Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a segment from today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” with Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. This show was filmed prior to the start of Operation Epic Fury. Sami Winc: So, Victor, let’s then turn to another topic before we go to a break again. I was wondering your thoughts on Iran. I know that Trump has moved assets into the region, that the regime has now killed, from my source, 32,000 demonstrators, and Trump has said he’s going to do something. And not so much what will Trump do—because, obviously, you couldn’t know that—but what’s in the realm of possibilities of what Trump might do and what is the grand strategy of Trump right now? Victor Davis Hanson: Well, he’s looking at—he always looks at these situations of intervention or bombing on a cost-to-benefit analysis, whether it was killing al-Baghdadi, or Soleimani, or the Wagner Group, or bombing ISIS in his first term, or hitting the nuclear facilities in his second in Iran, or the Maduro kidnapping capture, etc. And so that’s a good way to look at it. What are the downsides? The downside is: If he starts bombing, who does he bomb and can he hit them? He has to have the Revolutionary Guards. He has to get the theocracy. They all know he’s going to be after ’em. They’re in bunkers. Will he be able to do it? He’s gonna have to get the missile depots. He’s gonna have to get all of the means that that regime exercises to create deterrence: missiles, nuclear facilities … tanks. Get rid of ’em all. And he should expect, as we saw with Hamas in the tunnel, that they’ll all be parked, stored—like they are in Beirut—in apartment buildings, in hospitals, in mosques. And so they want a lot of collateral damage. And then he has to understand that he needs a popular uprising at the same time. We’ve already had one and that prompted him to send the assets to the region. But he said, and you said, 32,000 people were killed and they’re probably executing thousands that we don’t even know about. So, if you’re afraid to go out on the street and you see American planes, maybe even Israeli planes, and they’re hitting targets, is your reaction, “Good, good. I’m glad they’re killing my government,” or “I don’t really care anymore. They’ve killed us. Why are they hurting Iran? I’m an Iranian”? And will that create a counter-patriotic fervor? Then he has to think: Look what happened in Libya when we bombed. We got rid of Gaddafi, the Obama—that triad of Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Samantha Power. And what did they give us? They gave us ultimate chaos. And we went in and took out Saddam, we had chaos. We went in and got rid of the Taliban, we got chaos, and we had to stay there. So do we want ground troops in there to overthrow—no, we don’t. So, who is going to take the place—the shah? And if we could get the shah’s son, we could have him say, “I will not be in power for more than three years. I’m a transitional… to get a new constitution and bring in outside observers for fair elections. And we’re gonna outlaw that theocratic Khamenei party, sort of like the Germans outlaw the Nazi party.” So that’s a lot of—and then he has the weather and then he has other considerations. Israel has a whole list of targets and they may not be the same number of targets as we are. They have killers that have killed Jews, they have terrorists. They know where they are. Once people see Israeli planes, does that confirm the propaganda of the regime that it’s Israelis, et cetera. Then he’s got the MAGA base to worry about. Tucker Carlson said just the 30-minute incursion into Iran was gonna start World War III. Steve Bannon, that group. So he has the assets. You can’t take a 100,000-ton displacement, huge carrier, $14 billion, 5,000 people, and just stick it out there forever. You know what I mean? It has a shelf life, maybe three, four months at most. So, he’s assembling these assets and they’re almost in place. They’re in the Mediterranean, they’re in the Strait of Hormuz, they’re in the Persian Gulf, they’re in the Red Sea. They can come at a 360-degree angle. But they’re reaching their climactic point of their extreme readiness. That means if you’re a young sailor, you’re not sleeping well, you’re gonna be called at any moment. You’re having drills. You’re at a state of readiness. It’s not sustainable for more than three or four weeks. So, at some point the commanders are going to come to Trump and say, “You’ve gotta pull the trigger, or we gotta go back.” And that is gonna be a decision, I think, that has political ramifications. So then his other advisors are gonna say, “We’re nine months from the midterm. If you’re gonna do it, you gotta do it now. And this is what can happen if we have a bloodbath and we hit a hospital and the Europeans—don’t expect the Europeans to be there. Don’t expect the British to let us use Diego Garcia. Don’t expect anybody—and expect the Chinese and the Russians to be very angry because they’re gonna lose their asset and they will cause us problems somewhere else. Maybe they’ll start threatening, at a higher degree, Taiwan, or maybe Putin will escalate in Ukraine while we’re doing this.” So, there’s all these things that he has to filter out as important, somewhat important, irrelevant. And then he has to say, “What is the timing on the world stage?” Well, the Olympics is over. Well, you can’t bomb somebody during the Olympics. I mean, there’s this pretense— Sami Winc: All these things come in. That’s true. Victor Davis Hanson: And you can’t bomb somebody before the State of the Union. So, my anticipation is the Olympics are over, the State of the Union is over. The weather and the seasons are getting better. And if he is going to do it, he would probably do it in the next 10 days. And then he will not have ground troops because, you know, he said George W. Bush should have been impeached for going into Iraq. So, it’s a very difficult thing. Very quickly, then, there’s a grand strategy. I just wanna say, you know, H.R. McMaster and Nadia Schadlow created the first national security strategic assessment in the first term. That was updated. I think Michael Anton and others updated it. It was a little bit different, but it had the same theme. The theme was that Trump is not an interventionist. He doesn’t want to go into ground—but he is not an isolationist. He is a Jacksonian. He is a preemptive deterrent. That’s what he wants. And his main fear