Trump’s operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Jan. 3 was a title wave that changed global politics drastically. Not only was a dictator de-throned and will soon be brought to justice, but Cuba, China, Iran, and Russia all stand to lose the most economically and politically—a win for all Americans. E.J. Antoni joins The Daily Signal to lay out the global implications of Maduro’s capture, and how it all will not only impact the global economy, but the U.S. as well. For more analysis and content, be sure to subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube page. Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript from The Daily Signal’s latest video with E.J. Antoni. Parts of this commentary are adapted from a piece that originally published in Townhall. I’d like to talk today about the recent events in Venezuela, specifically from an economic point of view, and who are the real winners and losers. The U.S.—for a change—is firmly in the driver’s seat and master of its own destiny and hemisphere. The economic story here also goes well beyond oil too, although that’s what has gotten most of the attention. Venezuela is a veritable gold mine of other natural resources like. Rare earth minerals, lumber box site, the primary source of aluminum natural gas and more. But the biggest loser of all isn’t China or Russia—it’s Canada. After last weekend’s events, not only is Canada losing its biggest crude customer, but it’s also losing, its only real leverage in trade talks with the United States. Hi, I am E.J. Antoni for The Daily Signal.   I’d like to talk today about the recent events in Venezuela, specifically from an economic point of view, and who are the real winners and losers. Let’s start with the obvious. The Venezuela operation is a win for America and the Venezuelan people. American consumers and businesses will benefit from lower prices while oil companies have a chance for bigger profits. Venezuelans will benefit from increased investment, jobs, and profits in their country as well. This is why their stock market jumped 50, 60, 70, 80% after the U.S. takeover. And if we recall that economic security is national security, then the new order in South America also simultaneously supports U.S. national security while undermining our greatest rival, China. In war, dependable access to oil is as important as dependable access to kinetic arms. Access to ample, reliable flows of oil represents a key strategic interest. Removing one such flow from the Chinese sphere of influence and bringing it into our own is tremendous progress toward this goal. But the biggest loser of all isn’t China or Russia, It’s Canada. Western Canada sends over four million barrels a day of heavy crude to American refiners that are equipped to handle this type of oil. But now, with access to the massive flows of Venezuelan crude, which is similar to the Canadian flavor, the U.S. no longer needs to rely on Canada to keep the refineries on the Gulf of America running at full capacity. Instead, the oil shipments that previously went to China are already being redirected to American refiners—tens of millions of barrels worth just days after Maduro’s capture. And while the United States is paying full market price for that oil, don’t be surprised if oil prices start coming down because of this redirection. After all, increasing supply puts downward pressure on prices. As American investment rebuilds Venezuela’s severely neglected oil infrastructure, we can expect production and exports to the U.S. to only increase, simultaneously benefiting the American and Venezuelan people. That’s why this is such a massive economic win for American families and businesses who will benefit from lower prices, courtesy of more energy supplies. And since energy affects the price of everything else in an economy, lower prices for products like gasoline will put downward pressure on countless other prices, providing relief after four years of inflation under the Biden administration. Consider when you go to a grocery store how much of the price of food you’re buying is dependent on energy prices. First off, farmers and ranchers are fueling their tractors and other vehicles with diesel and gas. They’re also using synthetic fertilizers created with natural gas. But how did the gallon of milk, the carton of eggs, or the bag of bread get to grocery store in the first place? It got there on a trunk. Fueled by oil. What I’m getting at here is that we seriously underestimate just how much the price of energy affects everything we do and everything we buy. Bring down energy prices, and you put downward pressure on prices throughout the economy. That’s a win for American consumers and businesses alike. And U.S. control of Venezuela is also a second chance for jilted American oil companies to again profit from nearly one-fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves. Years ago, those American companies poured investment into Venezuela to essentially modernize the entire industry there. For their troubles, these oil firms had their physical property confiscated and their intellectual property copied as the communists “nationalized” Venezuelan oil. Of course, communist rule there was a disaster, as it has been everywhere, and the oil industry languished as infrastructure decayed, investment lagged, and production fell well below its potential. Venezuela pumps much less oil today than they did a quarter century ago. But this is poised to reverse. Venezuela will now assuredly