As President Donald Trump prepares to deliver his State of the Union address next Tuesday, some congressional Democrats are planning to protest or skip the speech altogether. MeidasTouch Network and MoveOn, two high-profile liberal organizations, are hosting the “People’s State of the Union” on the National Mall as counter-programming to Trump’s address. Hosted by leftist commentators Joy Reid and Katie Phang, the event will feature several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Ed Markey (MA), Tina Smith (MN), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Chris Murphy (CT), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA), among others. “While Trump lies, we’re lifting up the real stories shaping this country,” MoveOn posted to X. At least 12 Democratic lawmakers have publicly said they will not attend Trump’s address, according to NBC News. “Next week, Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. I won’t be there,” Van Hollen posted to X on Wednesday. “Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy. This cannot be business as usual.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said at a press conference that his “current plan is to attend.” “We’re not going to Donald Trump’s house. He’s coming to our house,” Jeffries said. “It’s my view that you don’t let anyone ever run you off of your block.” The New York Times reported that Jeffries has urged lawmakers to either remain quiet during the address or not attend at all. Last year, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was censured by Republicans and 10 Democrats after interrupting Trump’s speech. “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” Green shouted before being escorted from the chamber at House Speaker Mike Johnson’s request. Protests at State of the Union addresses are not new. Many Democratic women wore pink in protest of Trump’s speech last year. In 2020, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a transcript of Trump’s speech. Another liberal activist group, Amplify Pledge, is urging lawmakers to skip the address as part of its “Young People Address the Nation” campaign, The Daily Signal reported on Tuesday. The White House said the address will highlight Trump’s “agenda” and “results” as he marks his first year back in office. The speech comes as Congress and the administration remain at odds over funding the Department of Homeland Security. “In terms of the written offer that was transmitted from the Democrats, the parties are still pretty far apart,” a White House official told The Daily Wire on background Tuesday. “The Administration remains interested in good faith conversations to end the Democrat shutdown before more Americans feel the impacts. But the Administration also remains committed to carrying out the President’s promise to enforce federal immigration law.”

The hosts of ABC’s “The View” elevated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to “MENSA” status during Wednesday’s broadcast, drawing a bizarre comparison between the Democratic socialist darling and President Donald Trump. Led by Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, the ABC midday talk show’s hosts argued that Trump’s occasional verbal gaffes — including one recent instance in which he mentioned Iceland in place of Greenland — stand as incontrovertible evidence that Ocasio-Cortez is a certifiable genius by comparison. WATCH: After playing soundbites of Trump mispronouncing words, Joy Behar tries to claim AOC’s rambling answer on Taiwan was “Mensa” material. Savannah Chrisley immediately counters: “Mispronouncing a word is totally different than not knowing your position on Taiwan.” pic.twitter.com/702X6SOJNY — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 18, 2026 The hyperbolic comparison came after the Bronx congresswoman made several statements over the weekend that spotlighted her ignorance of both world history and current U.S. foreign policy. The first was a statement she made criticizing Secretary of State Marco Rubio for claiming that horses and the idea of American “cowboys” were originally brought to the United States by Spanish explorers and conquistadors. Of course, Rubio was correct. And the second was a rambling, incoherent response to a question about whether or not American troops should defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Goldberg responded to the brouhaha regarding Ocasio-Cortez by playing a brief clip of Trump clearly saying “Iceland” when he meant to say “Greenland.” “So, clearly …” she said, letting her voice trail off. “My mother used to say, ‘Don’t spit up in the air, it comes back in your face,'” Behar added. “Okay? Check him out before you start attacking AOC, who, by the way, it sounded a little ‘homina, homina, homina,’ but you know, compared to him it’s like MENSA.” Guest Savannah Chrisley stepped in to defend the president, saying that his “mispronouncing a word” was a far cry from having no idea what a policy was or how to articulate it. “[It’s] totally different than not knowing your position on Taiwan,” she said. “And what’s important is how you recover from something.” Trump followed his gaffe by meeting with world leaders and discussing global affairs and American interests, while Ocasio-Cortez went to The New York Times to complain that conservatives were sharing unflattering clips of her saying exactly what she’d said. “The recovery is what mattered, and AOC just didn’t have a recovery,” Chrisley said. “But he does it over and over again,” Behar complained. “How about the quantity of times?” Goldberg then interrupted to point out that Trump is the current president, which obviously made his verbal gaffes a bigger deal than AOC’s, but made no effort to explain why she’d been silent while former President Joe Biden — while in office — was often unable to complete a sentence without mumbling something unintelligible or saying something staffers would have to clean up later. “My point is, I can take ‘homina, homina’ from congresspeople and stuff, you don’t have your stuff together, that’s on you,” Goldberg declared. “Can’t take it from the guy who says he’s the leader of the free world.”

