“The BIGGEST issue in America is what BIKINI I’m wearing tomorrow,” a gamine Florida Spring Breaker told Fox News’s Johnny Belisario, on the most challenging assignment of his career. Times were equally tough for some young hunk who said that the elevator was out in his vacation condo and that he had to walk up 43 flights of stairs. When Johnny pressed these tanned, fit creatures about news trivia, one of the girls acknowledged she was devastated that Chuck Norris had died (fair), and one of the bros said, “What’s Ayatollah?” (Also fair.) This video made the rounds on Twitter. Reactions ranged from: good to see that the youths are out having sex and getting drunk in the sun instead of getting caught up in the doomscrolling news cycle, to: typical Americans, awash in privilege and oblivious to the murderous consequences of our imperial government’s decision-making. Both decent nodes of debate, but maybe the people spouting them don’t regularly see, like I do, Facebook reels of young people at outdoor malls who can’t name a country in Europe, think that Joe Biden is still the Vice President, and don’t know how to tell time on an analog clock. News flash: Most Americans are barely literate, and the kids like to party. But don’t tell that to Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic staff writer, whose name became somewhat famous in 2020 among people who talk about how much they like to read. Williams authored the Harper’s “Letter On Open Justice And Debate,” claiming that the letter was necessary in an “intolerant climate” of “public shaming and ostracism,” but then got into public arguments with people who subsequently rejected the letter. Hohn hohn hohn, he was absolutely appalled at what he witnessed in Fox News clips while reading X over his coffee and pan au chocolat. Frankly, I’m shocked he stoops so low as to mingle with the hoi polloi, even just in the virtual world. “A lot of the problems in the world right now can be explained by this video,” he tweeted. “For one thing, it’s a big reason why the US government is so unaccountable to public opinion. These are *college students.* A significant amount of the country is totally checked out and comfortable enough not to think it matters.” I don’t know if Williams has ever been to college. That’s not true. I do know, because his Wikipedia page tells me he went to Georgetown and has a Master’s degree from New York University’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism program. But that isn’t the college we’re talking about here. This is the American public and/or private university, where the most potent bomb remains the Jaegerbomb. The spirit of Delta House still stains the floors. As the fun-loving cartoon President once said in the classic Simpsons episode where Homer goes back to college, “Lighten up Bitterman! That youngster will make a perfect addition to my cabinet! Secretary of partying down!” But Williams, while not un-American — we don’t red-bait in my house — is still barely American in the Spring Break sense. He’s married to a French journalist and author, lives in Paris, and takes occasional breaks to teach at Bard College, where he’s a visiting professor. He is so far removed from ground-level American culture that he floats above us on a cloud of ideas. He tweeted out as much during the Charlie Kirk Memorial service in September, which could have looked like a ceremony from an alien planet to someone who hasn’t spent much time in Phoenix. “I’ve spent half of my adult life living in one foreign country or another,” he wrote, “and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so estranged from the surrounding culture as I am from the aesthetics and sensibilities of this movement. Not even a criticism, I just feel more at home in Greece than in these images.” In Greece? That bastion of intellectual activity? Unless Williams, like Indiana Jones, has a time-traveling device that allows him to visit Archimedes (who was actually from Sicily) or Plato in the Symposium, he can’t possibly be having profound intellectual experiences in Greece. My wife and I visited Greece for our 25th anniversary last summer. We had a great time, and, sure, we absorbed the art and architecture of antiquity, saw the Caryatids and the Minoan frescoes, and lived the life of the mind on guided museum tours. But we also soaked up the sun, rode speedboats around the coast, and pounded a shot of raki at every lunch. Last summer, as I’m sure it will be this summer, Greece was full of partying college kids, many of them American, who didn’t give a rat’s butt about DOGE or whatever the outrage cycle was telling them to be mad about in 2025. The beaches of Crete, or Paxos, or Naxos, or Ios, or Santorini are a lot more like the beaches of Ibiza, or Panama City, Fort Lauderdale, or the Jersey Shore than anything that Thomas Chatterton Williams might possibly lecture you about at the Aspen Institute. The kids on Fox News would have fit in fine in Greece, where everyone was partying. Because they, unlike certain people with intellectual pretensions (including, occasionally, myself), understand that not everything has to be about social justice and man’s search for meaning. And there are a lot more bikini wearers than there are “public intellectuals.” If you can manage it, life is supposed to be dumb and fun. This is why we fight. *** Neal Pollack, “the greatest living American writer,” is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time “Jeopardy!” champion.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is urging Republican and Democratic lawmakers to move at “Trump speed” and send the SAVE America Act to his desk. Leavitt’s comment was in response to Olohan’s question during a press briefing on whether the White House has been satisfied with the effort from Republican leadership to pass the SAVE America Act. “I think the president has made it very clear that he wants everyone on Capitol Hill to move as quickly as possible to get the SAVE America Act passed,” Leavitt said. “And he wants to see that legislation on his desk as soon as Republicans and Democrats can move to pass it.” Olohan pressed, “But are there any lawmakers in Congress that the president is frustrated with on this matter and feels could be doing a better job?” “I think the president wants to see everybody on Capitol Hill move faster all the time,” Leavitt replied. “He wants everyone in this town to work at Trump speed like we do here at the White House.”