in the world is China. And if you think about that—and it’s been pretty brilliant what he is done the last 13 months, because if you take, say all these isolated incidents that everybody said, “Oh, he is herky-jerky. We don’t know what he is gonna do on any given day. Oh, there’s no point to it.” There is. If you just go down the list of say, nine or 10 things. Take the Panama. He goes in and he starts, “We might take the canal back. We might do this, we might…” but what was the whole point of that? The whole point was to get the Chinese out of the entry and exit and tell the Panamanians you violated the spirit and the letter of the Panama Canal Treaty and we have a right to revoke it. So you’ve got one choice, you get ’em outta here now, and you restore the Panama Canal to a partnership between us and you, or else. That worked. Take another one. He got rid of Maduro. Maduro had a communist enclave that was a drugs -exporting conduit to Mexico, or the United States via Mexico. And partnership with the left-wing government, Colombia, anti-American, and embargoed and stealthily sending oil to China. And he said, “Nope.” And we’re going to do what? We’re going to starve Venezuela out of its oil. We’re gonna blockade it, and we’re gonna take him out and we’re gonna restore the Monroe Doctrine. And China, we should have warned you in Panama. Now get out. And they did. The post Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Cost-Benefit Analysis for Striking Iran appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill this week as he outlined an aggressive legislative agenda for Republicans in Congress. In Ohio—a state that encapsulates the MAGA shift in the Republican Party—the president’s call to action and his patriotic rallying cry did not fall on deaf ears. The Daily Signal spoke to Ohioans about their views on Trump’s speech and the moment that grabbed their attention. Trump Calls Out Democrats on Illegal Immigration Deborah Oberlin, a local realtor in the Canton area, told The Daily Signal that she was “very disappointed” in Democrats for refusing to stand when Trump asked members to stand up if they agreed with the following statement: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” The president shamed Democrats for not standing. Oberlin noted that Democrats might not like Trump, but focused more so on how their constituents or those guests might feel. “How would you feel if it was one one of your kids?” Oberlin wondered, seeking a nonpartisan appreciation for such guests who lost children. “That hit me really hard,” she added. Oberlin said her disappointment in Democrats went beyond immigration to their refusal to stand for the military and family members who were injured or killed by criminals. Matt Dole, chairman of the Licking County Republican Party, said Democrats sitting in disagreement with the president on illegal immigrants was “the moment of the speech.” Drew Carchedi, Mahoning County Republican Party Central Committee chairman and general manager for his family’s retail mattress business, Sleepy Hollow Sleep Shops, told The Daily Signal, “All I continue to hear from friends, family, and members of our party is, ‘Look at what Democrats did not stand for.’” Trump’s speech defended the administration’s deportation efforts and presented an aggressive immigration agenda, including ending sanctuary cities. Hilary Jackson, the legislative chair of Moms for Liberty Ohio, referred to “the push to ban sanctuary cities” as “deeply significant.” Trump’s Economic Message Hits Home Oberlin told The Daily Signal that she was enthusiastic about Trump’s vision for the American economy, especially when it comes to housing because of her occupation. During his address, Trump noted that “lower interest rates will solve the Biden-created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.” The president is “dead on,” Oberlin said, regarding home buying. “Real estate is booming, OK, it’s starting to get there,” Oberlin added. In her profession, she noted that she’s seen interest rates going down and people are increasingly able to afford to buy a house. Carchedi said the economic and immigration message resonated with the grassroots. “From a grassroots perspective here in Ohio, the State of the Union wasn’t about applause lines. It was about whether working families and small businesses feel relief and renewed opportunities. In communities like ours, economic policy isn’t abstract. It shows up in freight costs, insurance premiums, utilities, payroll, and whether families can afford groceries and fuel,” he told The Daily Signal. “The State of the Union exuded strength, not managed decline,” he added, noting that “that message matters. People don’t want drama. They want direction and opportunity.” A Call to Patriotism Miriam Navarro, a Franklin County resident who described herself as a legal immigrant from Colombia, was similarly inspired by what she referred to as “an excellent speech.” “It’s wonderful to hear our country is improving regarding the economy, security, and laws in general,” Navarro added, noting she “saw strong leadership with good results.” Carchedi stressed that it was “one of the most impactful State of the Union addresses in [his] lifetime.” He specifically praised how Trump’s “address signaled a belief that America’s best days are ahead and not behind us.” That sentiment was shared by Mahoning County Young Republican President James Mullarkey, who echoed that the address was “an unapologetic celebration of America in its 250th year,” with “optimism and strong justification for why America’s best days are still ahead of us.” According to a graphic presented during “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” the president spent 30 minutes on patriotic material, more than any other topic. Vance to Attack Fraud Vice President JD Vance received special mention during the speech, as he was named by Trump as the leader on “the war on fraud,” which Dole said is “great for [Vance],” as it will help “his resume heading into 2028.” NEW?: @VP just announced he is withholding Medicaid reimbursement from MN during the fraud investigation. I asked him if this should be viewed as a playbook for fighting fraud in other states. "I think you can, certainly. There are certain things that we're doing in… pic.twitter.com/4ehGLCbl2O— Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell (@TheElizMitchell) February 25, 2026 This was Jackson’s “biggest takeaway” and what she’s “most