Fewer than 30% of Democrats say they are extremely or very proud to be an American ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary and trust colleges and universities over the U.S. military, according to a new poll.  An NBC News survey released Sunday morning shows that America’s deep political polarization is increasingly spilling over into national identity and expressions of national pride. Overall, about 56% say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, while 29% report having little or no national pride at all. The divide deepens among party partisanship and age.  “This number is in decline,” polling guru Steve Kornacki said. About 90% of Republicans say they are proud to be American, compared with just 29% of Democrats who say the same. The gap also widens by age: roughly three-quarters of adults aged 65 and older report feeling proud of their country, while that figure drops sharply among younger Americans, with only 36% of those ages 18–34 saying the same. NBC News poll: How proud are you to be an American? Overall Extremely/very 56% Not very/none 21% Extremely/very by party: GOP 90% Dem 29% By age: 65+ 75% 18-34 36% — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) June 14, 2026 A majority (58%) also says the nation’s best days are in the past, not the future, according to the poll. The results closely mirror another survey recently obtained by The Daily Wire, which points to a notable decline in expressions of patriotism. According to Cygnal, a political polling and analytics firm, just 58% of respondents said they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, including only 28% of voters under 30. Meanwhile, 30% of Democrats said they are “not at all” proud of the nation. “This youth pride collapse is broader than the midterm and worth flagging as a standalone trend; it cuts across the usual partisan framing and will outlast this cycle,” the poll’s analysis said.  In that survey, voters overall said Democrats are too focused on opposing Trump by a 6-point margin; however, this sentiment was significantly stronger among swing voters, where the margin widened to 23 points. “It’s striking that when you look at age and gender breaks, women under the age of 55 are the only group who think Democrats actually offer a more compelling alternative — every single other group thinks the left is just focused on Trump,” John Rogers, Cygnal senior partner and pollster, said in a statement to The Daily Wire.  Swing voters trust Republicans over Democrats on immigration by a 53% to 23% margin, on crime by 47% to 22%, and on government spending by 39% to 23%, while independents also lean Republican on all three issues, according to the pollster’s analysis. The data points offer a bright spot for Republicans facing national headwinds fueled by high gas prices and rising inflation, which voters rank as their top priorities, according to the Cygnal poll. 

A plane crashed in rural Missouri on Sunday morning, killing 11 skydivers and a pilot, according to police. Before 11:30 a.m., a private plane departing Butler Memorial Airport reportedly turned around for unknown reasons before crashing near Business 49 Highway, according to FOX4 Kansas City. Butler is about 65 miles south of Kansas City, Missouri. FOX4 reported that 11 of the 12 victims were skydivers. The other victim was the pilot of the plane. All people on board have died. “Troopers are on scene assisting the Butler Police Department & Bates County Sheriff’s Office of a Fatal Plane Crash near the Butler Memorial Airport. At this time reports indicate all occupants (12 total) have perished. Updates to follow,” The Missouri State Highway Police confirmed on social media. Video circulating on social media appears to show the aftermath of the crash.  It remains unclear what type of aircraft was involved or what caused the crash.

Former MTV reality star Spencer Pratt jabbed at incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) when he learned that the mayor’s own brother had joined a class-action lawsuit against the city over the Palisades fire. Pratt announced that he and his wife, fellow reality star Heidi Montag, were suing Los Angeles almost immediately after the deadly fire destroyed their home — but he responded on Sunday to the news that Kenneth D. Bass was also suing over the loss of his multi-million-dollar Malibu home. “I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass’ brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes,” Pratt captioned a clip from a local news report. “I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn’t too awks. I know ours hasn’t been the same since last year …” I am proud to be teaming up with Karen Bass’ brother in suing his sister for her reckless negligence that led to the destruction of our homes. I hope their Thanksgiving dinner isn’t too awks. I know ours hasn’t been the same since last year… pic.twitter.com/d8YyGjJ775 — Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) June 14, 2026 The ABC affiliate revealed court documents that showed Kenneth D. Bass as a plaintiff in a case filed in May, in which he joined the class-action suit and claimed to have suffered from “smoke inhalation, severe emotional distress, mental anguish and annoyance” in addition to the loss of his home. “As part of the mass tort legal process, Mr. and Mrs. Bass’ names were formally added as some of the nearly 40,000 victims who suffered losses. Their family connections are irrelevant, and as non-public citizens they are entitled to respectful privacy as they pursue their legal rights along with all represented victims,” attorneys for Kenneth Bass and his wife told The New York Post. The home in question has not been rebuilt, and Bass sold the 1.5-acre lot — that still includes a putting green, a pool, and a guest house that were not lost in the fire — for $2 million last May. The suit blames the city’s failure to respond to the fire on the reservoirs that were depleted: “The Palisades Fire has been a traumatic event for its victims, who through no fault of their own, went from homeowners to homeless in a matter of hours.” During a recent campaign event, Mayor Bass — who is facing a run-off challenge in November from Democratic-socialist city councilwoman Nithya Raman — was clearly avoiding the question when she was asked three times about her brother’s addition to the suit. “We’re not talking about that!” an aide pushed back as Bass was pressed on the issue.

