Meta did something right, and it deserves recognition and replication.  Recently, the American-owned technology company announced a private partnership with three nuclear firms, Vistra, Terra Power, and Oklo, to expand electricity production supporting their own data center needs and generating surplus power to benefit the regional grid.  This should happen anywhere data centers are in the discussion. It is what every politician courting the tech communities to build data centers in their city or state must expect going forward, because right now data centers face massive opposition, and no amount of spin will fix it.  The main concern about data centers is their incredible electricity need. Of course, we all like and use technology, and your average American even fundamentally embraces the patriotic need to “beat China” in the AI race. None of that denies the “affordability” issue, and the frustration of ratepayer who have yet to see a tangible benefit ubiquitous data centers bring to his personal life. To highlight this, let me use the example of a rural Virginia farmer: me.  For years, Virginia enjoyed bipartisan enthusiasm for data centers. A third of the nation’s data centers are in the Commonwealth, and every politician relishes ribbon cutting photos and self-congratulatory press releases promoting “investment” and “jobs” and “tax revenue.” What do I see? I see my farm’s electric bill 40% higher than it was in 2020 with a projected 14% increase this year. For all of the historic revenue, my tax burden remains the same (or higher). From my perspective, data centers are a burden.  There is a general good, and I am happy for all the construction jobs, electricians, cement and steel workers. There is new money for “education.” I can find dozens of statements celebrating essential programs for “mental health” and “nutrition” and whatever else sounds caring.  None of this benefits me. In fact, it costs me several hundred dollars more per year. I would at least like a thank you. Maybe a fruit basket. Meta did something right, and it deserves recognition and replication. It did not just announce a plan to build expecting ratepayers would finance it through higher monthly bills. It brought its own money and government coordination to tell the locals things could actually… get better. Imagine that.  Our elected leaders should be building nuclear power plants (and coal power plants and natural gas power plants) because we are in desperate need of increased baseline power, something Energy Secretary Chris Wright deeply understands and regularly addresses. During recent remarks to Meta, the Secretary mentioned that decades ago, before Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg was even born, he was studying nuclear power in college, and here he is, decades later, helping usher it into reality. Meta has the money. Vistra, Terra Power, and Oklo have the know-how, and Chris Wright has the humility to let it happen. Government as a willing facilitator to online new energy technologies for the benefit of us all. Imagine that.  I named my organization Power The Future deliberately. What will power the future?  “God only knows…” to quote The Beach Boys, but one thing which I do know, of which I am certain, the geniuses who will power the future with new technologies and new energy sources are, right now, in need of reliable, affordable, abundant energy, American energy, and if we punish ourselves now by punishing energy, we are not hastening that better tomorrow. We are conscripting ourselves to the status quo.  AI is likely going to figure out how to power the future, but AI will not happen unless more power comes online fast. Meta did it the right way, and every tech company with data center desires should take note. We may just be simple farmers, but we vote and we fight. You can win us over if you treat us right, and Meta is the first to do so. This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy 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 Meta Does It Right With Nuclear Power appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Americans who remember how an incident in Minneapolis six years ago plunged the whole country into a summer of rioting—then years of elevated criminal violence—should think carefully about where the protests over the death of Renee Good are leading. Like the killing of George Floyd, Good’s tragedy is being exploited for a political purpose, with the radical activists who then called for defunding the police now demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement—not only the agency, ICE, but the enforcement