In an early show of his leftist bona fides, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered police and sanitation workers to stop dismantling the city’s homeless encampments. Now that 18 people have died on the streets amid record cold temperatures, Mamdani is reversing course. The mayor is expected to reinstate homeless encampment sweeps — which were standard under his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams — as early as Wednesday, according to the New York Post. It’s a major reversal for Mamdani, who claimed that the city’s primary responsibility was “connecting [homeless] New Yorkers to housing.” New York’s Department of Homeless Services will lead encampment sweeps by issuing notices to homeless individuals to clear their encampments within one week. During that period, homeless outreach workers will make repeated visits to connect individuals with shelters and supportive services. Curtis Sliwa, the leader of New York’s Guardian Angels, a volunteer organization that conducts homeless outreach, told The Daily Wire that homeless individuals are reluctant to enter shelters for a number of reasons.  “First off, they’re not in control of their mental faculties,” Sliwa said. “Number two, they fear going into a shelter where they’re going to be preyed upon, where what few, few items that they may have will be stolen from them, where they can be sexually abused and physically harassed, and just again turned into a human piñata.” Sliwa also said many individuals who are struggling with addiction resist shelter rules, including a 10 p.m. curfew. Some, he said, believe they are better off in a jail cell than in a shelter.  Before reversing his stance on encampment sweeps, Mamdani converted city buses into temporary warming centers during the cold streak. However, the initiative drew criticism after reports surfaced that the warming buses were difficult to locate. Mamdani took responsibility for the communication failures. “I think at the end of the day, that is the responsibility that I have as a mayor,” Mamdani said. “It’s never a moment to pass the buck to anyone else.”  Some of the buses, which had 40 seats, were reportedly not operating at full capacity. Norman Siegel, a civil rights attorney who leads a volunteer group called the Street Homeless Advocacy Project, blamed inadequate signage. “As the cliché goes,” he said, “Sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” In an attempt to address the problem, Mamdani’s team committed to additional signage in more than ten languages.  With the homeless on the streets and not in shelters or warming buses, New York City has received more than 3,300 complaints about encampments, according to 311 data. Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the encampment sweeps are a winter-only effort or a lasting policy change.

A Manhattan hospital that has performed countless procedures on gender-confused children in recent years announced on Tuesday that it officially ended its youth gender clinic following the Trump administration’s move to pull federal funding. Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone Health, which has offered gender procedures for children since at least 2020, cited the “current regulatory environment,” along with the “recent departure” of its medical director, for its “difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program,” The New York Times reported. NYU Langone previously stated on its website that it prescribes “gender-affirming medical interventions, including puberty suppression, gender-affirming hormone treatments, and gender-affirming surgery” for gender-confused children. The hospital’s website no longer mentions gender surgery for children and focuses on “mental health services.” Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect children from irreversible gender procedures by threatening to strip federal funding from hospitals that perform the procedures. Following Trump’s order last year, NYU Langone began winding down its “Transgender Youth Health Program,” canceling appointments for children, including two 12-year-olds who were supposed to start puberty blockers, The Daily Wire reported at the time. However, some parents told the Times that the hospital kept appointments for children who were already on puberty blockers or hormone therapy. Last June, the FBI set up a tip line for Americans to report “any hospitals, clinics, or practitioners” that “mutilate” children “under the guise of gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration reportedly served subpoenas to multiple hospitals last year, including NYU Langone, seeking more information on their youth gender clinics. In December, the Trump administration began implementing the president’s executive order to protect children by proposing rules to strip federal funding from hospitals that continue to perform gender procedures on children. Democrats have pushed back against Trump’s effort to go after hospitals and doctors that promote gender procedures for children. In response to Trump’s crackdown on hospitals performing gender procedures on children, New York joined a coalition of Democrat-led states that sued the Trump administration in an effort to stop the federal government’s investigation into hospitals and doctors that perform the life-altering procedures on children. President Trump’s executive action to protect children from the harmful procedures followed numerous Republican-led states banning the so-called gender-affirming treatments and procedures for minors. Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and many other states took action to protect children beginning in 2023, shortly after Daily Wire host Matt Walsh’s documentary “What is a Woman?” exposed the dangers of gender procedures. After “What is a Woman?” became one of the most-watched documentaries of the year, Walsh held a rally in Nashville and met with state leaders in multiple states to advocate for ending “child mutilation.” Thanks to recent laws passed by Republican-led states and the efforts of President Trump, the tide has turned in the debate on gender procedures for children. The Trump administration and advocates for protecting children from gender procedures celebrated another major win earlier this month when the American Society of Plastic Surgeons acknowledged that “evidence did not support genital procedures or removing the breasts of young girls who identify as boys.”

