Vice President JD Vance unveiled what could become the Trump administration’s midterm messaging on Thursday as he took shots at Maine Democrats and touted the wins of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force. Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd in Bangor, Maine, Vance accused Democrats of refusing to cooperate with efforts to crack down on abuse and corruption. “What I find so preposterous about Maine—it’s not just that we’ve found tens of millions of dollars of fraud in a relatively small state, it’s that we’ve had no cooperation from the state government,” Vance said. Vance specifically called out the state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, saying her political career had been ruined by her eagerness to defend transgender ideology, and urging her to cooperate with the task force on targeting fraud before her tenure is up. “I would love to work with the governor of Maine to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated in this state,” Vance said. “This should not be a red or blue state issue. This isn’t Republican or Democrat. This is common sense. This is protecting every person in this room from being defrauded by their own government.” It was the vice president’s first trip to tout his Anti-Fraud Task Force, and Vance leaned heavily into that fraud messaging. “Because you all work hard, because you all pay your taxes, because you do things the right way, it is time to have leadership in Washington that treats you the right way and protects those hard-earned tax dollars,” the vice president said. “For the first time in a very long time, you’ve got an administration in Washington, DC that is fighting for you, fighting to protect your tax dollars, and fighting to put the fraudsters in prison.” As an example of this fraud the administration has uncovered, Vance pointed to the case of 30-year-old Rakiya Mohamed, who pleaded guilty in early March to filing false tax returns for 2018 and 2019 and interfering with the administration of federal tax laws. Mohamed owned a language interpretation business called Reliable Language Resources, but according to the vice president, she wasn’t doing any interpreting.    US Vice President JD Vance speaks about the Trump administration’s anti-fraud initiatives in Bangor, Maine, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Tierney L CROSS / POOL / AFP via Getty Images) “This woman, her name was Rakiya Mohamed. It turns out that Rakiya Mohamed was not a particularly upstanding citizen,” said the vice president. “So while she said that she was providing interpretation services, do you know what she was actually doing? Providing zero services and collecting $15 million over a five-year period that was going directly into her pocket.” “That happened pretty much during the entirety of the Biden administration and no one in the Biden administration thought to step in and stop this ridiculous fraud,” he added.  Vance went on to link the Trump administration’s anti-fraud message to its immigration agenda. “Call me crazy, but I think that when we welcome new immigrants to the United States of America, they should be people who enrich our country and bring some good skills into the country, not a person who is gonna steal $15 million from the people in this room,” Vance said.  He also referenced reporting by The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak, who uncovered large-scale Medicaid fraud involving home health agencies and questionable reimbursements. “Every single day I learn of something new,” Vance shared. “I learn about people who say that they’re claiming for hospice services, but in fact, they’re not providing any services and they’re making hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in the process.” On Wednesday, Vance announced that the Trump administration would cut off certain federal anti-fraud funding to states that don’t aggressively investigate Medicaid abuse, escalating the White House’s anti-fraud measures. “Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud continues to produce results for the American people,” a Vance spokesperson told The Daily Wire. “In just two months, the task force has exposed billions of dollars in fraud and worked with law enforcement agencies to ensure that fraudsters are brought to justice. The hunt for fraud will continue until every last person who takes advantage of Americans’ generosity is stopped.”