of the nation’s democratically enacted immigration laws. It’s the protesters’ veto, an assertion by activists of a right to cancel laws they don’t like. And it’s already cost lives, including Renee Good’s. She was shot and killed by an ICE officer when she drove her car toward him. Why was she having any interaction with ICE at all? She wasn’t a bystander—she and her wife were activists trying to prevent ICE from doing its job. “We had whistles, they had guns,” Good’s widow said in a statement that reveals more than she intended. Law-enforcement officers are supposed to have guns, after all—they risk their lives when they confront criminals. But the whistles? Their purpose is to alert the criminals that law enforcement is approaching. The Goods had whistles to help illegal immigrants evade officers of the law. According to ICE spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, the Goods were “stalking” ICE. Leftist organizations train activists like the Goods to harass and interfere with law enforcement in a variety of ways, including by using vehicles to block their movements. This “activism” is not only in support of illegal activity, it creates dangerous situations for law enforcement officers, bystanders, and the activists themselves, as Renee Good sadly discovered. The organizations that train activists to thwart law-enforcement know the risks—in fact, they’re part of the plan. If ICE agents get killed as a result of interference, that’s a win in the eyes of those who brand law enforcement as “fascists.” And if bystanders or anti-ICE activists get killed as a result of the activists’ meddling, that’s a win, too, since it serves to embarrass law enforcement and hurt the agency politically. Groups that teach people like the Goods how to endanger themselves and others know they can count on sympathetic coverage from much of the media whenever something violent occurs—it’s a publicity windfall. So why would they stop promoting these tactics, even if they get people killed? If one Renee Good can close schools and conjure up protests against hotels said to be housing ICE agents in Minneapolis, imagine what three or four more martyrs will accomplish. The only obstacle is the victims have to be sympathetic. On Jan. 8, an ICE agent in Portland, Oregon, shot two people in a car that tried to run him over—yet inconveniently for anti-ICE activists, the injured duo were illegal immigrants with ties to the Tren de Aragua gang. Portland Police Chief Bob Day nonetheless broke down crying at a press conference describing the incident, bemoaning “historic injustice of victim blaming.” He knows that in a city as progressive as his, it’s politically smarter to side with lawbreakers than with other officers of the law. Cities like Portland and Minneapolis are hostages to the whims of progressive activists. The result is a situation that’s been called “anarcho-tyranny”—freewheeling anarchy for activists and criminals, tyranny for ordinary citizens who have to pay taxes even though they receive little protection from society’s predators. The political movement that gained momentum from George Floyd’s death in 2020 didn’t make America safer for people who looked like Floyd. It only weakened police and subjected Americans of all colors to more violence. Voters nationwide had several opportunities to register their feelings about that, culminating in the 2024 presidential election, which put Donald Trump back in office with a mandate to enforce the law, especially immigration law. But what’s the use of an election if activists can negate laws simply by hassling and endangering those charged with enforcing them? For all the liberals’ talk about dangers to democracy and the rule of law, they’re remarkably complacent about this danger, not only to the law and the democratic process but to people’s very lives. Not police but criminals are obviously the greatest threat to Americans’ well-being. Yet a small number of unelected activists have mastered tactics and publicity techniques that demonize law enforcement while letting illegal immigrants and hoodlums with rap sheets as long as their arms run free. Activism that abets law-breaking is the moral equivalent of racketeering, and it might meet the legal definition, too. The only way to prevent more deaths like Renee Good’s—and more mayhem like that unleashed by the exploitation of George Floyd’s killing—is to stop giving in to activists who think they have a right to resist and obstruct law enforcement. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Renee Good Endangered Her Life and Yours appeared first on The Daily Signal.