encouraged by.” “That’s especially important to Ohioans. After the massive Somali fraud scheme in Minneapolis was brought to light, it’s clear that oversight and accountability matter. Columbus has the second-largest Somali migrant population in the country, and there have already been allegations of fraud locally. Ensuring investigations are thorough and transparent protects taxpayers and strengthens public trust,” Jackson shared about Vance, referring to him as “Ohio’s own.” Midterm Ramifications Mullarkey praised “the optics” of the speech. He believes Trump “drew a stark line,” with Democrats and thinks their performative opposition “will not bode well for the Democrats in the months ahead of midterms.” Dole said the speech laid out a midterm message for Trump and Republicans. “‘Hey, I’m out there being attacked, and I better defend my achievements over the last year,’” Dole said to summarize the president’s speech. This especially applies to the economy, as Dole shared that Trump “went into his speech defending his economic record” before the midterms. Some Didn’t Bother Watching Others were not as enthused with Trump and avoided watching the speech altogether. “I just don’t like him, I don’t like how he treats people,” a woman named Krista said of the president. “I don’t like how he talks bad about other people … I think he’s racist and I don’t agree with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” she added. Some also took issue with the length of the speech. Dole told The Daily Signal he would have preferred if Trump had shown “a little restraint in terms of the timing.” Yet, Dole acknowledged that Trump is “a showman” and praised his command of the 80%-20% issues, like men playing women’s sports, that helped him win in 2024. The post How the Heartland Is Reacting to Trump’s State of the Union appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Department of Homeland Security has gone without congressionally appropriated funding for two weeks, putting strain on an agency that has a wide variety of responsibilities related to the nation’s security. Democrats have repeatedly withheld the votes necessary to end debate on a bill to fund the agency, as they demand restraints on immigration law enforcement officers after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Immigration law enforcement agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, are part of DHS, and as such, are undergoing a lapse in appropriations. Both agencies did receive separate funding under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year. However, the department’s responsibilities also go well beyond border and immigration enforcement. Here are five other department responsibilities Congress is currently not funding. 1) Disaster Response The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal government’s agency for disaster response and relief, is under the homeland security umbrella. FEMA is currently helping Washington, D.C. fix a spillage of hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater, after the collapse of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line in Montgomery County, Maryland. 2) Cybersecurity DHS also plays a major role in handling cybersecurity threats. President Donald Trump signed a law establishing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2018, and it has since been responsible for helping defend the country against hackers and attacks on America’s technology and infrastructure. 3) Coast Guard The Coast Guard performs a variety of roles, from law enforcement to rescue operations. The agency was transferred from the Department of Transportation into the newly formed DHS in 2003, under the Homeland Security Act. 4) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office   The office, established in 2018, attempts to “safeguard the United States against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear” threats, per DHS. The office seeks to monitor foreign development of weapons of mass destruction and help develop the U.S. defense against potential attacks. 5) Secret Service The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the president and vice president and their families, as well as providing temporary protection to presidential candidates, heads of state, and other prominent political figures. The law enforcement agency also handles security at the Treasury Department and investigates counterfeiting. Founded in 1865, it was part of the treasury department until 2003, when it was transferred into DHS. The post Amid Shutdown, 5 Major Homeland Security Responsibilities Are Unfunded appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Once you burn your credibility, it’s hard to get back. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger deceived voters and concealed her true leftist agenda to win the Governor’s Mansion last year. Now she and her fellow Democrats are lying to Virginians about a new gerrymandered congressional district map they placed on the ballot as a constitutional amendment on April 21. It’s a naked attempt to make it impossible for Republicans to win election to Congress in most places in Virginia, and it’s why she was rewarded with the plum assignment of responding to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this week. The Virginia Supreme Court has already had one chance to stop the gerrymandering by upholding a judge’s ruling that Democrats cut legal corners to get the measure on the ballot. The justices, however, inexplicably chose to wait until the vote happens. I filed another lawsuit to bring new challenges, along with my colleague, state Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., and the Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee. We won in circuit court, blocking the referendum again, so our Supreme Court will have another chance to do the right thing. As we wait for a ruling, it’s important that people have the facts. Spanberger masqueraded as a moderate in her campaign and won ceaseless praise from the media for her focus on “affordability.” But she dropped that as soon as she was sworn in and went right back to what she truly believes. She returned Virginia to the multi-state, radical environmental scheme that artificially raises electricity rates by $500 million every year. She’s currently considering a variety of tax increases proposed by Democrats in the Virginia legislature, including bumps in the sales and income tax, as well as taxes on everyday services like dog walking and gym memberships. She has yet to rule out raising taxes on anything. All of this is the opposite of what she ran on. Now Spanberger and her Democrats have turned to stealing congressional seats. And naturally, they’re lying about that as well. It’s nothing complicated. They’re taking Virginia’s current congressional district map, which produced six Democrats and five Republican members, and redrawing the lines to twist it into a 10-to-1 map in favor of Democrats. Kamala Harris won here in the 2024 presidential race with less than 52% of the vote, but this map would award her party 91% of our congressional seats.  