receive billions of dollars of investment from American oil companies, many of whom are champing at the bit to regain access to the largest reserves in the world. That will mean a windfall of jobs and income for the Venezuelan people, all of which could have been Canada’s, bringing us back to the story of the biggest economic loser here. It didn’t have to be this way for the fifty-first state. But instead of welcoming oil and gas investment from the United States and building valuable infrastructure like pipelines, Canada has preferred to prioritize far-Left causes and an anti-energy agenda. After last weekend’s events, not only is Canada losing its biggest crude customer, but it’s also losing its only real leverage in trade talks with the United States. This is an economic reality that few professional pundits seem to have grasped. To be clear, the flood of cheap Venezuelan crude will not arrive in the U.S. overnight. It will take time, years in fact, to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and really ramp up production to replace most Canadian crude imports. But the writing is on the wall. The U.S., for a change, is firmly in the driver’s seat and master of its own destiny—and hemisphere. The economic story here also goes well beyond oil too, although that’s what has gotten most of the attention. Venezuela is a veritable goldmine of other natural resources like rare earth minerals, lumber, bauxite (the primary source of aluminum), natural gas, and more. Canada just lost not only its leverage with oil, but just about every other one of its exports too. Since the Canadian economy is much more dependent on exports than the U.S. economy is, and since nearly all Canadian exports come to the U.S. while relative few of ours go to Canada, the slowdown in trade between our two countries has very unequal effects. In short, this has been very harmful to Canada and will be devastating in the long run. But it’s little more than a speedbump here in America. President Donald Trump has effectively barred the door on Canada, and the latter will have few alternatives to completely opening every one of its markets to free and fair competition. Of course, Canada can always choose to fall further into irrelevance and economic impoverishment by stubbornly continuing to snub American manufacturers, farmers, and workers. Let me close by saying that if the Monroe Doctrine warned Europeans to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and the Roosevelt corollary established American intervention therein, then the Trump corollary has put a finer, and more economic, point on the matter that’s best summed up in two words: America first. I’m E.J. Antoni for The Daily Signal. The post How Canada’s Only Leverage Over America Disappeared in an Instant appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Left is desperate to make lawful deportation in America a giant, impossible mess to deal with. According to a new media narrative, President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are behaving irresponsibly by conducting more immigration raids around the country, which in turn have allegedly led to violence against innocent civilians and illegal aliens. And if you’ve been listening to Democrats, you’d think that the reason that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is particularly active in blue states is that the Trump administration is being mean to them for political reasons. Their reasoning goes that Trump wants to occupy and bully their states with ICE “terrorists” who spend their time murdering innocent American citizens for no reason other than to cruelly “own the libs.” “This is retribution-style politics,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a recent CNN interview. “This is drama. This is performance politics at its worst, and it’s hurting people and it’s making us less safe.” This is projection. It’s Frey and friends who are all about “performance politics.” They desperately want to convey the idea that Trump’s immigration enforcement policies are the real problem. But the narrative that aggressive ICE enforcement in blue states is just some kind of political retribution is bunk for many reasons. The biggest one is that Democrats have actively pursued policies that would lead to a confrontation with the federal government over immigration law. This is happening by design. Sanctuary city and state policies aim at blocking the federal government from carrying out federal laws through non-compliance. If the federal government still intends to carry out the law, it doesn’t have the same process at its disposal to do that as it does in states that cooperate. The Trump administration has generally prioritized bringing in illegal aliens with a criminal record. This can be done more easily in states that cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security. Generally, local authorities detain individuals for various crimes, and when they discover that the criminal is an illegal alien with a deportation order, they hand them over to federal officers. Not so in blue states, where the federal government must actively pursue illegal aliens if it wishes to detain and deport them. CNN actually covered this issue in August. “In states that voted for President Donald Trump, ICE agents are far more likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails,” CNN reported. “In Democratic-leaning states, by contrast, ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don’t have any criminal record,” CNN continued. CNN