STARBASE, Texas—War Secretary Pete Hegseth is on a mission. As he tours military installations and visits defense contractors, Hegseth is laser focused on what it will take to make sweeping changes for America’s military. He recognizes it won’t be easy, but there’s no other choice if America wants to maintain its dominance in our rapidly changing world. China, Iran, and Russia, along with other adversaries, are external threats. Closer to home, however, a slow-moving bureaucracy, lack of innovation, and a business-as-usual mentality present a different set of challenges. “When it comes to our current threat environment,” Hegseth declared, “we are playing a dangerous game with potentially fatal consequences. We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.” Hegseth emphasized this point repeatedly during Monday’s trip to Texas, where he was accompanied by the state’s Republican senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, alongside other members of Congress. “We just want the best,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. Dubbed the Arsenal of Freedom tour, Hegseth is traveling the country to see America’s warfighting capabilities firsthand—and send a not-so-subtle message to his own department and the defense contractors who support it. That much was clear when Hegseth set foot inside Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory in Fort Worth and SpaceX’s headquarters on the outskirts of Brownsville. “We need to be blunt here,” Hegseth said Monday. “We can no longer afford to wait a decade for our legacy prime contractors to deliver the next perfect system only to find that it’s delivered years behind schedule and costs 10 times what it should.” Amidst the fanfare of his visits, Hegseth’s message was consistent: military superiority depends on both longtime partners like Lockheed and new disruptors like SpaceX. America’s Most Lethal Fighter Aircraft Inside of Lockheed Martin’s mile-long building, America’s military might was on full display. With planes under construction on the factory floor, Hegseth paid tribute to the company’s veteran-heavy workforce and complimented them for leading the way—quite literally. During last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer to destroy three nuclear sites in Iran, F-35s flew ahead of the B-2 stealth bombers that dropped the payload. More recently, during Operation Absolute Resolve, F-35s played a key role in the capture of Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro. War Secretary Pete Hegseth at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory. (Department of War) Lockheed Martin delivered a record number of 191 fighter jets in 2025 at a breakneck pace. The company says its F-35 production line is running five times faster than any other allied fighter. The mile-long factory employs 19,000 workers and relies on nearly 2,000 suppliers across America. Hegseth’s visit served not just as a pep rally but also an opportunity to showcase a company that he pointed to as a model he’d like others to emulate. “We ultimately don’t care what the name is on the side of the missile or the plane or of anything that’s made at the War Department,” Hegseth said. “We just want the best, and our expectation is that every company competes, and every company competes on a level playing field.” ‘Make Star Trek Real’ More than 500 miles south in Starbase, along the U.S.-Mexico border, Hegseth spoke to hundreds of workers gathered Monday evening at SpaceX’s cutting-edge factory, where Elon Musk set the stage by casting a futuristic vision. “I’ll tell you a little bit just about the purpose of SpaceX,” Musk said. “It’s like, we want to make Star Trek real, OK?” No one on Earth can out-innovate an American entrepreneur once freed from the dead weight of a stifling bureaucracy.We will forge a new Arsenal of Freedom. Thank you @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/nHvgXoof2O— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) January 13, 2026 Acknowledging that SpaceX moves at a speed far faster than the Pentagon, Hegseth vowed to cut through red tape and make changes to reshape acquisition, embrace technology, and revolutionize how business is done at the War Department. “Here you iterate in terms of hours and days, maybe weeks,” Hegseth quipped. “In Washington, we talk in terms of months, years, and oftentimes multi-years. It’s too slow.” Hegseth’s speech was heavy on AI’s potential, and he announced that Musk’s Grok would follow Google’s Gemini as the next frontier AI model company to join GenAI.mil. He then proceeded to declare war on the Pentagon bureaucracy, abolishing the Defense Innovation Steering Group, the Defense Innovation Working Group, and the CTO Council. War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk at SpaceX. (Department of War) “In modern warfare, the fastest innovator and iterator will be the winner, and no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from the constraints of cycling bureaucracy. That old era ends today,” Hegseth said. “We are done running a peacetime science fair, while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.” Mission Alignment The adage “personnel is policy” clearly resonates with Hegseth, who inherited a Pentagon that was unfocused, misaligned, and not clear in its mission. By putting an emphasis on the “warrior ethos” and viewing everything from the perspective of the warfighter, Hegseth has already made remarkable changes to a department that inherently resists them. “Winning requires a new playbook,” he said, crediting Musk’s algorithm to “question every requirement, delete the dumb ones, and accelerate like hell.” .