They’re assigning new federal representation to Virginians who didn’t ask for it, and there’s every likelihood that some of the lines were drawn to benefit specific Democrat politicians. One thing that’s certain is that no one was thinking of the well-being of voters when they hatched this plot. As an example, take Fairfax County, vote-rich and dominated by Democrats in Northern Virginia outside Washington, D.C. The new map carves Fairfax into five pieces and attaches them to districts that reach deep into Virginia’s rural regions. Picture the county as an octopus that has tentacles running throughout the state, and you’ll have an idea. The configuration ensures that most rural voters will be represented by people who live in Fairfax and were elected by voters in the D.C. suburbs. It’s difficult to imagine what these groups might have in common geographically, culturally, or economically. To top it off, just a few days ago, Democrats in the General Assembly decided that they hadn’t cheated enough and twisted the screws even more to guarantee total victory in 10 of the 11 districts. States usually redistrict following a census, but Democrats claim they must act now to balance Republican activities in other states. This excuse falls apart because most observers agree that Virginia’s new map is a particularly egregious example of partisan gerrymandering. And Democrats lie when they talk about it. The party that told us that former President Joe Biden was mentally sharp now wants us to think a 10-to-1 congressional map promotes “fair elections,” as their advertising claims. They were even dishonest in the ballot question they wrote, which says it will temporarily “restore fairness”—without explanation or context—to elections in Virginia until the regular redistricting occurs in 2030. We shouldn’t let politicians select their own voters, and Virginians were wise enough to see this coming. Just six years ago, a whopping 66% of voters approved a constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission to remove map-drawing from partisans. Unable to resist the lure of unchecked power, Virginia Democrats are trying to trick voters into undoing that so they can burgle those congressional seats. National Democrats are paying attention. House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has already sent $5 million to the campaign to support the new map and pledged to spend “whatever it takes” on top of that. Democrats hilariously claim to be restoring fairness. But a party powerful enough to ram this down everyone’s throat isn’t the victim of unfairness. It’s the cause of it. This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.  The post Spanberger and Dems Lie About Gerrymandering Scheme appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This is a transcript of remarks President Donald Trump delivered early this morning on today’s air strikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a joint operation with Israel dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.” A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted “Death to America” and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops and innocent people in many, many countries. Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days. President Donald J. Trump on the United States military combat operations in Iran: pic.twitter.com/LimJmpLkgZ— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2026 In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel. In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole. Many died. Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq. The regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lanes. It’s been mass terror, and we’re not going to put up with it any longer. From Lebanon to Yemen, and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts. And it was Iran’s proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage. It was brutal. Something like the world has never seen before. Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested. It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say it again: They can never have a nuclear weapon. That is why, in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried. They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again, they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know what was happening. They just wanted to practice evil. But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades, they rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore. Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland. Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had, and actually were armed with, nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message. For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We’re going to annihilate their navy. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans. And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon. This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces. I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength or sophistication. My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission. We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed Iran. We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm’s way, and we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail. We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail. To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death. So lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death. Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass. May God bless the brave men and women of America’s Armed Forces. May God bless the United States of America. May God bless you all. Thank you. The post ‘The Hour of Your Freedom Is at Hand’: President Trump’s Statement on Iran appeared first on The Daily Signal.