Donald Trump wasn’t just playing golf those four years out of office. In this segment from the latest episode of “Signal Sitdown,” former press secretary Sean Spicer goes into the “wilderness years” and his new book on President Donald Trump’s historic first year back in the White House. Bradley Devlin: We’re here to talk about your new book, “Trump 2.0: The Revolution That Will Permanently Transform America.” I thought this book was great because it’s just a quick ledger of all the wins, all the points put up on the board. And it’s really easy to miss the forest for the trees. And this is the kind of look back at the first year of the Trump administration. And so, explain to us why you felt this book was needed at this time. Sean Spicer: That’s the key word, because it didn’t just happen by accident. And when you start in the introduction of the book, you’ll recognize something very familiar to this building and this institution, which is I talk about the role of The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, the groups that it organized. And I think the four years out of office is critical to understanding Trump 2.0. They didn’t just leave office when [Joe] Biden came in and say, “We’ll see you in a little bit.” There was a lot of plotting and planning, discussions, reviews, et cetera, that gave President [Donald] Trump the ability to come back into office and hit the ground running epically. And you talk about it like, you think about just top of your head, right, like NATO, trade, DEI, border, tax policy, culture issues—go down the list, all in 14 months. That’s not normal. And if President Trump—and this is the other key thing, Bradley—if he had just stayed in office and one day became the next and became the next, it would be the same people doing the same things just for a longer amount of time. But having that four years out of office allowed him to rethink everything and say, “Now that I know what I know, what will I do differently? How can I be more effective?” And frankly that’s the essence of Trump 2.0. Bradley Devlin: So take us inside those wilderness years. Obviously, you served in the first Trump administration. You stayed a friend and in touch with the president. … but he spends those years in the wilderness, and I remember at the time thinking to myself, “Oh, like this is going to be a shadow government run out of Mar-a-Lago.” Right. It’s like basically what it turned into. And I was actually surprised for, until he really starts the campaign, like in earnest, like I would have assumed that he would’ve been counter-signaling every single thing that the Biden administration did, but he didn’t. He steps back from the public square. He’s a little quieter, and yet there’s still all sorts of maneuvering happening at Mar-a-Lago. So take us inside those wilderness years. Sean Spicer: There’s two parts to this. There’s what he’s doing, and you’re right. He’s going back, and by the way, he’s not in the wilderness. He’s just, he’s at Mar-a-Lago. Bradley Devlin: Right. Sean Spicer: I had Jim McLaughlin, one of his pollsters, on my show, “The Sean Spicer Show.” And Jim was like—we were talking about the book because he was reading it—and he was just like, “We were meeting with the president, you know, every four to six weeks, going over polling, going over issues. No one paid attention, but he was doing it.” He was taking meetings with policy experts, talking about certain key issues and what was going on. Yes, he wasn’t maybe tweeting every 10 seconds or truthing, but then it’s also what was the team doing, right? Bradley Devlin: Right. Sean Spicer: So there’s a whole part at the beginning of the book about all of the groups that Heritage organized, brought together, and said, “Let’s start building out a potential agenda and making sure …” And it, by the way, who are the people that we’re gonna have write these chapters? They were all part of Trump 1.0. So people on the America First team were very active. Newt Gingrich was doing a ton of polling, the America First Policy Institute. Everybody was out there, “OK, we got you.” And then he himself was meeting with people, was talking to pollsters and political operatives, taking meetings, dissecting what had happened over the first four years. And it was almost like a sneak attack. Bradley Devlin: Right. Sean Spicer: If you were checking in with him, you knew what was going on, but for a lot of people, they were like, “Oh, he’s just hanging out playing golf.” Bradley Devlin: Right. It’s the blitzkrieg of the first 100 days. It really overwhelmed the deep state in the— Sean Spicer: Of course, it did because they were like, “Oh, he’s been gone for four years. He’s going to be rusty.” Tom Homan comes in day one and is “We’re going to Boston. We’re going here. We’re going here.” He didn’t throw darts at a board. Bradley Devlin: Right. Sean Spicer: He knew exactly what to do and how to do it because they