@SECWAR "In modern warfare, the fastest innovator will be the winner – and no one can out-innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated from the constraints of a stifling bureaucracy.The old era ends today: We’re done running a peacetime science fair while our… pic.twitter.com/Vx2I6MVhNw— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) January 13, 2026 Hegseth namechecked his key lieutenants who are making those changes happen: Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg, Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Mike Duffy. He also announced that Cameron Stanley was appointed chief digital and AI officer and Owen West would run the Defense Innovation Unit. Hegseth’s stops in Texas marked the latest leg of his Arsenal of Freedom tour. Previous stops included a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, and Rocket Lab in Los Angeles. Trump’s $1.5 Trillion Budget Proposal The tour coincided with President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order empowering Hegseth to identify defense contractors that underperform and fail to prioritize U.S. government contracts. Trump’s order also prohibits contractors from stock buybacks and corporate distributions if they’re not hitting the Pentagon’s targets. Trump followed that news by calling out a defense contractor by name. “Raytheon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “has been the least responsive to the needs of the Department of War, the slowest in increasing their volume, and the most aggressive spending on their Shareholders rather than the needs and demands of the United States Military.” Later that same day, the president announced he would propose a $1.5 trillion budget for the War Department, the largest ever in U.S. history. Hegseth called it “a historic and generational investment in American security.” He added: “All of this will make our forces more agile, more lethal, and more ready to deter and, if necessary, win a future fight. This is what President Trump demands, and this is what we will deliver.” War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the SpaceX factory in Texas. (Department of War) The War Department has not yet announced where Hegseth will visit next, but you can count on hearing the same notes he hit Monday and last week. He wants you to know the status quo is unacceptable, and he won’t tolerate excuses. “This is not reform for the sake of reform. It never has been. This is about whether our warriors fight with yesterday’s tools, or they fight overmatching our adversaries using tomorrow’s technologies,” Hegseth said at SpaceX. “We know the threat. We know the opportunity. We know what must be done. We share the urgency. Now we will do it, and we must do it at wartime speed.” The post On the Road With Pete Hegseth: War Secretary’s High-Stakes Plan to Reinvent the Pentagon appeared first on The Daily Signal.

As anti-regime protests in Iran continue for a third week, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee predicts a “complete realignment of the Middle East.”   “The potential is here for something of Biblical proportion,” Huckabee told The Daily Signal, adding he has used the very same language when speaking with President Donald Trump.   If the Iranian people succeed in toppling the regime, “that changes everything across the globe,” Huckabee said, adding it will lead to “one of the most unusual times in human history, because there will be a realignment.”   Before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Israel and Iran had a cooperative relationship as the two nations shared geological interests. That economic, military, and intelligence cooperation ended, however, when the Ayatollah came to power.   Israel’s relationship with Turkey has also deteriorated in recent years after the two nations shared a “close partnership,” Huckabee said.  “I think anything is possible,” Huckabee said regarding the prospect of alliances between Israel and nations such as Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon.   “It takes leadership, it takes resolve, and President Trump has exhibited something that I’ve never seen,” Huckabee said. “He has a resilience that is unshakable, and he’s got a resolve to do what he says. So, I say, pop the popcorn, get in a good chair, sit back and hang in for the ride.”  Iranians have been protesting the regime for more than two weeks, in response to a failing economy and rampant inflation. The U.S. Department of State advised Americans Tuesday to flee Iran as the situation there grows increasingly unstable.   “U.S. citizens should leave Iran now,” the U.S. Consular Affairs account posted on X Tuesday.   Despite a growing death toll, Iranians are continuing to take to the streets to demand change. Due to regime-imposed internet blackouts, monitors have been unable to determine an exact number of casualties, but some experts predict the totals are in the thousands.  The regime “underestimated the resolve of their people,” Huckabee said. “And it may be the end of this regime, and I think we can all hope that it will be.”  Trump has threated a U.S. response to the regime’s killing of protesters.  “The White House said today all options are on the table,” Huckabee said. “President Trump is really good about not revealing all the cards in his hand.”  Trump was slated to meet with his senior national security team on Tuesday to discuss a possible U.S. response to the regime’s deadly crackdown, after he issued a statement on Tuesday telling the Iranian protesters that “help is on its way.”   