A British university student collapsed and died after police initially handcuffed him instead of the man accused of stabbing him, according to reports and court testimony. Finance student Henry Nowak, 18, was stabbed with an eight-inch ceremonial Sikh “shastar” blade in London after an encounter with Vikrum Digwa, 23, who is on trial for murder. Digwa told police that Nowak was a “drunken man” who “racially abused and attacked” him, according to the Daily Mail. Police initially handcuffed Nowak after the December 2023 incident. Shortly after, he collapsed, prompting officers to begin emergency first aid. Despite efforts to save him, including a doctor flown in by helicopter, Nowak succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 12:37 am.  Digwa is now on trial alongside his mother, who is accused of assisting her son after Nowak’s stabbing.  Prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg rejected Digwa’s self-defense claim, telling jurors that “Henry drowned in his own blood” after the knife pierced his lung. He added that Digwa claimed he could not “recall exactly how the fatal wound came to be inflicted.” Much of the incident was captured on video by Nowak before he died and is now being used as evidence in court.  Nowak, who had been completing his first term studying accountancy and finance at Southampton University, had been out with friends before he was attacked. On his way home, he recorded Snapchat videos shortly before crossing paths with Digwa. In one video shown in court, Digwa can allegedly be heard saying, “I am a bad man.” The footage abruptly cuts off when Nowak responds, “Are you a b….”  Nowak sustained four stab wounds, including the one that punctured his lung. Police said after the fatal stabbing, Digwa’s mother, brother, and father arrived on the scene. Officers placed Digwa and his brother inside a police vehicle, where they said they overheard Digwa admit to the stabbing. Luddenberg told jurors that Digwa “told his brother he stabbed Henry three times. He didn’t mention racism or self-defense.”  Digwa’s defense argued that he carried the knife for religious reasons. The trial is still underway.

May 14 (Reuters) – Republicans in Louisiana and South Carolina on Thursday took steps toward installing new congressional maps aimed at eliminating one Democratic-held seat in each state, as a national redistricting battle expands further across the South. In Louisiana, the Republican-controlled state Senate passed a new congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two Democratic-held, majority-black U.S. House districts, paving the way for Republicans to pick up an additional seat in November’s midterm elections. And in South Carolina, Republican Governor Henry McMaster on Thursday reversed positions and called for a special legislative session starting on Friday to consider redrawing the state’s congressional map, a move that would likely oust longtime Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn from Congress in November’s midterm elections. Republican-led Southern states have raced to redraw their congressional maps after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision two weeks ago that severely weakened protections for districts with significant minority populations. Tennessee and Alabama have also either split up Democratic districts or taken steps to do so. The new round of redistricting is part of a broader national fight that is likely to give Republicans a major boost as they seek to preserve a narrow majority in this fall’s election, though Democrats are still seen as favored to win the House given President Donald Trump’s sagging approval ratings. The Louisiana map, which was approved 27-10 along party lines, will next head to the state House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a more than two-thirds majority. Republican Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry previously suspended the congressional primary elections a day after the Supreme Court decision and only two days before early in-person voting was set to begin. Thousands of absentee ballots had already been returned by mail. Democratic lawmakers, civil rights activists, and voting rights advocates have criticized the proposed map for diluting the electoral power of black residents, who make up about one-third of the state’s population. The new map would likely result in Republicans winning five of the state’s six districts in November. “This Senate should seek to support a map that gives everyone a voice,” Democratic state Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews said from the Senate floor on Thursday. Republicans, including the bill’s sponsor, state Senator Jay Morris, said the map was drawn solely for partisan advantage, rather than along racial lines. The current map, which includes majority-black districts centered in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, which found lawmakers relied too heavily on race in crafting the lines. The new map includes only a single Democratic district that connects the two cities, which could pit the two Democratic incumbent U.S. representatives, Troy Carter and Cleo Fields, against one another. In South Carolina, McMaster’s announcement came two days after a vote to extend the legislative session and consider a new map failed in the state Senate, when five Republicans broke with their party to deny