On the first stop of President Donald Trump’s affordability tour, he said making America affordable is his highest priority, while again calling the term a Democrat hoax. “I have no higher priority than making America affordable again,” Trump said. “That’s what we’re going to do. And again, [Democrats] cause the high prices and we’re bringing them down.” Trump held a rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, a swing district. It was the first of many domestic trips planned to tout Republicans’ affordability agenda ahead of midterms. Trump said White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told him it’s time to start campaigning again. “‘I won,'” he said. “‘What do I have to do already?’ They said, ‘We have to win the midterms, and you’re the guy that’s going to take us over the midterms.'” Trump said Democrats gave America “high prices” and the “highest inflation in history.” “And we’re giving you, we’re bringing those prices down rapidly,” he said. “Lower prices, bigger paychecks. You’re getting lower prices, bigger paychecks. We’re getting inflation, we’re crushing it. And you’re getting much higher wages. I mean, the only thing that’s really going up big, it’s called the stock market and your 401Ks.” According to a recent Gallup poll, 40% of Americans rated economic conditions as poor in November, a small increase from 37% in October. Trump said Democrats “always have a hoax.” “The new word is ‘affordability,'” he said. “So, they look at the camera and they say, ‘This election is all about affordability.’ Now they never talk about it. They never talk.” Trump said inflation is “essentially gone.” “We brought prices way down from what it was,” he said. “We’re going to have the greatest economy in history.” The post ‘They Always Have a Hoax’: Trump Kicks Off Affordability Tour in Pennsylvania appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act is putting China “on notice,” according to a Republican member of Congress. The large bill that funds the Department of War and America’s defense priorities includes legislation that restricts U.S. investments into China.   The Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act is included in the $900 billion annual defense bill and places restrictions on a “country of concern,” including China.   “No more letting American investors unknowingly bankroll China’s military and surveillance state. Beijing is officially on notice,” Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who introduced the act that is included in the NDAA, wrote on X.   ?Big win in the NDAA ?My bill to codify President Trump’s America First Investment Policy is IN. No more letting American investors unknowingly bankroll China’s military and surveillance state. Beijing is officially on notice. @semafor @Eleanor_Mueller pic.twitter.com/OCi4cB7z13— Congressman Andy Barr (@RepAndyBarr) December 8, 2025 Specifically, the bill blocks American’s savings and retirement funds from being invested in key sectors of the Chinese economy or military.   Barr’s bill “establishes a comprehensive framework to protect American innovation, strengthen national security, and ensure transparency in critical economic and technological sectors,” according to the congressman.   Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who introduced companion legislation in the Senate to Barr’s bill, said he is pleased to see that the NDAA includes the priorities of “protecting military bases from foreign land purchases, strengthening supply chains, and stopping U.S. capital from aiding China’s military.”   The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the over 3,000-page NDAA. The bill includes a number of President Donald Trump’s key policy priorities.   “This year’s National Defense Authorization Act helps advance President Trump and Republicans’ Peace Through Strength Agenda by codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said.   Because the NDAA includes critical funding for American defense, it is considered a “must pass” bill and is expected to pass in the House and Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for the Christmas holiday.   The post NDAA Puts China ‘On Notice,’ Lawmaker Says   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump signaled his support Tuesday for a Republican alternative to the pandemic-era extra Obamacare subsidies Democrats championed during the government shutdown earlier this year. “Well, I like the concept,” the president said when asked about the bill, which Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., unveiled Monday. “I don’t want to give the insurance companies any money,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, Newsweek reported. “They’ve been ripping off the public for years.” “The current system is not working to deliver health care at reasonable prices for everyday Americans,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “Democrats’ push to maintain these high prices by giving more money to insurance companies is not a real solution for President Trump.” “The President has instead focused on lowering prescription drug costs by hammering out deals with pharmaceutical companies, as well as taking on waste, fraud and abuse in the system to deliver results for patients, and will continue to deliver policy solutions that lower costs in the healthcare market for the American people,” Desai added. The government shut down on Oct. 1 after Democrat senators refused to support a “clean” Continuing Resolution that would fund the government at Biden-era levels until Congress could pass annual spending bills. Democrats demanded an extension of extra COVID-19 pandemic-era subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Democrats ultimately agreed to fund the government in exchange for a promise that the Senate would hold a vote on extending the subsidies. The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, the Crapo-Cassidy bill, presents an alternative to the Democrats’ proposal, which Crapo and Cassidy claim would “send billions of tax dollars to giant insurance companies without lowering insurance premiums.” By contrast, they claim their bill sends money directly to patients via a health savings account, on the stipulation that the funds cannot be used for abortion or gender transitions. They also claim the bill would lower insurance premiums by funding cost-sharing reduction payments, would allow access to low-cost catastrophic plans, would prevent illegal aliens from accessing Medicaid by requiring states to verify citizenship and immigration status; and stops taxpayer funding for gender transition services under Medicaid. “Giving billions of taxpayer dollars to insurers is not working to reduce health insurance premiums for patients,” Crapo said in a news release on his proposal. “We need to give Americans more control over their own health care decisions.