The fall of the regime would mean a “safer world,” according to the ambassador. “It’s going to be a world in which the powers that have been so destructive, from Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, will be, at least in the initial phases, neutered, because they’re not going to have that supply line of money and weaponry that has been their hallmark.”  Iran is documented to have provided financial backing for the terrorist group Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.   In Israel, Huckabee said Trump’s firm statement against the Iranian regime has been received well.  “I told the President not very long ago, was on the phone with him, and I said, ‘Mr. President, I don’t know if you realize this, but if you were on the ballot in Israel, you would get 95% of the vote, and the other 5% they’re all locked up in insane asylums.’ I said,   Trump has “done so many things that has shown a real understanding of the value of our partnership,” Huckabee said, referring to the U.S.-Israel alliance.   In June, the U.S. carried out strikes on Iran’s three key nuclear facilities, damaging the regime’s nuclear capabilities and significantly mitigating Iran’s threat to Israel and the world.   The U.S. also played a leading role in the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that was agreed to in October and based on Trump’s 20-point plan for peace. The first phase of the deal, which included the release of all hostages and a ceasefire, is well underway. The second phase is slated to include a formal end to the war that began following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.   Huckabee says he is confident the second phase of the peace deal between Israel and Hamas will be implemented in 2026 because “President Trump is leading it.”   A “technocratic government” will be established in Gaza, Huckabee said. “It’s going to be a slow process, because there is an immense level of work to do.”  It took Hamas 20 years to get it to the point where it is today, Huckabee said, “so, I don’t have any illusions that 20 days or even 20 months is going to restore it all, but it will happen.”   The post Ambassador Huckabee Predicts a ‘Complete Realignment of the Middle East’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President of The Daily Signal Rob Bluey called on Republicans in Congress to massively reduce the national deficit, telling host Steve Bannon during a Tuesday appearance on “War Room,” “Think about how much more progress we can make and the economic juice we can give this White House if we were able to also reduce government spending. “Just like you and I are expected to balance our budget on a monthly basis, we should expect the same of our congressional representatives,” Bluey stated.  “Republicans have for years, if not decades, promised that they were going to do this,” Bluey said of deep cuts to government spending. ROB BLUEY: Just as we are expected to balance our personal budgets, we should expect the same of our congressional representatives!The spending that we saw during the Biden administration directly contributed to the inflation crisis that the American people face.While… pic.twitter.com/e8Jvw78EeH— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) January 13, 2026 Bluey was on War Room to discuss an exclusive story published by The Daily Signal that suggested Republicans in Congress could be getting serious about bringing down government spending. Previously, The Daily Signal reported that the Republican Study Committee had come out with a comprehensive plan to balance the budget within the next 10 years. The 189 member committee’s report ran more than 100 pages, calling for ending wasteful spending and bringing costs down for the American family. “What the Republican Study Committee is attempting to do here is to go through department by department and eliminate what areas that they think are duplicative wasteful, try to find efficiencies throughout the government,” Bluey told Bannon. “The spending that we saw during the Biden years contributed to the inflation crisis that the American people faced,” Bluey later said. While the Trump administration has managed to bring Biden-era inflation down, Bannon later asserted that the inflationary pressures could reemerge thanks to reckless government spending during the Biden administration. BALANCING THE BUDGET IN 10 YEARS?@RobertBluey says the Republican Study Committee claims it can get to “no deficit” in a decade—by going “department by department” to cut “duplicative” and “wasteful” spending as debt sits at $38T.@bannons_warroom pic.twitter.com/2qKvvDIANP— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) January 13, 2026 “We have a big fight in front of us, Rob, but we’ll partner with you, because right now, the reason the legislators don’t take it seriously is that it’s still financeable,” Bannon said of the nation’s debts. “I think you look at the 10-year budget, it’s $2.5 trillion annually just for the interest payments—it’s over $2 trillion,” Bannon continued. “So when this hits, it’s going to hit like a punch from Sonny Liston right up in your face, and you’re not going to be able to recover from it,” Bannon added. “It is going to be a serious challenge that we will have to confront,” Bluey replied. “And who is it going to impact most? Probably those young people who are entering the workforce and are staring at years to try to pay down this huge debt.” The post Bluey and Bannon Say Conservatives Need to Pressure Congress Into Balancing the Budget appeared first on The Daily Signal.