were ready. They had a plan. They knew what to do. They knew how to do it. They knew the people they needed. And if you don’t get what happened in those four years, then you don’t get Trump 2.0. And frankly, that’s what I tell people all the time. I sat down with groups during the Biden years, and they were interviewing me like, “What would you do differently? What staff would you have rearranged? What resources would you …” And people were documenting it all. Karoline Leavitt had all of that research handed to her. Now, did she take all of it? Probably not. I didn’t give her a quiz. But I know in the conversations that we had prior to her starting, she was very well-informed about some of the stuff that we did. I mean, when she asked me questions like, “I know that you would’ve done this differently,” she had read a lot of this stuff. I didn’t have that. There was no guide for me to follow. There was … I talked to Josh Earnest, Obama’s guy, and I talked to Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino and … But there was no manual to look at or no research. It was like, “Good luck.” … Bradley Devlin: Well, to bring this all back, though, I mean, I think that was part of the genius with Trump 2.0, the first 100 days being so aggressive, is that you can move so quickly that all these other forces, all these other players aren’t necessarily sure how to respond. They can’t anticipate what’s going to come next. And so you’ve got them on the back foot, and they have to kind of accept the terms of the debate or the status quo that you’ve changed. Sean Spicer: Again, this is where the book—why part of the reason I wrote “Trump 2.0”. It’s not by accident. During that time out of office, they thought about the right people to bring on board to execute change. They thought about what that policy looked like, and then they thought about the process. How do we do this? We know what forces are against us. We know the courts are gonna be against us. We know that Democrats are gonna be against us. So how do we— It’s almost like playing out a chess game. Where are they gonna move? What do we do to counter that move? It’s like a sports team that plays a team at the beginning of the season and one at the end of the season. When you play them again for the second time, you realize, “OK, that guy can run really fast, and, you know, we gotta double-team that guy, and we gotta, you know, the goalie is really weak on the right side,” or something. You play that second game a lot smarter, and I think that’s the essence of Trump 2.0. They knew that, particularly with the border, how are these guys gonna come at us and how do we stop it.

The attorneys representing Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., condemned the local prosecutor’s decision not to press charges against agitators who invaded the church in the middle of a January service. City Attorney Irene Kao announced Tuesday that she would not press charges against the agitators, who staged a take-over inside the church’s sanctuary. The agitators said they opposed the church because one of its pastors works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This decision should not be interpreted as an endorsement of unlawful behavior or public disorder,” Kao said. “The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs. Balancing these equally important rights is paramount to our decision today.” “However, acts of violence, property destruction, or threats to public safety—none of which occurred here—remain serious concerns and will be prosecuted when supported by admissible evidence,” she added. The Church Responds True North Legal attorneys representing Cities Church, a reformed evangelical church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, condemned the decision. “The St. Paul City Attorney assures the public that violence, property destruction, or threats to public safety would have been prosecuted, but that draws an arbitrary line that conveniently excludes statutory charges for other kinds of unlawful conduct,” Renee Carlson, general counsel at True North Legal, said in a statement Wednesday. “Just because the agitators didn’t break any windows doesn’t mean they didn’t break the law.” “The St. Paul City Attorney’s decision treats the church like it’s a public sidewalk—as if the sanctuary were an open forum that anyone may seize mid-service, rather than private property where a congregation has the right to worship undisturbed,” Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for True North Legal, said. “By wrongly characterizing the invasion and takeover of a worship service as First Amendment-protected conduct, the City Attorney’s office sends an unmistakable signal: the law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power,” he argued. Jonathan Parnell, the church’s lead pastor, warned that this precedent would excuse the invasion of a mosque or other houses of worship, as