further found that “59% of arrests in red states took place in prisons and jails, while 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community. That partisan gap between red and blue states existed before Trump’s second term began–but it has widened since last year.” The sanctuary policies are triggering the federal government to engage in aggressive raids. These raids are less efficient, riskier, and more likely to sweep up illegal aliens who don’t have an extensive criminal record outside the initial crime of violating U.S. border laws. This is a point my wife, Inez Stepman, and Vice President JD Vance recently made on X. Needless to say, I agree. This is an extremely important point: you're only seeing chaotic ICE raids in blue sanctuary cities where local officials are fighting against federal law enforcement. The chaos is created by "leaders" who would rather promote rioting in their streets than follow the law. https://t.co/GVUg0er87K— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 13, 2026 Democrat politicians and their activist supporters certainly know that sanctuary policies encourage more aggressive ICE enforcement. The Prison Policy Initiative, a left-leaning non-profit organization, highlighted how the data shows sanctuary policies “work.” Their December paper, titled “New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations,” notes that enforcement strategies differ in blue and red states based on the level of local cooperation. “Local jails and police departments are key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda because they facilitate ICE arrests of people who are already in police custody,” the paper began. It celebrated that the administration was behind on its deportation goals “in large part due to state and local efforts to protect immigrant communities and limit cooperation with ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies.” Instead of just accepting de facto nullification of federal law, the Department of Homeland Security has stepped up ICE raids to make up for non-cooperation in places like Minnesota. When you combine that with an aggressive, activist street element and irresponsible Democrat politicians like Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, you get situations like the ones that led to the ICE shooting of Rachel Good. The blame for this messy situation doesn’t fall on the Trump administration. It falls on those who don’t accept the results of the 2024 election, who insist that the results of the open borders insanity of President Joe Biden be locked in forever, and now look to do everything in their power to undermine the law. The post Here’s Why There Are More ICE Raids in Blue States appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the woman who refused to define the word “woman” in her confirmation hearing, still seems unable to grasp the concept that a man does not become a woman just by saying so. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two women’s sports cases—West Virginia v. P.B.J. and Little v. Hecox—where the American Civil Liberties Union, representing male athletes who claim to identify as women, is challenging the constitutionality of laws in Idaho and West Virginia protecting women’s sports. The ACLU claims that forbidding men from competing in women’s sports violates the Constitution by engaging in discrimination on the basis of sex. However, the organization also suggests that discriminating on the basis of “gender identity” constitutes the same thing as sex discrimination. That’s where Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confusion comes in. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., famously asked Jackson to define the word “woman” in her confirmation hearing in 2022, but Jackson refused, stating, “I’m not a biologist.” The justice has had nearly four years to come up with a definition, but her questions in oral arguments this week suggest she’s still out to lunch on the basic distinction between men and women. Jackson’s ‘Transgender Girls’ Jackson first suggested to Michael Williams, West Virginia’s solicitor general, that it was unfair for “cisgender girls”—girls who don’t claim to identify as boys—to compete in girls’ sports while also barring “transgender girls”—boys who claim to identify as girls—from competing with them. “For cisgender girls, they can play consistent with their gender identity, for transgender girls, they can’t,” she said. Williams explained that this very fact shows the law doesn’t discriminate on the basis of gender identity. “That’s useful evidence as to the lack of a transgender-based discrimination, because if the legislature were just sort of unsettled by the notion of transgender athletes, I think the answer would have been to bar them” from sports. ?LANGUAGE GAMESKetanji Brown Jackson muddies the waters on women's sports by saying "cisgender girls can play consistent with their gender identity, for transgender girls they can't."The problem is, "transgender girls" aren't girls, and we all know that. pic.twitter.com/iqF27li5eJ— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 15, 2026 Jackson Still Doesn’t Get It The justice later asked Alan Hurst, the solicitor general of Idaho, why the law doesn’t discriminate on the basis of gender identity. “The law expressly aims to ensure that transgender women can’t play on women’s sports teams, so why is that not a classification on the basis of transgender status?” she asked. Hurst painstakingly explained, “The question