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the Crapo-Cassidy bill “their phony proposal is dead on arrival.” “Democrats have put forward the cleanest, fastest, most realistic solution: a three-year extension of the current tax credits, no gimmicks, no poison pills,” he said Tuesday. He called the proposal “the only realistic path left to prevent premiums from going up.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, introduced another proposal, the “More Affordable Care Act.” The Scott bill “takes a commonsense approach to fix Obamacare and lower costs by encouraging innovation at the state level, stopping fraud and abuse in the system, increasing competition in the health insurance and provider market, and giving the American people the ability to spend health care dollars in the way that best meets their individual needs,” a news release from Scott’s office reads. The Scott-Pfluger proposal would create a “Health Freedom Waiver Program” allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines; Trump Health Freedom Accounts, a health savings account that would be available through the waiver program; enhance the Obamacare small business tax credit; and codify Trump’s executive order on health care price transparency into law. The post Trump Backs GOP Alternative to Obamacare Subsidies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Western Europe is bent, suffering in quiescence as its Muslim immigrants stab at it from within. Numbed and bloodied, its leadership and people seem to have forgotten that this is neither normal nor inevitable.  Yet, at the 10-year mark of the 2015 migrant crisis, and the anniversary of several particularly disturbing Islamic terror attacks, an allied voice has been raised to remind Europe that it could choose to live in peace and safety: the U.S. Department of State.  Reporting on the Impacts of Mass Migration  The U.S. Department of State recently announced instructions to its overseas embassies to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass immigration, stating “mass migration is a human rights concern. Western nations have endured crime waves, terror attacks, sexual assaults, and the displacement of communities …. Mass migration poses an existential threat to Western civilization and undermines the stability of key American allies.”  Both this policy and acknowledgment from U.S. leadership mark a historic departure from decades of sentimental orthodoxy—finally, an official admission of the way open borders decimate public safety and way of life.   A History of Horrors  Nowhere are those consequences more visible than in Europe right now, as it marks a series of painful terrorist anniversaries, bringing the grim reality back into the minds of many of its citizens.   Nov. 13, 2025, marked the 10th anniversary of the Bataclan massacre and the coordinated ISIS attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.   Vienna has just looked back on the Nov. 2, 2020, shootings that brought jihadist terror once again to the heart of a European capital.   And of course, this past January marked one decade since the Charlie Hebdo attacks—10 years of Europe’s leaders inviting in a problem they still refuse to confront and is only worsening by the day.   ‘Europe Is Not the Same Place Anymore’  President Donald Trump has repeatedly called them out on this in his interviews, speeches, and even the 2025 National Security Strategy, where Europe was spotlighted for suffering from civilizational erasure. He told Politico that immigration is the root cause of the “decaying” of most European nations, and he said bluntly in a recent GB News interview that “Europe is not the same place anymore.” In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, he critiqued the immigration crisis, saying, “You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble.”   It is right that the American administration not just hold our allies accountable on this, but back sentiments up with policy. Violent immigrant crime and Islamic terror attacks are a top five challenge across the West, and the political class that engineered Europe’s open-door migration experiment bears responsibility for the consequences.   In many Western European capitals, the parallel society of Islamist separatism has taken hold. Parts of London like East Tower Hamlets are occupied almost entirely by Islamic migrants and are dangerous and uninhabited by native born populations. Though the major capital cities see plenty of high-profile attacks, smaller towns have not been spared by any means.   Migrant Crime by the Numbers  The statistical picture across Europe reinforces the scale of the problem, with the countries inviting in the most unvetted migrants finding themselves at the center of these crimes.   In the United Kingdom, between 2021 and 2023, more than 104,000 foreign nationals were convicted in England and Wales, including over 38,400 convictions for violent crime, sexual assault, drug offenses, and theft—despite foreign nationals making up only 9.3% of the population. In 2024, foreign nationals accounted for one-quarter of all sexual offense arrests. Germany’s Police Crime Statistics for 2023 revealed that 41% of suspects nationwide were not German citizens. Even after excluding immigration-specific offenses, the number of non-German suspects rose by 13.5%, compared to just 1% for German suspects. Violent crime by foreign nationals rose 14.5% year-over-year, compared to 2.2% among Germans.   In France, foreign nationals remain dramatically overrepresented in violent crime, where 41% of violent crimes on public transportation were committed by foreigners, including 19% by North Africans. Sixty-four percent of robberies, physical attacks, and sexual assaults on Parisian public transit were committed by foreigners.   In Spain, nearly 80,000 arrests of African foreign nationals were recorded in 2024, and an analysis by its Interior Ministry reveals murders committed by foreign nationals rose by 69% between 2013 and 2023.  This is a relentless assault on public safety and definitely not a one-off “wave” of Islamist terror. The threat has not gone away, nor does it show signs of slowing down. In the minds of many, the threat has simply become normalized.   