Democratic senators and the TSA agents they’re refusing to fund have one thing in common: Neither are showing up for work. There is also one key difference between the two: TSA agents haven’t been paid since February, while Democrat senators are still collecting their $175,000 salaries.   Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) was forced to adjourn a meeting after not one of the sitting Democratic senators on the committee showed up. Senate committees require a quorum to proceed, meaning that at least one member of the minority party must be present to conduct business.   “I want to thank the Republican members of this committee for showing up to work today, and I look forward to the time when the Democrats do the same,” Cruz said, and proceeded to adjourn the meeting. At the time, the committee was addressing bipartisan bills such as the Alex Gate Safety Act — which would establish a new safety standard after seven-year-old Alex Quanbeck was crushed by a schoolyard gate — and the Stop The Scroll Act, which mandates social media platforms to display a mental health warning to children using the platform. Twenty-four of the twenty-eight members of the Committee had co-sponsored the legislation on Wednesday’s schedule.  Ranking minority member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) put out a statement attributing her absenteeism to a procedural disagreement. “Committees can only function when members have a voice and their amendments are fairly considered,” she said. “This committee has never done what the majority tried to do today. The committee has to allow amendment votes as we did with Senators Lee and Cruz when they proposed hundreds of amendments when they were in the minority.”  A Democratic committee spokesperson added context to Cantwell’s statement, saying, “At the last minute, we learned that Chair Cruz planned to roll all democratic amendments on all bills into one en bloc vote.” The change in procedure means all the amendments would be voted on all at once instead of individually. The spokesperson told The Daily Wire this would prevent members from offering and debating amendments separately and that if normal procedures were followed, she and other Democrats would have attended to work on the legislation. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), another member of the committee, voiced concern that no-shows could become a pattern. “I fear that this is going to spread like a cancer around the senate and we’ll see additional committees suffer the same fate as the Commerce Committee did today.”  Lummis told The Daily Wire, “In case my Democrat colleagues need a reminder, the American people pay their salaries.” She added, “Today’s display of shameful — and quite frankly childish — behavior by Senate Democrats is an embarrassment. While my colleagues refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security and force thousands of employees to work without pay, they cannot be bothered to show up for the job they were elected to do. The American people deserve better, and should be justifiably outraged.” Tensions between the parties remain elevated as Congress works to reach a funding deal to end the partial government shutdown, which has left the Department of Homeland Security unfunded since February. Republican lawmakers want to fund DHS as it currently operates, while Democrats are pushing for reforms as a condition of funding. Those proposed reforms include requiring judicial warrants for immigration enforcement activities rather than relying on administrative warrants, which are currently signed by ICE officials rather than judges. Newly sworn-in DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has indicated support for some reforms, but not all of those on the Democratic wish-list. Democrats have also called for ICE officers to stop wearing masks during operations and to avoid conducting enforcement activities near “sensitive” locations.

