coterie of white liberals,” all in the “dread names of multiculturalism, diversity, and inclusivity”? Can the British public genuinely support the idea that Muslims need special laws and protections in addition to those protecting other citizens?

How much longer before the once-greatest empire on earth is surpassed by Islam?

American Thinker

Trading Energy Threats

Iran War

Analysis and news.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed on Tuesday that “today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran” at the same time that Iranian forces unleashed a new barrage of attacks on Israel and its Gulf neighbors. With both Washington and Tehran ruling out cease-fire talks, experts expect the global energy crisis to worsen as the war trudges on.

Fears of Iranian attacks coupled with high insurance costs have largely halted oil and gas tankers from traversing the Strait of Hormuz, where around 20 percent of the world’s crude normally passes. On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that Tehran “will not allow the export of even a single liter of oil from the region to the hostile side and its partners until further notice,” adding that “we are the ones who will determine the end of the war.”

In response, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”

Such threats have left global markets scrambling. The cost of a barrel of Brent crude hit around $90 on Tuesday, nearly 24 percent higher than when U.S.-Israeli strikes first targeted Iran on Feb. 28. That, however, is down from Monday’s spike, which saw Brent prices reach almost $120. West Texas Intermediate crude also recorded falling prices from Monday into Tuesday, though costs still hit around $85 per barrel.

“The Strait of Hormuz will either be a path of peace and prosperity for all, or a path of failure and suffering for warmongers,” Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, wrote on X on Tuesday.

The Trump administration is pursuing several strategies to counter high oil prices. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a 30-day waiver for India to buy Russian crude already at sea in an effort to “enable oil to keep flowing into the global market.” The following day, Bessent revealed that Washington is considering lifting even more sanctions on Russian oil.

The U.S. Development Finance Corporation has also begun offering a backstop for maritime insurance to persuade tankers to make the risky trip through Hormuz, though experts say that the plan is likely inadequate to address the scale of the problem.

In addition, the White House has said that it is considering having the U.S. Navy escort tankers through the strait. And on Tuesday, oil prices dropped in response to a post on X by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announcing that the U.S. Navy had “successfully” carried out such a mission; however, minutes later, the post was deleted without explanation.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing shortly after that “the U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time,” though she noted that “that’s an option the president has said he will absolutely utilize if and when necessary at the appropriate time.”

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to release emergency oil stockpiles to help bring down costs; IEA member nations hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public crude reserves.

17,000 TRUCKERS pulled OUT OF SERVICE for failing to pass our English language proficiency test. And we will continue to take dangerous foreign drivers OFF THE ROAD.

Making America’s highways SAFE for you is a TOP priority for @POTUS, @USDOT, and @FMCSA 🇺🇸