The Cover-Ups and Concerns of Being Called Islamophobic  For a decade, Europe’s political class has been mostly unaccountable for the record of immigrant crime and violence. The cost has been paid by ordinary Europeans, by the Christians in churches, by the families grieving after truck attacks and train stabbings, by the victims of crimes that Europe’s leaders cover up or claim are “unrelated to migration.”   This is why it is also correct that the State Department’s declaration spotlights the systematic concealment of immigrant crime, particularly Islamic terrorism, and the punitive treatment of citizens who raise concerns.   Across Western Europe, journalists, politicians, and academics alike risk accusations of Islamophobia or xenophobia for pointing out patterns of migrant crime or Islamist-inspired violence, creating an environment where honest conversation is often silenced.   The environment of self-censorship, cultural paralysis, and political intimidation lead to a refusal to say the quiet part out loud, which is that Europe’s migration policies since 2015 have fundamentally altered its civil society and security landscape—and not for the better.   In the U.K., for example, reports on the grooming gangs—overwhelmingly composed of men of Pakistani Muslim background who prey on vulnerable British women—has been delayed not because authorities lacked evidence, but because police, social services, and political leaders feared being accused of racism.  By directing U.S. embassies to report not only the public-safety impacts of mass migration but also the “human rights implications,” the Trump administration is implicitly acknowledging that these abuses include the crimes committed against native populations as well as the policies that silence them. This shift also rightly recognizes that attacks on freedom of speech are themselves part of the human-rights violation.  Europe Must Decide If It Wants to Continue Down Path of Destruction  As we enter the next decade following 10 years of mass migration crises, Europe must decide whether it will remain Europe. Right now, the continent is in serious trouble. Its option is to continue operating down the path of self-destruction, as if these threats aren’t real, or to acknowledge reality and act.   Unless its leaders reclaim sovereignty, enforce the rule of law, and abandon the culture of denial that has defined the last decade, there will be a next round of devastating anniversaries one decade from now—and more reminders of a preventable tragedy that leadership across the continent refused to confront.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Europe’s Violent Immigration Crisis appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In one sense, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the foundation of the country’s government. The Declaration laid out the principles we aspire toward. The Constitution established the three branches of government. It contains many brilliant mechanisms to check the government’s power. The Bill of Rights offers another layer of protection. But mere words—even some of the most brilliant and influential words ever written—didn’t create America’s greatness. Americans did. Imagine you could magically impose America’s system of government in Somalia, Afghanistan, or the Gaza Strip. Same Declaration of Independence. Same Constitution. Same Bill of Rights. Would it turn those Third World nations into First World successes? Of course not. Just look at the 260,000 people of Somali descent living in America. More than 100,000 of them live in Minnesota. In recent weeks, there have been numerous stories about how Somalis in Minnesota stole billions of dollars from the government. That led to millions of dollars going to Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group. In one scheme, Asha Farhan Hassan created Smart Therapy, which supposedly offered services for children with autism. She and her partners recruited Somali parents and worked to get their children fake autism diagnoses. They used that to secure Medicaid funding. Hassan then cut the parents in on the scheme. “Several larger families left Smart Therapy after being offered larger kickbacks by other autism centers,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota wrote in a release. Importing Somalis to America didn’t give them American values. They brought their preexisting values to America and ripped off taxpayers for billions. They brought clan rivalries from Somalia along with them as well. Afghanistan provides another example of this. After 9/11, the United States took over the country. We spent more than $130 billion there. That’s more than America spent rebuilding Western Europe with the Marshall Plan, according to the Washington Post. The United States even held elections in Afghanistan. But as soon as former President Joe Biden decided to surrender, the country fell to the Taliban. Despite all the money and lives lost, we couldn’t export democracy to a society with a vastly different history and heritage. These differences were punctuated by an Afghan national allegedly murdering a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., recently. Even democracy isn’t a cure-all. In 2006, Gaza Strip residents elected Hamas to run the region. Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre initially boosted Hamas’ favorability ratings among Palestinians. What the Founding Fathers understood—but many modern Americans don’t—is that our society’s foundation isn’t the government. It’s the shared values, culture, and history that bind individuals into citizens of a nation. Those are the pillars that uphold the government. This is why importing millions of people who have fundamentally different worldviews is a terrible idea—and not just in America. Look at England. Grooming gangs raped thousands of girls over decades. Most officials ignored the problem because the rapists were largely from Pakistan. They feared being accused of racism. Even immigrants who support Western civilization and have Judeo-Christian values need time to assimilate. People aren’t interchangeable units of economic activity. They have religious values, customs, and worldviews. Our country has an interest in making sure new arrivals learn ours. Learning English should be non-negotiable. Those living in the same country need to be able to communicate with each other. This makes it easier to build trust and cohesion. As of June 2025, America had more than 50 million immigrants. More than 15% of the country’s population was born elsewhere. That includes a staggering 19% of the workforce. It’s too much. At this point, the melting pot is boiling over. COPYRIGHT 2025 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 The Melting Pot Is Boiling Over appeared first on The Daily Signal.