the required two-thirds majority. McMaster had previously indicated he would defer to the legislature. But Trump has pressured state Republicans to pursue a new map that would eliminate the state’s lone Democratic district, held by Clyburn, a black Democrat who is a leading figure within his party and has served in Congress since 1993. Unlike the resolution that failed this week, any new map would only require a simple majority vote in both legislative chambers, which are dominated by Republicans. The state House of Representatives has already advanced a proposal that would split up Clyburn’s seat while postponing the June 9 primary elections until August to accommodate the new district lines. Republicans hold the state’s other six districts. (Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Rod Nickel and Lincoln Feast.)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday allowed mail orders of the abortion drug mifepristone to continue, handing a major defeat for the pro-life movement while litigation over the pill continues.    In an emergency order, the court temporarily blocked a federal appeals court ruling that struck down a Biden-era policy that allowed the abortion drug mifepristone to be prescribed online and shipped by mail.  The unsigned order provided no legal explanation. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.  “The Court’s unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable,” Justice Alito wrote. “What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which restored the right of each State to decide how to regulate abortions within its borders.” Justice Thomas went further, describing the mail distribution system for mifepristone as a “criminal enterprise.” “Applicants are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise,” he concluded. “They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.” After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration expanded nationwide access to chemical abortion. Under rules finalized in 2023, women could obtain mifepristone through telehealth appointments without an in-person doctor visit.  The majority of abortions in the U.S. are obtained through medications, usually a combination of mifepristone and a second drug, misoprostol, according to the Associated Press.  Louisiana challenged the Biden-era policy under the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing the FDA relied on flawed or nonexistent data while eliminating safety protocols. The Daily Wire previously reported that the FDA acknowledged it had not adequately studied the safety of remote dispensing and is still conducting a review, with no clear timeline for completion. The three-judge 5th Circuit panel held that the regulation, which has continued under the Trump administration, was likely unlawful.  “Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban,” the federal appeals court wrote, emphasizing that such harm cannot be undone. Manufacturers of the abortion drug quickly filed emergency appeals asking the Supreme Court to intervene. Acting alone, Justice Samuel Alito entered and then extended an administrative stay of the Fifth Circuit ruling, which is a short-term, procedural order that freezes legal proceedings so the full court has time to weigh the issue. On Thursday, a majority of the justices appeared to agree with the abortion manufacturers, overturning the block in a significant setback for pro-life advocates as litigation drags on. “This decision keeps deadly abortion drugs available by mail and telehealth, where preborn children are killed at home and women can be abandoned, coerced, and left to suffer alone,” Lila Rose, a prominent pro-life activist, said on social media. “The FDA must act now.” BREAKING: The Supreme Court has tragically and wrongly granted the abortion pill makers’ emergency appeal, allowing the mail order abortion pill regime to continue nationwide. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. This decision keeps deadly abortion drugs available by mail and… — Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) May 14, 2026 President Donald Trump’s embattled FDA commissioner Marty Makary resigned on Tuesday following intense criticism from pro-life advocates over his handling of mifepristone and the speed of the agency’s review of the abortion drug’s safety.  

To my sheer dismay, I opened a letter the other day informing me of yet another speeding ticket. How? I saw no cops. I stay just slightly above the speed limit like every other functioning adult in this country. No flashing lights, no sirens, no officer pulling me over to exercise any semblance of human judgment. No need. The District of Columbia has taken a page straight out of the Chinese Communist playbook, embedding surveillance cameras on every major road in the city, lying in wait to snare Washington, D.C. residents in a money trap. The same residents, by the way, who already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. $400. I was as thrilled to see that bill as Pete Hegseth was shaking President Xi’s hand this week. Granted, I was going too fast, and I’ll pay it like a law-abiding citizen, but I shouldn’t have to feel like I’m dodging the Ministry of Public Security just to get to work. Because that’s exactly what this is. China operates one of the world’s largest surveillance states, with an estimated 700 million CCTV cameras tracking