well. “According to the St. Paul City Attorney’s logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, intimidate the families and children inside, and shut down their religious gathering,” he said. “Just call it a ‘protest.’” “City Attorney Irene Kao’s decision not to charge the agitators who invaded our church on January 18, 2026, leaves us to question whether her commitment to protect religious people includes evangelical Christians,” Parnell added. Federal Charges for Church Invaders While the church invaders will not face local or state charges from Kao’s office, they do face federal charges. A federal grand jury indicted 39 people, including former CNN host Don Lemon, on two charges: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which also protects access to churches; and violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, which criminalizes efforts to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights—in this case, the right to the free exercise of religion. (A judge dismissed the charges against one defendant due to mistaken identity.) The case traces back to Jan. 18, when dozens of agitators entered Cities Church in the middle of a Sunday service. According to a federal indictment based on videos the agitators themselves posted online, the agitators paraded down the aisles, blocked worshipers from leaving, and screamed in the faces of crying children. One agitator reportedly asked children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell?” At least one father told investigators that his children were traumatized. One of them said to him, “Daddy, I thought you were going to die.” The agitators allegedly refused to leave when asked. They allegedly blocked parents from getting to their children in Sunday school. They reportedly stood in the middle of the sanctuary chanting, “ICE Out!” and “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” The agitators have pleaded not guilty, claiming they were engaging in a protest.

As Ohio officials crack down on fraud, their hard work has not gone unnoticed. The State Financial Officers Foundation, in a recent update celebrating highlights from the month of May, touted the success of its spring meeting and praised state officials that are making government more efficient and less vulnerable to fraud. Among the officials signaled out by the nonpartisan government spending watchdog group were Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Auditor Keith Faber. “We were proud to welcome Ohio Auditor Keith Faber as the 42nd state financial officer to join SFOF. His work uncovering nearly $9 billion dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse exemplifies the important role state financial officers play in protecting taxpayers,” OJ Oleka, the foundation’s CEO, wrote in an email to members. The group’s spring meeting was focused on numerous challenges facing American families, including affordability, transparency, and “the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.” Faber has appeared before members of the state Legislature and Congress to testify about fraud. In recent comments made to the Daily Signal, Ohio’s auditor said he is “actively investigating potential fraud” and pledged to “continue to sound the alarm and work with the appropriate federal authorities, the attorney general, state agencies, and local authorities to bring to account those who steal Ohio tax dollars.” Since 2019, 161 people have been convicted for billions in Medicaid waste, fraud, and abuse. That includes nearly $2 billion in misspent funds in Medicaid systems and, as Faber shared, “the potential for another $4.5 billion in improper payments.” We found $118 million in improper payments for services for prisoners and dead people in a single public interest audit. We’ve conducted five of these audits, covering various parts of the Medicaid program, and those audits have found $1.9 billion in improper payments. https://t.co/7uIIUBiXHq— Ohio Auditor Keith Faber (@OhioAuditor) May 28, 2026 SFOF also highlighted Sprague’s work in launching Buckeye Billfold last month, which is now “expanding digital payment options and modernizing how Ohioans interact with state government.” Other state officials receiving a shout-out from the foundation included Nebraska Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, Indiana Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, North Carolina Auditor Dave Boliek, Nebraska Auditor Mike Foley, North Carolina Treasurer Brad Briner, Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, West Virginia Treasurer Larry Pack, and Utah Auditor Tina Cannon. Referring to Faber, Sprague, and the others, Oleka said the members’ work “reinforces a simple but important principle: every taxpayer dollar matters. At a time when families are feeling the strain of higher costs, accountability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility are more important than ever.”