It is perhaps inevitable that a major global event such as the Olympic Games will become politicized. From the Nazi appropriation of the 1936 Berlin Games to the long Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, competition has always taken on what Al Michaels once called a “nationalistic sense.” But at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games happening now, the media have pushed things to a whole new level. Journalists seem intent on turning Olympians into politicians. The real flashpoint was an interview with Team USA skier Hunter Hess. During a press conference, he was goaded into expressing his personal disagreements with certain Trump administration policies. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.,” he said. President Donald Trump himself shot back, calling Hess a “real loser.” The whole thing has turned into a media circus, distracting from the excellence all Team USA athletes have been pursuing. To some extent, the media’s agenda here is pretty straightforward; politicization and incendiary headlines drive clicks and social media views. But there is also a real double standard that ought to outrage all Olympics fans and American citizens. Eileen Gu, a freestyle skier born and educated in the United States but competing for the People’s Republic of China, has mostly escaped questions about the Chinese Communist Party’s totalitarian atrocities. NBC, which broadcasts the Olympics in the United States, has even tried making Gu into a star. The Today show did not ask her about the persecution of Jimmy Lai or the genocide of the Uyghur people, even while NBC has covered statements American athletes have made about U.S. immigration policy or social issues. Unlike China, the U.S. government does not pay our athletes. The United States Olympic Committee is a federally chartered nonprofit and funded entirely by private sources. American Olympians may receive corporate sponsorships, but putting on the red, white, and blue and competing for our people is a sacrifice in a way that is not the case for other countries. These athletes are not hirelings; they find a way to turn the pursuit of personal excellence into an act of genuine patriotism. Authoritarian regimes can try buying themselves medals by recruiting mercenaries such as Gu, but they will never be able to purchase that genuine Olympic spirit. There have been plenty of inspiring stories about American athletes at these games, but none provides a starker contrast with Gu than Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu. She was a star as a teenager, but she retired at the age of 16 to focus on living a normal life. Liu made a triumphant return to the world of figure skating in 2024, and she often explains that her sport has become a kind of art. Already a gold medalist in the team event, Liu is currently positioned to medal again in the individual competition. Her skating is remarkably beautiful, a true wonder to behold. Equally fascinating, though, is the political backdrop of Liu’s young career. Like Gu, she is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant to the United States. But unlike the skier, her family holds no illusions about the CCP’s tyranny. Liu’s father Arthur was deeply involved with the Chinese Democracy Movement in the 1980s, joining the protests at Tiananmen Square and witnessing the subsequent massacre firsthand. He has always been a vocal critic of the communist regime and is, in no uncertain terms, a political refugee. The CCP initially tried recruiting Liu to skate for it under the same “naturalization program” that sponsored Gu’s defection. Given her family’s firsthand experience of communist oppression, though, she understandably rebuffed the effort. The CCP, however, would not take no for an answer. In 2022, the Department of Justice charged Chinese agents with conducting an intimidation campaign against the Liu family and other Chinese Americans critical of the regime. Apparently, one spy even pretended to be a USOC official to steal information from the Lius. The State Department even had to take special precautions to protect Alysa Liu when she competed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Perhaps the most American part of the story, though, is that Liu has used her massive platform as a figure skating star to shine the light on her father’s sacrifices and the fight for human rights. “Honestly I would just have the main focus be my dad’s story because his story is so cool and also everything … happened because of what he did,” she said at a media summit in 2025. “So, like I feel like we got to start with the roots.”  “We represent the people,” she said in another interview when asked about patriotism at the games. Liu is only 20 years old, but already she understands that the flag she competes under means something more than nationalistic pride; it symbolizes the hope of freedom for millions worldwide.  Authoritarian regimes in places such as China, Iran, and Russia have always sought to use the Olympic Games to promote their ideologies, and the commercial media are all too willing to turn a blind eye or even become complicit. But stories such as Liu’s, and those of other patriotic American athletes, demonstrate in no uncertain terms how incompatible that goal is with the true Olympic spirit. The freedom American athletes enjoy — even to criticize their own country — is in fact the reason why we consistently embody such excellence at the games. And that’s nothing to apologize for. *** Michael Lucchese is the founder of Pipe Creek Consulting, an associate editor of Law & Liberty, and a contributing editor to Providence. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.