I love a good intra-right-wing philosophical debate, and last week brought us one with the banning of Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from the United Kingdom. Piker and Uygur were slated to speak at an SXSW London when the British Home Office suddenly revoked their visas. Their reasoning was that it would “not be conducive to the public good” for them to enter the country. The radical pair instantly did what people like them always do. They blamed Israel, despite the fact that right-wing influencers who are pro-Israel have also been recently banned, and that the U.K. government is openly hostile to the Jewish state. That led a number of right-of-center intellectuals, some of whom I deeply respect, to argue that the ban was folly. Both the Free Press and National Review editorial boards published pieces criticizing the ban on both pragmatic and philosophical grounds, asserting that the bans would both foster more anti-Israel sentiment and were also a betrayal of free speech and classical liberalism. Several other notable conservatives made similar arguments, including that a “confident” civilization wouldn’t need to do this. But why should the U.K., Europe, or perhaps even the entire West be confident right now? The entire continent is a shell of itself by any conceivable metric. Militarily impotent, economically depressed, and morally bankrupt, Western Europe is simply not in a position to be taking for granted that people will see radicalism for what it is when exposed to it. Only a small minority of young Europeans say they are willing to fight and die for their country. Radical Islamism is becoming more prevalent by the day. Europe needs to be on a defensive posture, and that means fighting back against the forces that seek to destroy it by any means necessary, not being open to a good clean debate for the future of humanity. The principled case for letting the pair travel is that liberalism dictates such. But Piker and Uygur are not British. We’ve seen similar arguments play out in the United States during the second Trump administration, about how to extend rights to non-citizens that we all agree citizens do have. I am not a constitutional lawyer, so I won’t weigh in on the American legality, and I’m not a scholar of the British legal system either, so I won’t opine on Uygur and Piker’s legal rights across the pond, because I don’t know. What I will say is that I see no reason to extend the full charities of Western liberalism to foreigners who wish to destroy it. This is the right’s version of suicidal empathy. Being a free speech absolutist comes from a good place. And within our own borders with our own people, it is necessary. But there’s no compelling reason a society must let in outsiders, with no stake in its fortune, to interlope, spread the seeds of destruction, and then go back where they came from, even from a classically liberal viewpoint. The strongest argument comes from the pragmatists. Rich Lowry makes a version of this case, arguing that the ban is counterproductive because it raises the profile of the offenders in the U.K. and gives them an opportunity to clownishly blame Israel for it. Lowry makes the good points that the British Home Office is run by a critic of Israel, the country is run by a left-wing government, and the country itself is profoundly anti-Zionist at this point, so of course it’s silly to blame Israel. That is all true, which is why I come to the opposite conclusion. The suggestion that this ban is going to make more people aware of the dunce duo, and thus more likely to subscribe to their ideas, falls flat when they are already aligned with the majority. The case that it gives them an opportunity to falsely blame Israel falls flat because the case is so facially absurd. Rather, the prevailing takeaway from this decision is that two destructive provocateurs were made to face consequences for their actions. That is all too rare today, and it’s about time that a Western government stood up for itself.

New York City police made dozens of arrests and responded to reports of shootings and stabbings as celebrations turned violent following the Knicks’ NBA championship victory. Overnight, police arrested more than 60 people and responded to at least four stabbings and one shooting as thousands flooded the streets to celebrate the team’s first championship in more than half a century. The charges, according to The New York Post, included assault on a police officer, criminal possession of a gun, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction of governmental administration.  At least 10 members of the NYPD were injured, including one officer who was struck by a glass bottle, according to The Post.  Dramatic videos circulating on social media captured scenes of the mayhem, including rioters setting fire to school buses before fire officials extinguished the flames.