A young white man crying out that he couldn’t breathe was ignored, then died while in the hands of police, and the British political establishment has declared, “don’t you dare politicize this” as protests erupt around the country. What a difference skin color makes, right? Last December, Vickrum Digwa, a Sikh man, stabbed and killed 18-year-old Henry Nowak in Southampton with his ceremonial knife. Digwa was convicted on Monday, and the police video was released. The released video has triggered protests around the country. I’m putting the video here because I think it’s necessary. But be warned, it’s deeply disturbing. WARNING: DISTURBING VIDEO Graphic body cam footage from police the night Henry Nowak was stabbed to death even as he fled by Vickrum Digwa, December 3, 2025. https://t.co/XDJRG1LR9L— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 1, 2026 Nowak can be seen on the ground, growing paler by the second, mumbling that he’d been stabbed as the police question him and Digwa—who had knifed him moments earlier. The dying man, who was in obvious distress, kept pleading for help and saying he couldn’t breathe. When he said he’d been stabbed the officer responded, “I don’t think you have mate” as they put him in handcuffs. The officers showed far deeper concern for Digwa, who peddled a now proven false tale about how Nowak had been racist toward him and grabbed his turban. Nowak wasn’t being disruptive; he wasn’t resisting police. He was simply pleading for help. There isn’t much to contextualize here or to debate.  It’s hard to watch the video without being sickened and enraged. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called it a “wake-up call” and a watershed moment for his country. “It marks a moment when we collectively, as a nation, need to take a step back and take a long, hard look at ourselves and ask what on earth we have become,” Farage wrote for The Telegraph. “That barbarous act was bad enough. But what compounded the horror, and shocked so many of us to the core, was the behaviour of the police officers who subsequently arrived on the scene. … Far from assisting the dying teenager, the police’s focus from beginning to end was on the allegation made by the assailant’s brother that they had been ‘attacked and racially abused by a white guy.’” I agree with Farage. In the name of “antiracism” and the cause of multiculturalism, Western societies have created two-tier systems whereby those deemed the “oppressed” are held to different, and frequently much lower standards than the “oppressors.” That wave sort of crested in the United States, for now, as the high tide of DEI, CRT, defunding the police, and a whole host of woke policies have been repudiated. At the very least, those ideas are now being seriously challenged, both culturally and legally. The Great Awokening hit the U.K. too and continues crashing through their society without abatement. It became worse in the U.K. as they’ve crossed the Rubicon into outright censorship of people who question, for instance, the benefit of mass immigration. They’re creating a pernicious two-tiered legal system that is fast abandoning the ideal of colorblind justice. It’s the interaction between the officer and Digwa that highlights this problem and makes the video so notable and grotesque.  “They were racist” has become a sort of get out of jail free card. Digwa and his family knew exactly what buttons to try to press with the police, and the police went right for the narrative that they’d been forced to accept. Cry, “racist!” and let slip the bonds of justice. We must face the reality that among some in the West, racism by a white person is seen as a greater, more terrible crime than murder. Let’s consider for a moment that the Sikh man had been telling the truth, that Nowak had really committed racist acts. Are the wages of racism death? The answer in many Western societies is quite nearly, “yes.” If a man or woman can have the God-given right to free speech stripped for even creating the perception of racism, or be put in prison for it, it doesn’t take much of a leap to say that they deserve to lose their right to life. And here we get the reaction of the British political establishment which has almost uniformly been to say, “sorry you died, mate,” and to insist that the real villains here are the people, like Farage, trying to “politicize” the murder. The powers that be in the U.K., the same people who demanded protests and inquisitions following the death of George Floyd—an incident that took place in another country, to boot—are angry that you’re angry. Here’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer telling Farage in Parliament that he is creating “grievance and division.” Henry Nowak’s family have lost their son and brother in the most appalling circumstances. Nigel Farage is exploiting this tragedy to create grievance and division. It’s completely unforgivable. pic.twitter.com/9h9GHZq5TB— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 3, 2026 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the protests “completely unacceptable.” Here she was back in 2020. This you? https://t.co/tQW4h5ikj1 pic.twitter.com/n6QsTzZIVu— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 3, 2026 Political commentator Narinder Kaur said that Farage was inciting violence. Again, here she was in 2020. You called for riots in all 50 states in my country after George Floyd died.Dozens of people died in those far-left riots you encouraged. https://t.co/94v7bbX16e pic.twitter.com/jSZD1HSJ2m— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 3, 2026 The NGO class has had a similar response. Here’s Amnesty International’s saying essentially that this is just a random tragedy. The real problem you should be concerned about isn’t murder or having a useless, ideologically compromised police force. It’s racism, of course. Incredible statement from Amnesty International UK on Henry Nowak:Not a single word of conveying outrage or horror over the brutal murder, or of how police left him to die without dignity.Instead, their statement is about policing the *political commentary* around the case.… pic.twitter.com/qjZyDVk11A— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) June 3, 2026 These folks aren’t just hypocrites, they’re wrong. This case is inherently political because the attitudes displayed in the police video of Nowak dying were clearly created by political ideas. Their ideas. And that’s why they want everyone to shut up about it. If the police are more concerned about rooting out racism real or imagined than saving the lives of British subjects, then the people certainly have a right to be concerned and protest. Suppressing the truth and tut-tutting people who disagree with their narrative has worked so far. But it feels like this time it’s different. Anger and resentment are rightfully growing. Can the British Lion finally wake up from a long slumber? It’s now or never.