its residents’ every move. The Fox News crew found that out the hard way during Trump’s Beijing trip, getting slapped with a $40 ticket for parking illegally for two whole minutes! It’s authoritarian. It’s Orwellian. And it’s a reminder: keep CCP-style surveillance and Chinese influence out of America. Speed cameras are annoying and invasive, but they’re the least of what’s crushing the Chinese people. China is a disaster area. As President Donald Trump sits across from Xi Jinping this week, it’s worth remembering exactly who the enemy is and exactly how weak they really are. You wouldn’t know it from their propaganda show. As Trump stepped off Air Force One in Beijing, he was greeted by perfectly choreographed children, waving flowers and American flags with rehearsed smiles, robotically jumping to the music. It looked like a scene out of The Interview. Abnormal. Creepy. Stop it. Beneath that polished, stage-managed surface is a nation rotting from the inside. China’s nominal GDP per capita is under $15,000 a year. Ours is $95,000. They’re facing a huge demographic problem after their one-child policy prevented 400 million births, gutting their workforce and leaving no one to pay the bills — bills that now sit at a 336% debt-to-GDP ratio, propped up by trillions in bad loans that will never be repaid. Beijing long ago crushed free enterprise in favor of a top-down mercantilist system where the Party picks winners and losers, and the result is a country that can’t innovate or build, which is why America is running away with the AI race and the global hegemonic title. So instead, they steal — up to $600 billion in American IP every year — and mass-produce what they can, because they have no regard for human life or child labor laws. That same apathy toward their own people shows up in how they govern them: heavy taxation just to keep the nation afloat, a military that’s large but technologically limited, with no real deep-water capability or meaningful power projection. Their one-party autocracy doesn’t produce innovation; it produces loyalty oaths. China is not an ascending power threatening to displace us. It’s a declining one, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. The CCP is not just our adversary. They are our enemy. And they’re losing. Some of it is self-inflicted, some of it is courtesy of our sanctions, investment restrictions, and the compounding advantage of being a free market that keeps innovating while they stagnate. But the Iran situation? That’s the cherry on top. Fifty-four percent of China’s total oil imports come from the Middle East. Another 3–5% was coming from Venezuela before that dried up. They are almost entirely dependent on a region currently on fire, and they have no leverage to do anything about it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it plainly this week: Chinese ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf, Chinese cargo got hit over the weekend, and their export market is in limbo. An Iran war hurts China far more than it hurts us. That desperation is precisely why this week’s White House meeting produced real concessions. China agreed to greater U.S. access to Chinese markets, an end to fentanyl precursor exports, a halt to purchasing American farmland, and — most significantly — that Iran cannot ever have a nuclear weapon. The Strait of Hormuz stays open. China even wants to buy American oil, because when your energy supply chain runs through a war zone, you get pragmatic fast. Our little enemy has been backed into its rightful corner. We need more of this, because China has been running a full-spectrum assault on the United States for years: espionage, economic theft on a historic scale, and subversion right here at home. In California, Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang just pleaded guilty to spying for the PRC. A sitting mayor. A Bronx man named Lu Jianwang was just convicted for operating a secret Chinese “police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, monitoring dissidents and harassing fugitives on direct orders from Beijing. Eric Swalwell, the disgraced former congressman, got honey-potted by a Chinese spy named Fang Fang while sitting on the House Intelligence Committee — and it barely made a ripple. Chinese “students” embedded in our research universities go home upon graduation and take whatever they’ve collected with them. TikTok is a CCP propaganda pipeline running on 170 million American phones. The Confucius Institutes spent years pumping Beijing-approved curriculum into U.S. campuses, scrubbing any mention of Taiwan, Tiananmen, or the Uyghurs — the same Uyghurs sitting in Chinese concentration camps right now — millions of them. So when Xi this week claims he wants “strategic stability” between China and the United States — great. Close the spy stations. Stop the fentanyl. Stop the stealing. Then we’ll take you seriously. The fake news will tell you China holds the cards this week. They don’t. They never did. Trump is in Beijing, Xi is making concessions, and China is desperate for oil, stability, and a lifeline. That’s not strength. That’s a country running out of options. America, don’t be like China. Don’t let their surveillance creep into our cities. Don’t fall for the communist propaganda, whether it comes from Bernie Sanders, AOC, honeypotters, or Xi himself. And D.C.? Take those stupid cameras down.