is whether the application of the law turns on transgender status, and it doesn’t. It turns on sex. The legislature did not want to exclude transgender people from sports, it wanted to keep women’s sports women-only and exclude males from women’s sports.” “But with respect to two individuals, a cis woman and a trans woman, who both want to play on a team that reflects their gender identity, this law operates differently based on their sex, right?” Jackson asked. Hurst, somehow retaining his composure, explained, “The law does operate differently based on their sex, as your honor just said. It does not operate differently based on their transgender identity.” “But it treats transgender women differently than cisgender women, doesn’t it?” Jackson persisted. Hurst explained that the law poses a different impact to men who identify as women than it does for women who do not question reality. However, he added, this is a downstream effect from the law’s distinction between men and women according to biology, not identity. Ketanji Brown Jackson again reveals that she doesn't understand a man cannot become a woman. She asks if laws protecting fairness in women's sports treat "treats transgender women differently than cisgender women." That's because "transgender women" are actually men. pic.twitter.com/9y9R2UkF0O— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 16, 2026 The Language Game Throughout these exchanges, Ketanji Brown Jackson used the language of “cisgender girls” and “transgender girls” to obscure the fact that she was talking about girls and boys. She also used the language “girl assigned at birth” to suggest that the recognition of biological sex is somehow suspect, as opposed to a person’s claimed gender identity which is solid. Any notion of unfairness immediately evaporates when we speak the honest truth: boys should not be allowed to compete in girls’ sports. Boys are not girls, no matter how they claim to identify. Boys who take experimental drugs to make their bodies look like girl bodies are also still boys, no matter how tragic their gender confusion is. Laws reserving women’s sports for women do not violate the Constitution because the standard here is consistent: all men, regardless of their “gender identity,” are excluded from women’s sports, which are held separate in order to give women opportunities to compete fairly. No amount of verbal gymnastics can erase the fact that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman. Yet Ketanji Brown Jackson cannot admit this, because if she does, the entire edifice of gender ideology falls apart. I may not be a biologist, but I know what a woman is. I may not be a Supreme Court justice, but I can recognize an Orwellian attempt to twist language into a weapon for a false ideology. One thing’s for sure: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in this case is going to make for entertaining reading. The post Ketanji Brown Jackson Demonstrates That She Still Doesn’t Know What a Woman Is appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A pro-life policy organization is calling on President Donald Trump to do more to protect the unborn.   Pro-life leaders are seeking to advance policies to protect the unborn and mothers from the harms of the abortion pill. While Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America says no president has done more for the pro-life movement than Trump, she argues the president has not championed the issue as he did during his first term.   Dannenfelser says she “spoke often with the president in the first term,” adding, “we were great allies.”   Dannenfelser served as national co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump during the president’s reelection bid in 2020, and led Trump’s pro-life advisory council during his first presidential campaign in 2016. “We delivered a lot … in the battleground states. He made very strong commitments, followed through on all of them, [which] led to the overturn of Roe v. Wade,” Dannenfelser explained.   Today, there appear to be fewer conversations about abortion compared to Trump’s first term in office. Have conservatives moved on from the issue? Dannenfelser joins the “Problematic Women” podcast to discuss.   Also on the show, Dannenfelser explains why the abortion pill is the biggest issue facing the fight for life in 2026. Plus, the Department of Health and Human Services received criticism after releasing millions in funding to Planned Parenthood. But did they have a choice?   All this and more on this week’s edition of “Problematic Women.”   Enjoy the show!  Here’s the links: The post Biggest Issue Facing Fight For Life appeared first on The Daily Signal.