The Heritage Foundation released its version of Reconciliation 3.0, a new plan to end federal funding for abortion, combat fraud, and save America $1.5 trillion. The leading conservative policy institute on Wednesday unveiled “Setting the American Opportunity Agenda,” a special budget and spending report for Congress, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is ready to act on it. While the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” was successful, the GOP can save Americans even more money, and the foundation says its plan could be the answer. “The OBBB was a major accomplishment in 2025 and had many constructive consequences, but the resultant tax refunds have come and gone, and significant new legislation is needed to get voters excited about this election season,” Daniel Kowalski, director of the federal budget at The Heritage Foundation and author of the plan, told the Daily Signal. “Without that excitement, conservative voters may stay home, placing Republican congressional majorities in jeopardy,” he continued. The cost of living continues to rise faster than opportunity. Congress can fix that. Not next month, not after the midterms—now.@Heritage’s new Special Report outlines the path to get there in a third reconciliation bill, which Congress should begin working on immediately.…— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) June 3, 2026 Reconciliation is a Senate procedure allowing budget legislation to pass with 51 votes instead of the required 60 votes, avoiding the filibuster. The last successful reconciliation package was the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which delivered more than $1.6 trillion in tax cuts. Congress is getting ready to vote on another reconciliation package, Rec. 2.0, to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This is a plan that “Congress should begin working on immediately,” Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, said. After sharing the plan with Congress, a source familiar with the report confirmed the House Budget Committee and staff for Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, were “very receptive.” Minutes later, Johnson confirmed to the press that the Reconciliation 3.0 bill will be released “in the coming weeks” and Vice President JD Vance is involved. JOHNSON says reconciliation 3.0 bill will be released “in the coming weeks.” And @VP Vance is involved.— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 3, 2026 The Heritage plan can be “drafted quickly” and by a “limited number of congressional committees,” Kowalski said, noting that the GOP’s deadline is summer. The proposal includes many details of the House Republican Study Committee’s blueprint for Reconciliation 3.0, which builds on the OBBB. It includes lowering health care costs through price transparency, reducing fraud, expanding opportunities for families, ending federal funding for abortion, and protecting American workers and taxpayers. Congress is fresh off another week-long vacation. Now, it’s time to deliver the American Opportunity Agenda and provide meaningful economic relief BEFORE the midterms. pic.twitter.com/Vkakkrjrva— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) June 3, 2026 “New proposals include changing the requirement that the Federal Reserve pay interest to banks, which tends to discourage lending and has allowed the Fed’s balance sheet to grow,” Kowalski said. “This complements Fed Chairman Walsh’s goal to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet.” “We also reduce the burden on states to provide health care for single adults and encourage health plans to reward participants who choose higher-value providers. These policies tend to lower costs for consumers and reduce the interest rates they pay,” he added.