Chicago officials have named one of the city’s newest snowplows “Abolish ICE,” a decision backed and celebrated by Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson as part of a citywide naming contest. Johnson announced the winning entries Monday, crediting residents for their “unmatched creativity, sense of humor, and civic pride” after more than 39,000 votes were cast. But one name in particular stood out: “Abolish ICE,” which accounted for roughly 70% of submissions, around 9,200 entries. The name is a direct reference to calls from the political left to eliminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and comes as the Trump administration ramps up deportation efforts nationwide. Johnson had previously thrown his full support behind the name, saying it aligned with the city’s broader political posture. “As a city we have stood firm on our values,” Johnson said. “We have to take a stronger look at how this administration has used ICE and how it has caused tremendous harm.” That posture has defined Chicago’s response to federal immigration enforcement over the past year. In 2025, the city became a flashpoint during “Operation Midway Blitz,” a large-scale federal crackdown that triggered protests, political clashes, and, at times, violence. In one incident during the operation, federal agents were reportedly “rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. One of the individuals involved was armed, and agents were forced to fire defensive shots. Authorities also said local police declined to assist federal officers in securing the scene as crowds gathered. Elsewhere, protesters were seen obstructing enforcement actions, including an incident in which an agitator threw a tear gas canister toward federal agents. The confrontations underscored the deep divide between federal immigration authorities and local leadership in Chicago. Illinois’ sanctuary policies have further fueled that divide, with state and city officials repeatedly criticizing ICE operations while limiting cooperation with federal enforcement. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has accused federal authorities of “causing chaos,” while the Trump administration has argued local resistance undermines public safety and immigration law. Against that backdrop, Johnson’s embrace of “Abolish ICE” as an official city snowplow name reflects more than a tongue-in-cheek contest entry; it signals a continuation of Chicago’s broader opposition to federal immigration policy and general anti-ICE sentiment among urban left-wingers.  Other snowplow names selected through the contest included “Stephen Coldbert,” “Pope Frío XIV,” “The Blizzard of Oz,” “Svencoolie,” and “Caleb Chilliams.”  The announcement came as Johnson was also addressing ongoing concerns about violent crime in the city, including cases involving illegal immigrants, following the murder of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien. “You automatically think about your own children,” Johnson said. “There’s no words that one could express that could properly console a family that lost their baby.” Johnson emphasized that his administration would “continue to pray” for victims while pledging to “double down” on efforts to create safer communities, even as he maintained that Chicago remains a place “where young people are thriving and growing.” “It’s ungodly what happens in the streets across America with gun violence,” he added, pointing to his administration’s broader gun rights restriction approach, while acknowledging that in this case, “that hard work did not result in their child still being here.” The juxtaposition — elevating a politically charged slogan on city equipment while confronting, or failing to confront, ongoing public safety concerns — highlights a central tension facing Chicago and other “sanctuary” cities: how to balance activist-driven messaging with the core responsibility of protecting residents.

A recent poll of the California gubernatorial field backed by the California Democratic Party confirmed their own fears about the potential for a lockout in the top-two primary race. The EVITARUS Research survey of 2,000 likely voters from March 12-17 showed Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco leading the pack at 16% and 14%, respectively. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), and billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer are the top three leading Democrats tied at 10%. Other candidates ranked significantly lower in the poll. Biden-era Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, are polling at three percent. “But this initial survey shows two Republicans in the lead with multiple Democrats trailing behind. These results confirm the possibility – albeit a low one – of Democrats being ‘locked out’ of the General Election,” California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks said in a statement on Tuesday. Hicks then doubled down on his warning from earlier this month, in which he suggested that Democrats consolidate their list of candidates. “Most importantly, it’s yet another clear reminder of an undeniable fact – all candidates must honestly assess their viable path to win. I continue to call for them to so do,” he added. “Simply put, it’s the best way to ensure we elect a Democrat as our next Governor and that California continues its strong leadership at home and abroad.” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will be termed out in 2027, has yet to make an endorsement in the race. However, Swalwell has recently racked up some key endorsements, including from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Other polls have indicated favorable numbers for Hilton and Bianco, including some showing them alternating in first or third place, with Swalwell sometimes coming in second. Still, the race among the Democrats has been messy in its own right. Steyer has raised questions about Swalwell’s California residency, and Porter faces ongoing criticism about her temperament following a tense interview with CBS News California last year, as well as reports about the poor treatment of her staff. The University of Southern California canceled its scheduled Tuesday debate with the six candidates over concerns that candidates of color were not included, The Daily Wire reported. The candidates invited were Hilton, Bianco, Swalwell, Porter, Mahan, and Steyer. There have also been calls for a consolidation of the Republican field if Democrats end up surging and locking out Republicans, which has happened in past statewide races in the deep blue state. “Even though polls show two Republicans in the top two, there’s no way the Democrat machine will let it happen,” Hilton tweeted in February. “The real risk is two DEMOCRATS. That’s why we MUST get behind one Republican. Chad Bianco has too much baggage: Democrats will use it to depress the Republican vote.” Bianco, who is the Riverside County Sheriff, is at odds with Attorney General Rob Bonta over the seizure of an estimated 650,000 ballots from November’s Proposition 50 election in order to recount them, and a state court shot down Bonta’s request to have it stopped, according to CalMatters on Tuesday. “For those not aware, we are conducting an investigation into an alleged and potential 45,000 extra votes counted than the number of ballots cast in the November 2025 special election,” Bianco said in a Monday video. Bonta’s office told CalMatters in a statement that “the Sheriff has not identified any particular crime that may have been committed by anyone — a necessary predicate to obtain a criminal search warrant.” “The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is not equipped nor legally authorized to play the role of elections monitor. By all appearances, this investigation is little more than a fishing expedition meant to sow distrust and undermine public confidence in our elections,” the statement continued.