As fraud scandals rattle the American Midwest, Republican Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams has announced that he and fellow Republican Ohio state Rep. DJ Swearing have introduced legislation to prevent fraud at daycare centers receiving state taxpayer dollars. “If you are taking taxpayer money, you will provide attendance, prove services, improve compliance, or you will lose funding and face potential prosecution if we find waste, fraud or abuse,” Williams said at the Thursday press conference. Attorney General Dave Yost was also present to lend his support. Fraud Concerns Spread After large-scale fraud at childcare centers was exposed in Minnesota, concern spread to Ohio. In response, Williams called for immediate investigations into the publicly-funded childcare system in Ohio, as The Daily Signal previously reported. On Dec. 30, 2025, Williams led dozens of other state representatives in a letter to Director of Children and Youth Kara Wente emphasizing a need for unannounced visits to daycare centers. Williams’ and Yost’s press conference comes after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine gave remarks during a press conference of his own last week, as well as appeared on a podcast. When asked by The Daily Signal if he believed DeWine was doing enough, Williams spoke about the executive branch not using all of its authority to combat fraud. “I think the executive agency, [the Department of Children and Youth], has more power than they’re using. Speaking with DCY they made it perfectly clear that they get a ton of pushback from providers when they try to provide additional oversight,” he said. “You can just imagine, unlike a legislator who is elected by the people, or attorneys general, or auditors, they get a tremendous amount of pressure, they get accusations, ‘You’re only doing this to me, you’re only doing it for these particular reasons,’ and it puts a strain on that relationship of the providers.” Williams still expressed hope about the role for the department, however. “Now, I mean even my letter, DCY appreciated, because they said, ‘Now we can tell providers, when we go and do additional unannounced visits, the reason we’re doing it is because of Representative Williams,'” he offered, adding that “it took the pressure off of [the department].” Williams argued his bill will standardize enforcement so that “no one can complain about the oversight because it’s a uniform rule by the legislature across the state of Ohio.” New Legislation to Combat Fraud Williams unveiled his legislation, The Childcare Fraud Prevention Act, to combat fraud at Thursday’s press conference The “widespread fraud in Minnesota,” Williams said, showed the state “was turning a blind eye to fraudsters ripping off the American people,” and inspired the legislation. This bill, Williams shared, came “in response to an overwhelming request for better oversight of our publicly funded childcare system in Ohio.” The legislation “has a very simple purpose,” Williams said. “If the government is taking money from Ohio taxpayers and using it to fund childcare, the government has a moral and legal obligation to protect that money and protect the children tied to those state funds.” I am proud to be partnering with Representative @DJSwearingenOH and Attorney General @DaveYostOH on this incredibly important piece of legislation.We owe it to Ohio's citizens to be good stewards of their tax dollars and make sure they aren't being stolen by fraudsters.The…— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) January 15, 2026 What’s in the Bill? As Williams explained about his bill, it will: Install cameras with a clear line of sight to both the exterior and interior of every entrance; Install cameras in general childcare areas, excluding restrooms, changing areas, administrative offices, and other private spaces; Retain video recordings for a minimum of 60 days; Provide the Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY) with instant access to live and stored video for attendance audits, administrative oversight, and child safety concerns; Utilize a secure system developed by DCY to conduct and log visual attendance audits; and Face immediate suspension or termination of public funding upon credible suspicion of waste, fraud, or abuse. Cases of fraud are turned over from the Department of Children and Youth, but may be referred to the attorney general’s office for prosecution. An “enforcement pipeline,” Williams explained, “ensures that fraud is not quietly handled internally like we’ve seen, and not forgotten or swept under the rug because the department or the administration does not want to have a black eye or appear to demonize a particular community or group.” Williams also expressed concerns that the system currently in place with its safeguards is not catching fraud, pointing to public tips following videos from citizen journalists, as well as questioning how much fraud is actually taking place that is not caught. Williams argues his bill can more efficiently catch fraud. “Ohio must shift from a reactive enforcement mechanism to a preventative enforcement mechanism using technology, transparency, and immediate consequences so the system cannot be gamed or exploited in the state of Ohio,” Williams stated. Williams claimed his bill, “attacks fraud at the root by making attendance reporting verifiable, audit friendly, and enforceable in real time.” The shutdown of money when fraud was detected was a provision that Williams stressed was “the difference between real enforcement and political messaging.” Yost Welcomes the Bill “This bill is welcome because my office is, in many ways, a creature of statute,” Yost said upon his turn to give remarks. “We have the authority that is granted to us by the legislature, and we do not have other authority we might wish to have,” Yost explained. Yost detailed how he does not have the authority to open an investigation into a daycare. “This bill appropriately creates some independence for integrity purposes through the auditor’s state’s office and brings the state’s chief legal officer—the attorney general—into play where the auditor has done sufficient work to predicate the possibility of legal action,” Yost explained. The post Bill Aims to Take Concrete Steps to Combat Fraud in Ohio appeared first on The Daily Signal.